It’s fitting that Dr. Sara Thomasy is an ophthalmologist. Her eyes light up when she talks about the breakthroughs being made at UC Davis thanks to recent acquisitions of state-of-the-art imaging equipment. Eight new pieces of imaging equipment and one new piece of laboratory technology, made possible by grants from the Center for Companion Animal Health, now allow the Ophthalmology Service to provide new levels of care.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis, recently investigated levels of methylmercury in a small sampling of commercial dog foods and found good news for dog owners.
Rally, a 1-year-old female Labrador retriever, was accidentally shot while on a hunting excursion, with both of her eyes sustaining major trauma. She was referred her to the Ophthalmology Service at the UC Davis veterinary hospital who helped save her vision.
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.
One of the most distinctive body parts of your typical English bulldog, French bulldog, or Boston terrier—their coiled screw tail—might be caused by a specific genetic mutation, suggests recent research. And more importantly for humans, that same genetic quirk might help scientists better understand a rare disorder in people.
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.
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.
