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A trail too far?
Caterpillars to avoid!
Cataracts
Dogslife helps find genetic cause of overweightness
A trail too far?
Not for this dog! A sheepdog that was originally from a farm in Wales, moved to work on a new farm in Cumbria… but managed to make the 240 mile journey back to Wales all by itself.
This incredible story is about a four year old working sheepdog called Pero. Pero began life at a farm near Aberystwyth in Ceredigion, Mid Wales. Pero went to work on the farm in Cockermouth, Cumbria, because the farmer there was looking for a working dog to help round sheep and follow a quad bike, for which Pero was the ideal candidate. Pero moved north to Cumbria at the beginning of March.
Pero did not settle in his new home, and in early April, whilst out working on the farm in Cumbria, he bolted across the fields and went missing. Two weeks later, the farmer at Pero’s first home in Wales went out to check his animals after supper… and found Pero on the doorstep! The farmer and his family received an elated reaction from Pero, who had managed to navigate all the way back, without any obvious assistance.
No one knows how Pero made the 240 mile journey all the way back to Wales, but it seems he may have made the journey on his own. Pero is microchipped, but no-one had called to say that Pero had been found, nor had anyone been in touch to say that they had dropped the dog off. Pero must have found food and water on his route back to Wales as he was in good condition when he returned. The family at the farm in Wales plan to keep Pero.
To hear more on this story, please click here.
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Caterpillars to avoid!
You might think caterpillars are harmless and friendly, but that’s not always the case. Oak processionary caterpillars are native to southern Europe, but were accidentally introduced to London eleven years ago. They build their nests in oak trees in June. Nests are around the size of a tennis ball and look like silken webbing on the trunks and branches of oak trees. Newly built nests are white in colour, but soon change to the colour of the oak tree, making them difficult to identify. Nests can fall to the ground so can easily be picked up by dogs or children.
Oak trees in South London, West London and Pangbourne in Berkshire may have nests of oak processionary caterpillars in them. Visitors and residents in these areas are being warned not to touch these nests, or let their animals near them. This is because the nests contain thousands of caterpillar hairs which have a substance called thaumetopoein in them. Thaumetopoein can cause painful skin rashes and on occasion throat and eye irritations. Both humans and animals can be affected.
The caterpillars inhabit their nests in between feeding sessions. They eat oak leaves and if there are large numbers of them they can damage the tree, stripping it of its leaves. The Forestry Commission is leading a programme to control and minimise the population and spread of this exotic pest. Any sightings of the caterpillars or their nests should be reported to the Forestry Commission or local Council.
Around the end of June and beginning of July, the caterpillars pupate in their nests. Between one and four weeks later, they emerge as adult oak processionary moths. Even after the moths have emerged, thaumetopoein can still be present in the nest, and the wind can blow the hairs around, so the immediate area should still be avoided. Anyone with an affected oak tree on their land is urged not to try and remove the nest themselves, and any person or animal showing symptoms after being near the habitat of oak processionary caterpillars should seek medical or veterinary advice as soon as they can.
For more information on oak processionary caterpillars, please click here.
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Cataracts
The lens is a structure in the eye which focuses the light coming through the front of the eye (the cornea) onto the back of the eye (the retina) where nerves which sense light are situated. The lens is held in place by muscles which contract or relax, which allows the lens to change shape slightly, which in turn focuses the light (depending on whether the object which is being looked at is close or far away) so that the “image” which is seen appears sharp and in focus. Normally the lens is transparent, to let as much light through as possible.
As dogs get older the proteins which make up the lens become less soluble, which results in the lens developing slightly blue or grey in appearance. You may have noticed this “milky” appearance of the eye in older dogs. It is thought that these changes do not alter the dog’s ability to see, as light can still pass through the lens.
Conversely a cataract is an opacity of the lens which leads to a reduction in the ability to see. Cataracts can be congenital (present from birth) or developmental (develop after birth), or secondary to another disease such as diabetes. The cataract can be incomplete (some vision still remains) or complete (completely impairs vision). Cataracts themselves can go through stages of development (from "immature" to "hypermature"), during which they affect vision more and more.
At present there is no medical treatment for cataracts. The only solution that can restore vision is to remove them, which requires a surgical procedure. The most common procedure is called phacoemulsification, in which an ultrasonic probe is carefully put into the lenses to break up the cataract, which can then be aspirated away. A synthetic lens may then be implanted into the eye to maintain the eye’s ability to focus. Lenses with cataracts can also be removed from the eye completely with open surgery, although this is less common because phacoemulsification allows better removal of all of the lens material through a smaller surgical incision in the eye. The success of cataract surgery is very high when used in appropriate cases, although not every dog is suitable for cataract surgery. If you are worried that your dog is developing a cataract, please contact your vet.
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Dogslife helps find genetic cause of overweightness
With the incredible dedication of owners taking part in the Dogslife study, the project has helped scientists discover why some Labrador Retrievers become overweight. Thanks to the hundreds of Dogslife owners who sent us DNA samples in 2013, scientists were able to identify and confirm that a genetic mutation causing an increase in appetite was present in over a fifth of all Labrador Retrievers. Many owners also provided details about their dog’s appetite by filling in an additional questionnaire posted to them, which helped the scientists to measure the “motivation” of each dog to eat.
The mutation was discovered in a gene called pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC), which is known to be involved in the signalling pathways in the brain which recognise hunger and the feeling of being full after a meal. In some dogs, the gene was found to have a deletion in it (a mutation where part of the gene is missing). Dogs who carried a copy of the mutated gene had higher body conditions scores, higher body weights, and higher food motivation scores than dogs who had normal copies of the gene. The mutation also had an “additive” effect, so dogs carrying two copies of the gene had higher body condition scores, body weights and food motivation score when compared to dogs carrying a single copy of the mutation, or no copies of the mutation.
Assistance dogs (Guide Dogs) carried proportionally higher numbers of copies of the mutated gene when compared to general populations of Labradors Retrievers (such as Dogslife dogs). It was hypothesised that this may be an effect of selecting the assistance dogs with temperament and trainability by using food as a positive reward. The mutation was also found in Flat-coated Retrievers.
If you want to read the scientific paper detailing the findings of this study, you can find it here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550413116301632. Thanks again to all the Dogslife owners participating in Dogslife; your hard work enables us to uncover these scientific discoveries. The information for this study was anonymised so we are not able to report to owners whether their dog carries the mutation, or what their dog’s food motivation score is, although some owners may be able to guess! This work highlights again how Dogslife is allowing us to understand more about the health of Labrador Retrievers.
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