With the emergence of the worlds largest periodic cicada brood has come an uncomfortable problem for some Southern dogs: diarrhea.

Dog treat manufacturer Bravo! is voluntarily recalling boxes of Bravo! Pig Ears Chews due to possible Salmonella contamination, the FDA reports.

Pennsylvania state officials killed a rabid beaver in a Phildelphia park last week.

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by Jack Sommars Studies show that 10% of all troops returning from Iraq suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Until recently, antidepressant drugs, counseling and therapy were the only means available to treat this debilitating illness. But, today, veterans who are at the end of their rope are finding comfort at the end of a leash. Specially trained psychiatric service dogs are interrupting their partners’ nightmares, reminding them to take their medications, warning of approaching strangers and reducing their anxiety and stress. Veterans with PTSD can now feel safe in darkened theaters and busy supermarkets or even while driving. After only a week with his dog, one veteran’s wife reported, "My husband and I have done more things together in the last six days than we have in the past six months because Mitzy was there and Gary was not afraid."

Feral cats are more active and have a much larger range that pet cats, according to a new study.

Dogs and humans have shared many things over their 10,000-year relationship. Now it seems that the two species may have shared some genetic material as well, exchanged through the transmission of viruses, according to a new study from Uppsala University in Sweden. The researchers studied the genome of a female boxer and looked for chains that corresponded to known retroviruses, which can integrate themselves into the genome of their hosts. They found that only 0.15% of the canine genome was made up of these endogenous retroviruses (ERV), compared to about 0.8% in humans and 2% in mice.

Primal Pet Foods has initiated a voluntary recall of their Feline Chicken & Salmon Formula due to possible Salmonella contamination, the FDA reports.

A new study from Harvard University shows that dogs drink the same way as cats do, using "adhesion of liquid to the tongue tip."

  A pair of unrelated studies sheds some light on a parasite spread by cats, and a canine virus that could help understand the human virus hepatitis C. Researchers at the University of Illinois studied the prevalence of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii within a large park in central Illinois. T. gondii reproduces only in cats, but it is the cause of toxoplasmosis, which can have serious or deadly effects on other mammals including humans, most notably the fetuses of pregnant women. Using several detection methods, the scientists found dozens of feral cats in the area, and trapped 18 of them. They found that one-third of the cats were infected with T. gondii, and large numbers of other wild animals in the park that were tested also carried the parasite.