Science Diet Gets OverhaulSeptember 12, 2012Science Diet Pet Food Gets OverhaulScience Diet, Hill's pet food, pet food, dog food, cat foodHill's Pet Nutrition on Tuesday announced the reformulation of its Science Diet dry food for dogs and cats along with redesigned packaging.Hill's Pet Nutrition has reformulated its Science Diet dry food for dogs and cats as well as redesigned the packaging.newslineScience Diet Gets OverhaulPosted: Sept. 11, 2012, 7:45 p.m. EDT Hill's Pet Nutrition on Tuesday announced the reformulation of its Science Diet dry food for dogs and cats along with redesigned packaging. The new canine recipes are scheduled to roll out in December, with the feline diets expected in late January or early February. Science Diet canned foods are not affected. The reason for the reformulation, the company reported, was because "some consumers were making product choices based primarily on set criteria for ingredients rather than the overall promise of superior nutrition backed by clinical research." The new formulas fall into three categories identified by color: Life Style (silver), Life Stage (white) and Life Care (gold). Each will contain a protein such as chicken, fish meal or lamb meal as the first ingredient and will be free of chicken byproducts as well as artificial colors …
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VPI To Open Voting For Most Unusual Pet Insurance Claim Of 2012September 7, 2012 A drug-riddled pot belly pig and a turtle-sniffing golden retriever are among the 12 most unusual claims nominated for Veterinary Pet Insurance’s 2012 Hambone Award. The award, named for a dog that ate an entire Thanksgiving ham while stuck in a refrigerator, will be determined by a public vote at www.VPIHamboneAward.com from Sept. 12 through Sept. 25, 2012. Previous winners include Ellie, a Labrador retriever that ate a beehive filled with bees; Lulu, a bulldog that swallowed 15 baby pacifiers, a bottle cap and a piece of a basketball; and Harley, a pug that ate and subsequently passed more than 100 rocks. Nominees for the pet insurance company's 2012 award include: Ginger, a golden retriever from Rocky Hill, Conn., that was bitten on the nose by a snapping turtle; Gavee, a Havanese from Pompton Plains, N.J., that was run over by a vacuum cleaner; Kei, a shiba inu from Wadsworth, Ill., that got a paw caught in escalator grates; Peanut, a dachshund-terrier mix from Sicklerville, N.J., that was buried alive following a run-in with a skunk; Baxter, a domestic longhair cat from Seattle, that …
Report: 350,000 In U.K. Contract Toxoplasmosis Each YearSeptember 6, 2012 Toxoplasmosis infects 350,000 people per year in the United Kingdom, according to a report published this week by the U.K. Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food. Toxoplasmosis is an infection caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Cats are the definitive host of the parasite, but the disease affects humans and many other species of animals and birds, as well. The disease can be spread to humans who carelessly handle cat litter or eat infected raw or undercooked meat, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Mothers can also pass the disease to their offspring and it can be passed through blood transfusions or solid organ transplants. The report stemmed from a 2007 request from the U.K. government’s Food Standards Agency requesting advice from the advisory committee on whether toxoplasmosis represents a food safety issue that should be addressed. An ad hoc group of the committee met seven times over the following 28 months before publishing its report this week. According to the report, the disease annually infects about 350,000 people in the U.K., of which between 10 and 20 percent display symptoms. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that 22.5 percent …
AAHA Denounces Raw Food Diets For PetsSeptember 5, 2012EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was updated on Sept. 18, 2012, to include comments from the American Animal Hospital Association. The American Animal Hospital Association has joined the American Veterinary Medical Association in taking a stand against raw food diets for pets. AAHA published a position statement on its website that reported the association “does not advocate or endorse feeding pets any raw or dehydrated nonsterilized foods, including treats that are of animal origin.” The association based its decision on “overwhelming scientific evidence” and cited 50 sources to support its decision. This includes raw commercial diets, said AAHA executive director Michael Cavanaugh, DVM, Dipl. ABVP. “We’re not aware of accepted processes that a commercial diet could go through that could ensure there aren’t going to be pathogens present,” said Dr. Cavanaugh. “If that were to change – if the government came out and said this is an accepted process, this is the procedure – then it would certainly be time to change our statement.” Up to 30 percent of dogs fed homemade or raw food diets may shed pathogenic organisms in their stool, according to the AAHA statement. The
Virbac Unveils Canine Cephalexin TabletSeptember 5, 2012 Virbac Animal Health of Fort Worth, Texas, launched the first chewable cephalexin tablet designed exclusively for dogs, the company reported Tuesday. The FDA-approved drug, called Rilexine, is indicated for the treatment of secondary superficial bacterial pyoderma in dogs caused by susceptible strains of Staphylococcus pseudintermedius. Previously, veterinarians often relied on the generic human form of cephalexin to treat dogs, but Rilexine is the first drug of its kind approved by the U.S. Food and Drug administration for the veterinary market, Virbac reported. The new drug should overcome some of the drawbacks of prescribing human cephalexin off-label, including a bitter, metallic taste and strong odor, a lack of veterinary-specific guidelines and the inability to tailor doses, Virbac noted. Pyoderma is one of the most common diseases seen in dogs, and secondary superficial bacterial pyoderma is the most common form of pyoderma, according to Virbac. Rilexine is available in 150 mg, 300 mg and 600 mg scored doses. The drug should not be prescribed to dogs that have a known allergy to cephalexin or the B-lactam group of antibiotics. <HOME>
Calf Milk Replacer Recalled On Salmonella ConcernSeptember 4, 2012 Quality Feed Inc. of Dousman, Wis., has recalled several lots of calf milk replacer because of possible salmonella contamination, the company reported today. A supplier alerted Quality Feeds last week that some bags of raw material used to produce the milk replacer may be contaminated with salmonella. The recalled lots include about 20,000 bags of product, but only about 700 bags could have been contaminated, and of those bags, about 100 are likely to still exist, according to a company spokesman. The recalled milk replacer was manufactured between Jan. 31 and March 31, 2012, under the brand names Quality Feed, Dairy Princess, Peachey’s and Yo-momma. The recalled bags have lot numbers ending in the digits 0131 through 0323. Animals with salmonella infections may be lethargic and have diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, fever and vomiting. Some animals show only decreased appetite, fever and abdominal pain. Infected but otherwise healthy animals can be carriers of salmonella and infect other animals or humans. Livestock producers who fed the recalled milk replacer to animals and have seen these symptoms should contact their veterinarian, Quality Feed reported. Salmonella also poses a …
Washington Reports First Equine WNV Case In 3 YearsAugust 29, 2012 A two-year-old gelding contracted West Nile virus in Washington, marking the first case confirmed in the state since 2009, the Washington State Department of Agriculture reported yesterday. The horse was pastured near Grandview, Wash., and had no history of travel out of the area. The horse was not vaccinated for West Nile virus and was euthanized after testing positive for the virus, as confirmed by the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Pullman. Washington led the nation with 72 cases of West Nile virus in 2009 but reported no cases in 2010 or 2011, the WSDA reported. Though weather conditions over the past year have led to an ideal environment for mosquito breeding in Washington, complacency may have been the biggest factor in this case, said Jason Kelly, a WSDA spokesman. “When you don’t have detection for a couple of years, it’s not at the top of everyone’s mind,” Kelly said. Most horses do not become ill as a result of contracting West Nile virus, but it is fatal in about one-third of those that show clinical signs. Symptoms can include loss of coordination, loss of appetite, confusion, fever, stiffness and muscle weakness, particularly in …
Summit In Japan Will Focus On Helping Animals Contaminated By RadiationAugust 28, 2012Summit in Japan Will Focus on Helping Animals Contaminated by RadiationSummit in Japan Will Focus on Helping Animals Contaminated by RadiationSummit in Japan Will Focus on Helping Animals Contaminated by RadiationThe International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) will hold a summit May 2-3 in Japan to develop response procedures and protocols to monitor, evacuate and treat animals contaminated by radiation.The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) will hold a summit May 2-3 in Japan to develop response procedures and protocols to monitor, evacuate and treat animals contaminated by radiation.newslinePosted: April 21, 2011, 3:30 p.m., EDT The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) will hold a summit May 2-3 in Japan to develop response procedures and protocols to monitor, evacuate and treat animals contaminated by radiation. Topics will include radiation exposure, animal physiology, animal behavior, animal rescue and evacuation techniques, animal decontamination, animal sheltering and husbandry, wildlife habitat and rehabilitation and human responder safety. The summit is in response to the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Japan on March 11 and caused damage to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. After radiation was detected outside of the plant, the government of Japan declared a mandatory evacuation of residents within the …
Duty To Treat Animals Depends On State LawsAugust 27, 2012 How many times have you seen a patient with a serious but treatable condition that your client just refused to treat? Have you ever felt that the lack of treatment bordered on cruelty or abuse? The law may agree with you. Every state in the union has a statute that addresses animal cruelty. Obviously, state laws differ, but at least some of them require some level of veterinary care for animals. Others do not come out and explicitly require veterinary care, but those laws have later been interpreted to require such care by the courts. In general, there is no duty to help others under the common law. Certain relationships create a duty of care such as that between a parent and minor child. But without some sort of state “good Samaritan” statute, one is legally allowed to walk right by a stranger bleeding to death on the sidewalk. Similarly, one can, under the common law, ignore the distress of one’s own animal. Any legal duty to treat an animal thus arises from state law, specifically the state cruelty statute. For example, Minnesota law states that “No person shall overdrive, overload, torture, cruelly beat, neglect, …
KC Animal Health Symposium Slated For MondayAugust 23, 2012 Guy Palmer, DVM, Ph.D., Dr.Med.Vet., of Washington State University, and James L. Cook, DVM, Ph.D., Dipl. ACV, Dipl. ACVSMR, of the University of Missouri, Columbia, will deliver the keynote speeches at the 2012 Animal Health Research Symposium on Monday, Aug. 27, 2012, in conjunction with the CVC Kansas City convention in Kansas City, Mo. Dr. Palmer, a regents professor of pathology and infectious diseases and director of the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health at Washington State, will discuss global innovations in animal health. Dr. Cook, a distinguished professor and director of the Comparative Orthopaedic (sic) Lab at Missouri, will talk about building bridges between laboratory medicine and orthopedics. Other scheduled speakers include Philip Bergman, DVM, MS, Ph.D., of the Katonah Bedford Veterinary Center in Bedford Hills, N.Y.; Wayne Carter, DVM, Ph.D., Dipl. ACVIM, of the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute; Paul Dale, M.D., Fellow ACS, of the University of Missouri; Marvin Grubman, Ph.D., of the Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York; T.G. Nagaraja, M.V.Sc., Ph.D., of Kansas State University and Linda Rhodes, VMD, Ph.D., of Artana Therapeutics in Kansas City, Kan. …
