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On Sept. 30, the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners (TBVME) recommended revoking the license of Brenham, Texas veterinarian Kristen Lindsey, DVM, reported the Houston Chronicle. License revocation is one of the maximum penalties under Class A violations. "Animal cruelty is an exceptionally serious violation for a licensed veterinarian," noted the Formal Complaint.

Do your canine patients look to you, or their owners, for direction? It could be because dogs have been trained to solicit that direction rather than act independently, a new study suggests. The study, published September 16 in Biology Letters by Oregon State University, concluded that social sensitivity plays a key role in a dog’s willingness to problem solve.

Canine lymphoma is one of the most common cancers in dogs, according to the American Kennel Club (AKC) Canine Health Foundation. And three breeds are more predisposed to it than others: boxers, cocker spaniels, and retrievers. Researchers from eight U.S. and international institutions of veterinary and human medicine studied the somatic mutations in B- and T-cell lymphomas from these breeds by exome sequencing of tumor. Their results were published Sept. 16 in Genome Research.

On May 18, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed H.B. 593, mandating that Texas law enforcement officers take canine encounter training prior to the second anniversary of employment. The law took effect on Sept. 1 and applies to new hire law enforcement personnel only. The law was passed in the wake of, and as a response to, a number of incidents in Texas in which dogs were killed by police officers in the line of duty.

If you have congenital stationary night blindness (CSNB), you’re virtually blind at night even though, by day, your sight is normal. A rare condition present from birth, CSNB affects not only humans but also, it appears, some canines. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), working in collaboration with Japanese scientists, have discovered the first form of CSNB in a group of beagles. They have also begun the hunt for the genetic mutation responsible for the disease. Their findings were published in PLOS ONE on September 14.

On July 24, the Fairness to Pet Owners Act (H.R. 3174) was introduced in the House of Representatives. (In May, the Senate version of the bill, S. 1200, was introduced.) Both times, the bill failed to make its way out of committee to the floor for debate and a vote. That may not be the case in the future, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).

The Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners (TBVME) has found a violation in the case of Kristen Lindsey, DVM, a Brenham, Texas veterinarian, reported KXAN News. Lindsey bow-and-arrow killed a cat and posted her “kill” on Facebook in April. The TBVME is expected to reveal details of the violations and recommended penalties during its October 13 meeting, reported Alley Cat Allies, a national cat advocacy organization that attended the August 18 TBVME meeting and gave a statement.

Wolves and domestic dogs are social, and in such groups, a hierarchy emerges that enables the group to operate efficiently. In the canine world, how are such roles established? A new study sought to decode that. In a study published August 26 in PLOS ONE, Dutch researchers identified 7 postures and 24 behaviors that resulted in a canine group’s hierarchy. They also found that the hierarchy in a group of dogs is established not from the top down and with aggression, but from the bottom up, via submissive behavior.

Do you have a veterinary technician or assistant in your practice that is downright awesome? If so, now is your chance to honor him or her. The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) is looking for photographs of top veterinary technicians and assistants to spotlight in the October issue of Trends magazine. Practices should submit photographs no later than September 10.

Climate change impacts ecosystems and how they evolve. The same holds true for canines within those ecosystems, a new study suggests. And it all has to do with elbows. The study, published on August 18 in Nature Communications, examined 40 million year old dog fossils discovered in North America, and, specifically, the elbow joints of such fossils. Researchers then compared them to elbow joints from approximately two million years ago and noted morphological differences, reported the New Historian.