Daily Paws

Pet news, tips, entertainment and opinions from VetLocator.com

Archive for January, 2011

Major study of cancer in Golden Retrievers announced.

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

Possibly the largest and longest observational study of canine cancer in dogs, specifically Golden Retrievers, is set to launch later this year.  The project is known as the Canine Lifetime Health Project, will be conducted by the Morris Animal Foundation, will follow Golden Retrievers from 2 through 7 years of age, and will span 13 years.  The purpose of this study is to better understand the genetic, nutritional and environmental risk factors for cancer and other diseases.

To read more about this study, click here: http://goo.gl/pvlZP

Are you sleeping with your pets? Read this first!

Saturday, January 15th, 2011

In a January 14th article, WebMd’s Daniel DeNoon writes about a new report that sleeping with your pet’s may be as dangerous as having bed bugs!

While I’ve had pets around me, and sometimes sleeping in our bed my whole life (pets sleeping with me doesn’t last long because I’m a notoriously restless sleeper and my pets voluntarily choose to sleep elsewhere), this report is concerning.

“Bubonic Plague

Humans get bubonic plague from fleas. Chomel and Sun recount various cases of plague linked to sleeping with cats. These include a 9-year-old boy from Arizona who slept with his sick cat.

And a 2008 study of plague survivors found that 44% of them slept with their pet dog, while only 10% of matched comparison subjects slept with their pets. This dog-in-bed plague risk remained significant even after the study authors took into account a large number of other factors.

This last factoid is troubling because dogs — unlike cats — can carry plague fleas without showing symptoms of the disease.”

You can read the rest of the article here: http://www.webmd.com/news/20110114/bed-pets-more-dangerous-than-bedbugs