Pigeon fever cases in horses reported

More than 30 cases of pigeon fever in horses have been reported to the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain, D.V.M., said. The Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH) at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine treated 10 cases of pigeon fever in horses and the Louisiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (LADDL) reported 20 positive cases from referring veterinarians. VTH estimated there were at least 100 cases in Louisiana in 2011 and suspect that the number of cases may be related to drought and heat.

Pigeon fever is the common term for an infection caused by the bacterial organism Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis which can form abscesses in the pectoral region and ventral abdomen of the horse. The condition is not related to pigeons. The abscesses cause swelling and give the horse a "pigeon-breast" appearance. The illness is also known as dry-land strangles.

Cross-species transmission usually occurs only between horses and cattle because they can carry the same strain of bacterium. The bacterium rarely infects humans.

There are three recognized forms of the disease in horses: external abscesses, internal abscesses and ulcerative lymphangitis.

Horse owners should contact their veterinarians if they suspect pigeon fever so a definitive diagnosis can be made through bacterial culture.

There is no vaccination to protect horses against pigeon fever.

Treatment usually consists of having a licensed veterinarian surgically open the abscess to allow drainage. Affected horses should be isolated because draining bacteria from the abscess will contaminate the stall or pen.

Horses, especially ones with open wounds, should be sprayed with fly repellent to prevent spread of the bacteria by flies. Humans can carry the bacteria on shoes, hands, etc., so it is necessary to maintain good hygiene and bio-security after handling sick horses.

Basic hygienic and bio-security measures include thorough hand washing after touching each horse and wearing gloves when treating sick horses. Medical professionals and other handlers should change clothes and sanitize shoes after treating sick horses before moving on to healthy horses.

Bedding, water buckets and any other materials that come in contact with pus should be disinfected or discarded and never used with other horses.

Non-porous surfaces like stall mats and walls may be disinfected with bleach. However, pouring bleach or disinfectants on the stall's dirt floors or over manure is not effective.

Call your veterinarian for more information on this disease.

Bioparc, único zoo de España premiado por recaudar fondos para los simios

Bioparc Valencia es el único parque zoológico español que ha sido premiado en la última Campaña de la Asociación Europea de Zoos y Acuarios (EAZA) para la Conservación de Simios, al recoger más de 3.600 euros que se destinarán a proyectos de conservación de estas especies.

Según un comunicado de Bioparc Valencia, la EAZA representa a más de 300 instituciones miembros en 35 países y su misión es facilitar la cooperación europea entre estas instituciones hacia los objetivos de educación, investigación y conservación.

El zoológico valenciano, como "centro comprometido en la concienciación sobre la necesidad de proteger el medio ambiente", participa activamente en las Campañas anuales organizadas por la EAZA que, en esta ocasión, estaba dedicada a la Conservación de Simios.

Los fondos reunidos por la EAZA se destinarán a acciones para la protección de los gibones en China; asegurar la supervivencia de los orangutanes en Borneo y evitar la caza y comercio de Bonobos en la República Democrática del Congo; así como otra dirigida a las amenazas que sufren los chimpancés y gorilas en Camerún.

La Campaña por los Simios de EAZA ha centrado su atención en los problemas a los que se enfrentan todas las especies de simios y la urgencia con la que se debe actuar.

En la actualidad todos los simios se encuentran seriamente amenazados y los principales peligros son la caza, la deforestación o las enfermedades, según las fuentes, que han señalado que en el caso de algunas especies "es necesaria una acción realmente inmediata".

En Bioparc Valencia hay seis gorilas divididos en dos grupos, uno reproductor con un macho y dos hembras y un grupo de machos solteros con otros tres gorilas.

Respecto a los chimpancés, Bioparc ofrece la oportunidad de ver a una familia de seis miembros, con un macho, el grupo de hembras adultas y dos pequeños, una hembra de seis años y una cría macho de dos años.

Getting Your Cat Back into the Box

Some owners who are worried about getting bad news from the veterinarian will avoid scheduling an appointment for as long as possible. But if your cat has begun to urinate outside the litter box, any underlying causes must be addressed before any other changes can be made.
If your cat has bladder stones, changing the type of cat litter you use is a waste of time and money, and in the meantime, your cat’s suffering continues. As we talked about in Peeing Outside the Box, a veterinary visit to rule out health problems is an absolute necessity. And the sooner the better, because once a cat has made the decision to urinate outside the litter box, it is not always easy to change his mind.
Remember that some of the medical causes of inappropriate urination can be easily and inexpensively cured, particularly when diagnosed early. (Did you know that certain types of bladder stones can be dissolved with dietary modifications alone? See Treatment Options for Bladder Stones.) Other problems may be more difficult to address, but it is better to know what you are facing than to try to deal with a health concern without adequate information. In most cases, once an underlying medical problem is appropriately treated, cats begin to use their litter boxes again. However, if they have begun to think that the carpet, tile, couch, etc. is their "new" litter box, or if they have received a clean bill of health and you are dealing with a behavioral cause for inappropriate urination, it is time to take a look at the cat’s environment.

Our goal is to make litter boxes as appealing as possible (for cats, not necessarily for us). Try the following approaches:

• Make sure you have thoroughly cleaned up every spot where a cat has urinated outside the box with a product that eliminates the smell of cat urine. This makes these areas less attractive as toilets.

• Clumping cat litter is best. Use your cat’s favorite brand or an unscented litter containing activated charcoal (a recent study showed that most cats prefer this latter type).

• Keep the boxes impeccably clean. Scoop them out once or twice a day and dump, wash, and fill them with clean litter once a month.

• Always have at least one more litter box than the number of cats in the house. Having multiple boxes not only spreads the waste around keeping each box cleaner until you get a chance to scoop, it also helps reduce conflicts between cats around the boxes.

• Place extra litter boxes over the areas that have been soiled and then gradually move them where you want them. Once litter box use has been reestablished, you can remove any boxes that are rarely used.

• Most cats prefer large, uncovered litter boxes. A traditional enclosed box can be claustrophobic, smelly, and difficult to turn around in. Also, make sure that the sides of the box are low enough for cats to easily step in and out.

Large, plastic storage boxes can be easily turned into litter boxes that cats seem to adore. Simply cut a hole in one side of the container leaving enough of a lip at the bottom to hold the litter in. These improvised boxes have the advantage of having tall sides to help eliminate “splatter,” and an open top to prevent odors from building up and allow light inside. If you absolutely have to have a covered litter box, drill some large holes in the top that came with it for ventilation and light.

I made one of these huge litter boxes for my 17-year-old, shall we say, "large boned" kitty, who wasn’t especially concerned about where he peed. It is more than twice as big as our other boxes, and it immediately became the favorite "toilette" for both of my cats. I strongly recommend switching to this type of box if you are having issues with litter box use. Dr. Jennifer Coates

El miedo reduce el número de crías en los gorriones

Aunque no haya depredadores cerca, si los gorriones perciben el riesgo de que pueden ser cazados disminuye su número de crías hasta en un 40% . Así lo han observado investigadores de la Universidad de Ontario (Canadá), que han comprobado que el miedo, de forma aislada, influye en la dinámica de poblaciones de los animales salvajes.

Los predadores no solo reducen las poblaciones de sus presas al alimentarse de ellas. Simplemente el miedo que provocan en sus víctimas, sin que ni siquiera haya un contacto directo, hace que estas reduzcan el tamaño de su descendencia, según un estudio realizado con gorriones en libertad.

“Es la primera vez que se observa que el miedo, de manera aislada, afecta en el nacimiento y la supervivencia de poblaciones salvajes”, asegura a SINC Liana Zanette, autora del trabajo e investigadora de la Universidad de Ontario.

La sensación de peligro causa una reducción del 40% en el número de descendencia de gorriones al año, según las conclusiones de esta investigación.

“Hemos conseguido comprender de manera total el impacto de los depredadores en las poblaciones de sus presas: reducen la población tanto matando a los pájaros como asustándoles”, sostiene Zanette.

Experimento en poblaciones salvajes

En el experimento, los investigadores protegieron las poblaciones de gorriones libres, mediante redes y vallas electrificadas, para que los predadores no las atacaran directamente. “De esta manera, nos aseguramos de que cualquier reducción en el tamaño de la descendencia no estaba relacionada con la caza, sino que tenía que deberse al miedo por sí solo”, explica Zanette.

Después, en algunas poblaciones de pájaros simularon un peligro inminente–con sonidos de depredadores acercándose-, mientras que con otros mantuvieron una situación de seguridad, reproduciendo sonidos ‘benignos’. “Los altavoces sonaban cada pocos minutos durante las 24 horas del día, a lo largo de los 130 días de la temporada de cría”, detalla la autora.

Los gorriones que escucharon los sonidos de los depredadores pusieron menos huevos, situaron los nidos en lugares más aislados y realizaron menos viajes para conseguir comida, lo que ponía en desventaja a sus crías.

“Los pájaros modifican su comportamiento con el fin de reducir las posibilidades de los depredadores encuentren el nido”, explica a SINC Thomas E Martin, investigador de la Universidad de Montana (EE UU) que comenta el artículo en Science. Como resultado de esto, las poblaciones observadas redujeron el número de crías con plumas en un 40%.

El coste del miedo

Los investigadores concluyen que la influencia de los cazadores en el ecosistema no se reduce a su consumo, sino que su mera presencia puede afectar a las otras especies.

“La reducción en el número de crías, producido por los cambios en el comportamiento de los padres, es el coste del miedo de depredación”, indica Martin.

Estas conclusiones, según los investigadores, pueden extrapolarse a otras especies. “Los efectos observados son resultado de un comportamiento que es indicativo de miedo en cualquier animal”, observa Zanette.

Según los investigadores, este fenómeno debería tenerse en cuenta en el estudio de dinámicas de poblaciones. “Los modelos actuales solo consideran como costes demográficos la mortalidad provocada por los depredadores, al comerse los huevos y las aves recién nacidas de los nidos”, explica Martin.

“Pero este estudio demuestra que los costes existen incluso en ausencia de depredación real, y se deben considerar en las teorías”, concluye el investigador.

Water – The Forgotten Nutrient

I’ve talked before about the MyBowl tool and how it can help us all learn about the importance of balanced canine nutrition derive d from high quality ingredients. But look below the food bowl on the web page. Do you see the water? I’d be willing to bet that many eyes have passed right over it, immediately focusing on the protein, carbohydrate, fat, oil, vitamin, and mineral sources pictured above. Water doesn’t get the respect it deserves. While not taking in the appropriate amount of almost any of the nutrients pictured in the My Bowl tool will eventually make a dog sick, not getting enough water can bring about illness in just a few hours, especially if temperatures are high or if a dog is especially active.
About 60 percent of an adult dog’s body is made of water, and the percentage is even higher in puppies, which explains why pups run into problems with dehydration more quickly than adults. To get a rough idea of how much water your adult dog needs, you can use the following formula: water (ml/day) = (70 (body weight in kg)0.75) x 1.6
Thankfully, as long as an adult dog is healthy you don’t need to calculate the exact amount of water he needs or measure the amount he is taking in. Just keep a bowl of clean water available at all times, or offer it frequently when a dog is exercising, and he will help himself to what he needs.
Water quality is just as important as quantity. My rule of thumb is if it doesn’t look like something you’d want to drink, your dog probably shouldn’t be drinking it either. Keep water bowls clean by rinsing them out and refilling them daily. Also, make sure to scrub them out once or twice a week. Sanitize your dog’s food bowl while you’re at it too.
One reason I only use the formula presented above when a dog appears to be drinking an abnormally large or small amount of water is because dogs can meet their hydration needs from a variety of sources. The water bowl is the most obvious one, but food plays a role too. Canned food contains a lot more liquid than dry, so dogs that eat canned diets may appear to drink less because they are getting so much water from their food. Water coming from puddles, the toilet, or from anywhere else needs to be factored in as well.
Rather than calculating exactly how much your dog is drinking, follow these three general rules to keep your dog going strong:

1. provide unrestricted access to fresh, clean water
2. Feed an appropriate amount of a nutritionally balanced food made from high quality ingredients
3. Promote sufficient amounts of exercise

That said, if you do think your dog is drinking an abnormally large or small amount of water, talk to your veterinarian. Either extreme can be a sign of illness.

Dr. Jennifer Coates