Small Animal

A new study found a link between some popular grain-free dog foods, with a high content of legumes, and canine heart disease called dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). The disease can lead to sudden death in dogs.

Pet health insurance has proven to be a popular benefit for UC personnel.

Initiatives in 3D printing are currently being utilized at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, where the work is complemented by the university’s Department of Biomedical Engineering expertise. The unique combination of disciplines provides opportunities to advance health that few other universities in the world are able to pursue.

There’s always an implicit comparison when we talk about cats as aloof little jerks, says Mikel Maria Delgado, a postdoctoral researcher on cat behavior at the University of California at Davis. And that comparison is with dogs, which humans have spent thousands more years domesticating and molding in our image. Cats, she pointed out, simply don’t have the facial muscles to make the variety of expressions a dog (or human) can. So when we look at a cat staring at us impassively, it looks like a psychopath who cannot feel or show emotion. But that’s just its face.

UC Davis veterinarians led a team that has found a link between some popular grain-free, legume-rich dog diets and a type of nutritional deficiency and canine heart disease known as taurine-deficient dilated cardiomyopathy. The study was recently published in the journal PLOS ONE.

“Case of the Month” – January 2019

Pet parent Laci Ping had just 15 minutes to pack up her life—which included six cats, six chickens, three dogs, and three reptiles—as the Camp Fire approached her home in Paradise, California. She managed to secure all but one of her animals – 5-month-old Mayson, a male gray tabby cat. Scared of what was happening, Mayson escaped at the last minute. Ping tried frantically to catch him, but he ran away too quickly. Heartbroken, Ping was forced to leave without him.

The Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital is seeing an increasing number of cannabinoid intoxication since legalization. Animals find it on trails and in parks without their humans realizing it. Some dogs and cats need nothing more than extra comforting and fluids to counteract the effects, but others require additional medical intervention

Growing older can be tough – and that goes for all species. When it comes to age-related illnesses, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are some of the most notorious and least understood human afflictions. If you’ve noticed your senior dog has been increasingly irritable and disoriented, having sleep troubles (including sleeping all day) or having frequent accidents inside the house, he or she may be suffering from a disease that manifests very similarly to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in people.

Several burned dogs and cats at the VCA Valley Oak Veterinary Center in Chico are getting an unusual treatment to help them heal from injuries they suffered in the Camp Fire: fish skins. This is the first time sterilized tilapia skins have been used to treat burns on dogs and cats.

Two UC Davis oral surgeons are now Founding Fellows of the American Veterinary Dental College (AVDC) in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS). Drs. Frank Verstraete and Boaz Arzi, of the UC Davis veterinary hospital’s Dentistry and Oral Surgery Service (DOSS), were recognized at the 2018 Veterinary Dental Forum.

A UC Davis veterinary patient is being described as a miracle by her owner. When Ethel, a 2-year-old Yorkshire terrier, was rescued by MaryAnn Lawson, the rambunctious pup was in a cast for a broken leg. Unfortunately, two previous surgeries failed to properly heal her broken right ulna and radius (equivalent to both bones in a human’s forearm). Lawson forged on and consulted with other veterinary orthopedic surgeons, all of whom recommended amputating the leg.

Arai, a 5-year-old female pit bull terrier, loves to chew on balls. Her owners describe her as a “100 percent ball dog.” So when she had a ball in her mouth for a few hours, they didn’t think much was out of the ordinary. When Arai wouldn’t drop the ball when it was time to eat, however, they knew something was wrong. 

Every year, hundreds of thousands of kittens end up in animal shelters, in need of permanent homes. But raising orphaned newborns into healthy, fluffy, frisky 2-month-olds ready to be adopted requires an enormous behind-the-scenes effort.

Roxie, a 12-year-old female Shih Tzu, was having trouble moving her hind legs, to the point of becoming partially paralyzed. After being referred to the Neurology/Neurosurgery Service at the UC Davis veterinary hospital, an evaluation of Roxie showed her to have an arched posture, avoided moving her neck, and had some incoordination in her hind legs.

Miao Miao, a 4-year-old male domestic shorthair cat, was brought to the UC Davis veterinary hospital with persistent nosebleeds. Based on previous medical issues, his owners were aware that he had some variation of a blood platelet disorder (causing an inability to properly clot blood), but the exact make-up of that was never discovered.