Placing allergy drops under a dog’s tongue can be as effective as allergy injections for controlling skin allergies, according to a new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. Douglas DeBoer, professor of dermatology at the veterinary school and chief author of the new study, said in a news release that he sees several benefits emerging from the new study. The study treated skin allergies in 217 dogs using allergy drops that were placed under the dogs’ tongues twice a day (allergy shots are typically injected every 14 days). According to DeBoer, about 60 percent of the dogs improved significantly. DeBoer said that because the drops act through a different mechanism than allergy shots, they were able to help dogs that had "failed" allergy shots.

The situation is worsening for Canadian veterinarians in desperate need of key drugs to treat their patients. Veterinarians continue to remain in short supply of important drugs including morphine, fentanyl and Phenobarbital after production issues with generic drug manufacturer Sandoz, a subsidiary of Novartis. A fire at a Sandoz production plant halted production of its 235 products, according to the Montreal Gazette. The fire, which broke out March 4, stopped production for about a week before limited production resumed March 12. Making matters worse, in 2011 Sandoz began a major production upgrade at its Boucherville plant following warnings from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that it had discovered serious deficiencies in its production methods. The FDA warned the company that it would block its exports to the U.S. unless the deficiencies were corrected. The upgrade caused a slowdown in production, which affected distribution of drugs to both human and animal doctors. Suzanne Misisaszek, DVM, of Whitemud Creek Veterinary Clinic in Edmonton, Alberta, said she has had trouble finding the drugs she needs for her practice. According to Misiaszek, the list of drugs in short supply includes glycopyrrolate, diazepam, midazolam, phenobarbital, meperidine, morphine, fentanyl and hydromorphone. Misiaszek says that Sandoz has told her that no human drugs will be delivered to veterinary wholesalers before the end of 2012, as the priority is to supply human hospitals first. For Misiaszek, the Canadian VMA and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) have been giving her practice the most guidance in how to approach the situation. "This shortfall came without warning and our provincial and national VMAs have really stepped up to help with recommendations," Misiaszek said.

With less than six percent of dogs and cats under cardiopulmonary arrest surviving to hospital discharge, key stakeholders in emergency and critical care are standardizing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) guidelines in an effort to save lives. Previously, no standardized CPR guidelines or training have existed in veterinary medicine. Over the last 18 months, the Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society (VECCS) and the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care (ACVECC) partnered to form the Reassessment Campaign on Veterinary Resuscitation (RECOVER) initiative. The project took the work of over 100 board-certified veterinary specialists from around the world. The team of volunteers was tasked with reviewing experimental and clinical evidence and creating evidence-based CPR guidelines for dogs and cats. According to ACVECC and VECCS, the historical lack of standardization has led to extreme variability in animal CPR, and has likely contributed to unsuccessful outcomes in dogs and cats experiencing cardiopulmonary arrest.

Two new products are now available for veterinarians working to control urinary incontinence in canines.

The University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine is now the fourth veterinary school in the country to boast positron emission tomography (PET) technology, a new technology used to detect cancer in dogs and cats. The PET scanner is the only veterinary PET scanner in Missouri, and is one of only a few in the country, according to a news release from the university. The scanner is unique because it requires minimal anesthesia and can be used as a powerful imaging tool to detect cancer in dogs and cats and determine whether the disease has spread. When combined with computed tomography (CT) scans, veterinary oncologists can co-register an abnormality, generating a three-dimensional image that shows both the metabolism of a growth as well as its size. According to a MU news release, a radiograph is limited because it can reveal that an animal has nodules in its lungs, but cannot determine whether those nodules are tumors or just scar tissue from old infections.

A new study from the Morris Animal Foundation is seeking to uncover the causes of canine cancer and possible ways to beat the disease. The Golden Retriever Lifetime Study, the first study in the Morris Animal Foundation’s Canine Lifetime Health Project, is designed to better prevent, diagnose and treat cancer and other cancer disease. The study will last 10 to 14 years, and is boasted to be the largest and longest observational study ever to improve the health of dogs. The study will target 3,000 Golden Retrievers within the contiguous United States. Dogs must be healthy and under 2 years of age at the time of enrollment. They must also prove a three-generation Golden Retriever pedigree. The breed was chosen because of its higher prevalence of cancer and other various diseases.

Are smart pills the way of the future for pharmaceuticals? A year ago, the Economist reported that pharmaceutical giant Novartis announced it had spent $24 million to secure a license on drug-delivery technologies developed by Proteus Biomedical. The move made Novartis the largest pharmaceutical company to set its sights on so-called "smart-pill" technology. This new smart pill technology allows pills to report data about a patient back to doctors after the pill has been swallowed. Activated by stomach acid, the data can be easily uploaded to a smart phone or sent to a doctor over the Internet. Now, researchers may be exploring the same concept for use in veterinary products.

Online gamers deciphering of a protein key to the replication of both the human immunodeficiency and feline immunodeficiency viruses is an important step in identifying new drugs to treat the viruses, according to a FIV expert. In a study published online Sept. 18, 2011 in the journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, researchers showed how online gamers decoded the model of the M-PMV protein, an enzyme important in the multiplication of HIV and FIV. The protein is retroviral protease, a protease that breaks down other proteins and enables the replication of HIV and FIV. Research has shown HIV and FIV to have similarities in the binding modes of their inhibitor molecules.

Three people have died of rabies in the United States in the past year, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and media reports, though only one case is suspected to have originated in this country.

Have you ever lost weight on a diet, only to gain the weight back again after you stop dieting? Turns out the same thing happens to dogs. About half of obese dogs that successfully lose weight will regain weight after the diet is over, a new study has found. However, the good news is, dogs that gained weight back only regained less than half the weight they originally lost. The study, conducted at the University of Liverpool, looked at long-term follow-up data in obese dogs that had successfully reached their target weight after dieting. The researchers also wanted to determine how often dogs regained weight and discover any factors involved with the regain.