Probably every pet parent has experienced it: Finding a shoe that your dog mistook for a chew toy. (And it’s amazing how they seem to choose the most expensive ones.)
But imagine your dog scarfing down an entire pair of calf-length Frye boots. That’s what Vince, a 4-year-old, mixed-breed pooch from Philadelphia, managed to do Friday.
When his pet parents realized what had happened to the missing boots, they rushed Vince to the Veterinary Specialty and Emergency Center (VSEC), where he underwent emergency surgery.
“These X-rays are absolutely remarkable, especially given that you can see and count the number of eyelets on the boots,” Dr. Laura Tseng, a specialist in critical care and emergency medicine with VSEC, said in a press release. “The sheer volume of what he ate is impressive and caused a very serious emergency situation.”
The veterinarians had to remove the boot fragments from Vince’s stomach. They were too large to have passed through his small intestines, and would likely have killed him.
“If your pet is experiencing vomiting, lethargy or a lack of appetite, these are all signs a foreign body may be present and they should see a veterinarian as soon as possible,” Tseng warned.
Vince is expected to be released from the hospital today. And his pet parents are expected to keep their shoes out of his reach.
U.S. consumers spent a whopping $73 billion on pet supplies and services last year, according to a new report from market research firm Packaged Facts. That’s 38 percent more than was spent in 2013.
Pet ownership is also slightly on the rise. In 2014, 45 million U.S. households owned dogs, and 30 million households owned cats.
What’s slightly on the decline is the popularity of larger breeds of dogs. The results of the Packaged Facts Pet Owner Survey show that more households (52 percent) have small dogs under 25 pounds than medium-sized, 25- to 40-pound dogs (32 percent) or larger dogs (42 percent). The company said the increase in smaller dog ownership could be due to the aging human population.
The pet population is also aging, which Packaged Facts said accounts for the increase in spending, especially on products and services that treat age-related conditions such as arthritis, diabetes and cancer. Almost half of the pet parents surveyed — 45 percent — have a dog who is 7 years old or older.
Another factor in the increased spending is the obesity epidemic in pets. About 52 percent of U.S. pets are overweight, which can lead to health conditions requiring expensive treatment.
Most animal experts agree that the best way to stop pet overpopulation — and put an end the epidemic of homeless pets — is by spaying and neutering dogs and cats. Currently, only 10 percent of the 7.6 million dogs and cats who enter U.S. shelters each year are sterilized, according to the ASPCA. Only half of those animals find forever homes. Most of the remaining 3.8 million are euthanized.
Among the reasons why people don’t spay or neuter their pets, according to the Humane Society of the United States: the cost involved (although low-cost programs are widely available); they believe it’s healthier for a female to have a litter first (not true); their dog is a purebred (as is one out of every four dogs who end up in U.S. shelters); etc., etc.
David Mooney, a dog dad who’s a professor of bioengineering at Harvard University, has come up with a low-cost, surgery-free alternative to spaying and neutering: a one-time injection of a contraceptive vaccine.
“I’ve had dogs that need to be neutered,” Mooney told the Boston Globe. “Even for house pets, it’s a pretty major surgery; there’s a lot of pain and issues with that, and I thought it would be great if we could do something to help dogs and cats avoid going through the surgery.”
Mooney’s idea could very well become a reality, thanks to a three-year, $700,000 Michelin Grant he received from Found Animals. If Mooney is the first scientist to successfully produce a low-cost, permanent, nonsurgical sterilant for dogs and cats, he will also be awarded the Michelin Prize of $25 million.
Mooney got the idea for the vaccine from a device he developed for people with cancer. The implantable device activates the immune system to start shrinking tumors. Similar to that device, which is still in the testing phase, a contraceptive vaccine could also activate a dog or cat’s immune system, but instead of attacking tumors, it would disrupt the hormone that is crucial to reproduction in mammals.
“We’re taking a target in the body and we’re saying, ‘Can we generate a potent and long-lasting immune response against this particular molecule?’” Mooney told the Boston Globe. “If we can do it here, you can probably do it against many other molecules you might target for other reasons.”
Emerging interest in immunotherapy — preventing diseases with substances that stimulate the immune system — in the human health field “is equally as promising” for veterinary medicine, said Donald Ingber, a Harvard professor and founding director of the university’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, in a press release.
“Using a simple and inexpensive vaccination as a way to sterilize animals could greatly reduce the number of animals ending up in shelters and greatly reduce animal suffering,” he said.
Aimee Gilbreath, executive director of Found Animals, told the Boston Globe a vaccine would be much more convenient than surgery, especially for organizations that spay and neuter stray animals.
“Someone goes out and traps them and transports them to the clinic,” she said, referring to the current procedure. “It would be so much easier if, instead of driving to the clinic and having to [perform] surgery, you could do a quick injection right in the trap and let it go.”
Mooney told the Boston Globe it will take some time to develop an effective contraceptive vaccine. In the meantime, he said the implantable tumor-shrinking device may also be developed for dogs and cats with cancer.
While nothing could replace her beloved 12-year-old dog Excalibur, Ebola survivor Teresa Romero Ramos has adopted a new four-legged family member.
When Ramos, a nursing aide in Madrid, was diagnosed with Ebola last October, people around the world were outraged when Spanish officials decided to euthanize Excalibur rather than quarantine him. Although there have been no documented cases of dogs with Ebola transmitting it to people, authorities from Madrid’s regional government stated at the time that “available scientific knowledge indicates there’s a risk the dog could transmit the deadly virus to humans.”
Ramos recovered from the disease, but was heartbroken over the loss of the dog she and her husband, Javier Limon, had raised since he was a puppy. Limon referred to Excalibur as the son they never had.
Yesterday the couple opened their hearts and home to Alma, a 6-month-old American Staffordshire Terrier puppy they adopted from the Centro Integral de Protección Animal (CIPA) de Alcorcón rescue center.
Limon told ABC.es they decided to adopt the pup from CIPA as a way to make society aware there are many abandoned animals that need homes.
“DIVA AHORA ALMA ADOPTADAAAAA,” CIPA wrote on its Facebook page Saturday (which loosely translates to “Soul diva now adoptadaaaaa,” LOL). It added, in Spanish, “This gorgeous dog has found a home. Thank you, Teresa and Javier, for adopting her.”
Shortly after Excalibur was euthanized, Dallas nurse Nina Pham was diagnosed with Ebola. Mayor Mike Rawlings quickly assured the public that Bentley, Pham’s Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, would not suffer the same fate as Excalibur. After being quarantined, Bentley was found to be free of the disease. Pham recovered and was happily reunited with her dog after she was released from a hospital.
In November, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) released new guidelines on treating the pets of people exposed to Ebola. The AVMA recommends that the pet be quarantined for 21 days or have someone else care for him during that period.
MARCH 24, 2016 UPDATE: Terrence Cody was sentenced today to nine months in the Baltimore County Detention Center.
“Deflate-Gate” isn’t the only major NFL story today. Baltimore Ravens nose tackle Terrence Cody, who is currently being investigated for animal cruelty, will be dropped from the team after the Super Bowl.
The official Ravens announcement today made no mention of the investigation by the Baltimore County State’s attorney’s office, however.
According to Cody’s agent, Peter Schaffer, Cody paid $8,000 for a Bullmastiff from Spain. When the dog became seriously ill, Cody took him to a vet. Schaffer said the dog died from worms.
He didn’t mention what kind of worms the dog had or the duration of the dog’s illness before Cody sought treatment. No further details about the investigation have been released.
If the dog had hookworms, PetMD.com notes that they can be fatal, especially for puppies: “These blood-sucking parasites can invade, inhabit and live in the dog’s small intestines. In their fourth-stage larvae, the hookworms can cause anemia and inflammation in the dog’s small intestine. Active worms leave bite sites and those sites continue to seep blood. … Death can come suddenly if the dog is not immediately treated.”
Schaffer is upset with the Ravens for canning his client. “This young man’s dog has died and the Ravens were so worried about possible ramifications from the league that they took a preemptive strike,” he told the Baltimore Sun. “The fact that the NFL has created such an atmosphere of hysteria that tramples on due process rights, the right of law and common decency is a tremendous problem in our league and our society.”
The “atmosphere of hysteria” is in reference to the NFL’s toughened-up personal conduct policy, which followed last year’s suspension of another Ravens team member, running back Ray Rice. In that domestic abuse case, an elevator camera captured Rice punching his fiancée in the face, knocking her unconscious. Rice later won his appeal of the suspension and it was overturned. Yesterday the NFL Players Association filed a grievance against the NFL to challenge the new personal conduct policy, ESPN reports.
Schaffer insisted that Cody loved his dog. “If the dog was being treated cruelly, why take it to a vet?” he said, according to TribLIVE Sports. “When the dog passed away, Terrence was in tears.”
No charges have been filed yet against Cody.
“If I find out that anyone holds anything against my client because of this, I will take every and all legal action to make sure my client’s rights are vindicated and that he’s made whole,” Schaffer told the Baltimore Sun.
Back when he was still whole, in March 2013, dog dad Cody announced on Twitter that he was selling one of his 5-month-old Presa Canario pups for $4,000.
Photo via Twitter
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