Secondhand Smoke Is A Health Threat To Pets
It has been in the news for years about how secondhand smoke is a health threat to nonsmokers. Secondhand smoke is attributed with killing thousands of adult nonsmokers annually. If smoking is that harmful to human beings, it would make sense that secondhand smoke would have an adverse effect on pets that live in the homes of smokers. Researchers note that, "one reason cats are so susceptible to secondhand smoke is because of their grooming habits." (More at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070831123420.htm)
Cats Do Suffer From Arthritis, Study Shows
New research at the University of Glasgow has found that arthritis in cats is far more common than previously thought. Professor David Bennett in the University's Vet School, has found that as many as 30 per cent of all cats over the age of eight may be suffering in pain and a reduced quality of life due to arthritis. It has been supposed cats do not suffer from this disease because their symptoms are less prominent than in other species. Cats suffer with arthritis as a result of increasing 'wear and tear' due to age or as a consequence of previous injury to the skeleton or due to some developmental abnormality of the skeleton which they may have been born with. This eventually results in chronic pain and a significant reduction in the quality of life of the cat. (More at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070824215618.htm)
Early Cat Exposure Can Increase Some Children's Eczema Risk
Children who are exposed to cats soon after birth may have an increased risk of developing eczema, according to a study to be presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference on May 21. (More at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060522115338.htm)
Insights Into Osteosarcoma In Cats And Dogs May Improve Palliative Care
Researchers at the University of Illinois have found that a molecular pathway known to have a role in the progression of bone cancer in humans is also critical to the pathology of skeletal tumors in dogs and cats. Their work could lead to advances in the palliative care of companion animals afflicted with osteosarcoma. (More at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070302082345.htm)
Microchips and cancer
The Associated Press is reporting that a series of studies dating to the 1990s--and largely unpublicized --indicated a possible link between microchips in some lab mice and rats and cancer. Some 2,000 microchips have been implanted in humans worldwide, but millions of dogs and cats have been microchipped, raising worries about the implants' safety (as well as how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved implanting the chips in humans in 2005).(More at http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/unleashed/2007/09/microchips-and-.html)
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