From Dr. Vidt… I recently attended the AKC Canine Health Foundation Parent Club Health Conference held in St. Louis, MO in October. At the conference were representatives of various breed club health committees, members of the AKC Health Foundation and researchers, veterinarians and canine nutritionists involved in all aspects of canine health. Presentations covered canine cancer, canine nutrition, the Canine Genome Project, the use of breed health surveys, funding of canine health research, and the AKC Canine Health Information Center. It was a great time for me, as the Chairman of the Health Through Education Committee of the Chinese Shar-Pei...

West Nile Virus There’s a lot of talk this summer about West Nile Virus in dogs. Fortunately dogs seem to be pretty resistant to the virus. There was 1 confirmed dog case in Illinois last summer in which the dog died of neurologic signs. Heartworm disease is still the number one mosquito borne disease of dogs in our area. I’ve also been asked about mosquito control. Bayer has come out with a new product called K9 Advantix™ (you may have seen the commercials on TV). It kills and controls fleas, ticks and mosquitoes. It is a spot-on product applied to...

Miscellaneous Gastrointestinal Conditions Gastroenteritis “Gastroenteritis” specifically refers to inflammation of the stomach, small intestine and large intestine without diagnosis of the cause. Most often this condition is caused by changes in diet whether intentional or unintentional, bacterial disease, viral disease, parasites, medical diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease or other conditions, toxicities, etc. The most common cause is changes in the diet and is usually seen as colitis which typically has clinical signs such as loose, cow-pie stools, mucous (“slimy stools”), straining to have bowel movements with little or no stool (tenesmus), blood in the stool (hematochezia), having frequent, small...

Holiday Hazards With the holidays upon us with need to think about our pets and the trouble they can get into at this time of the year: Plants — Some of the holiday plants can be toxic to our pets. Holly can cause GI distress and depression, mistletoe can lead to GI problems and various nervous system signs and poinsettia ingestion can result in increased salivation, and vomiting. Parties — Holiday parties can cause problems for pets. Pets should probably not be invited to the parties in your home. Caution guests not to feed your pets — holiday foods are...

Current Information on the Development of DNA Markers for Familial Shar-Pei Fever One of the first research projects funded by the Chinese Shar-Pei Club of America, Inc. and the CSPCA Charitable Trust was began in 1997 by Dr. Gary Johnson at the University of Missouri, Columbia. The main objective of the project was to test the the- ory that FSF is a canine version of Familial Mediterranean Fever in humans. It was felt that a mutation occurring in the canine equivalent of the human FMF gene was responsible for FSF in the Shar-Pei breed. Initially this was to be accomplished...