Dr. Dolittle, meet AI: new model identifies pain in cats

Scientists use deep learning models and facial recognition analysis to detect subtle changes in ear tips, eyes and whiskers that indicate pain.

Naama Barak writes about a fascinating discovery that will help cats and their owners. Great news!

As any cat owner knows, felines can be pretty difficult to read – a problematic situation when our beloved pets are in pain. But now, a new artificial intelligence model can help us identify when our little tigers need that extra TLC. The reason it is difficult to tell when cats are in pain is their evolutionary ability to hide discomfort. This can result in house cats suffering from chronic pain without their humans ever knowing about it or taking them for treatment.

A team of researchers from the University of Haifa’s the Tech4Animals lab is developing the Dr. Dolittl-E app to detect animal feelings, using AI technology to advance and transform the world of veterinary care.

Along with researchers from São Paulo University in Brazil and Lincoln University and Nottingham University in the UK, they used deep learning models and facial recognition analysis to achieve a success rate of more than 70 percent in identifying cats in pain.

Their research, recently published in the Scientific Reports journal, is based on a study of 29 British shorthair cats. The researchers photographed female cats’ faces before and after sterilization, while they were still under the influence of painkillers and after the painkillers had worn off.

The AI models detected subtle changes in facial expressions, for example in the tips of the ears, eyes, whiskers and mustaches, that indicate pain. The areas around the mouth and eyes were found to be most significant in identifying pain.

The researchers say that their findings could change the way in which we care for cats, enabling anyone to photograph them in order to know whether they are in pain – and without the need for physical contact.

 

How to Diagnose and Prevent Skin Allergies in Dogs

Guest columnist Ashley Sanders offers her insights on dog skin allergies:

 

Skin allergies in dogs are identified through a thorough evaluation of the dog's medical history, a physical examination, and diagnostic procedures to detect certain allergens, such as blood tests or skin testing.

 

Based on the patient's medical history, veterinarians can identify skin allergies. After going over the patient's medical history and doing a physical examination, vets may suggest allergy testing to identify what causes skin allergies. To determine which allergen is triggering the dog's symptoms, veterinarians can administer intradermal skin tests, serum allergy testing, dog probiotics or use elimination diets.

What Dogs Can Do to Avoid Skin Issues?

Following is a list of things you can do to keep your dog's skin healthy.

• The best way to keep your dog's hair and skin healthy and free of allergens is to groom it regularly. Before bathing, brush the dog's coat to eliminate loose fur and avoid matting.

• Maintaining good skin and coat is easier with a balanced diet that includes water and nutritional foods. Make sure the dog gets enough protein, healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals in its food. Never be without access to clean, fresh water; it's essential for staying hydrated and maintaining healthy skin function.

• The goal of environmental management is to protect dogs from potentially harmful substances by reducing their contact with pollen, dust mites, mould, and other allergies. Reduce exposure by keeping the house clean, using air purifiers, and washing the dog's bedding regularly.

• Fleas are a known allergen and a contributor to skin issues like flea allergy dermatitis in dogs. Incorporate a flea control program that is regularly executed and includes

• Maintaining a dog's skin and coat health requires frequent veterinary examinations. A veterinarian can spot the first symptoms of skin issues and provide you with the best advice on how to avoid them.

• Skin irritation and infections can be caused by parasites like ticks, mites, and lice. To prevent them, it is important to take measures against them. Protect your dog against parasites by taking the necessary precautions, like giving them mite and tick preventatives.

• Keeping your dog active and mentally engaged is essential for their entire health, including their skin. Getting a charming gift for your dog for outdoor adventure looks is always a good idea.

• Anxiety and stress can compromise a dog's immune system and make skin issues worse. Create a safe and secure space for dogs to live in, and deal with any problems that may cause them discomfort or anxiety.

 

If an allergic dog gets a secondary bacterial or yeast infection, the vet can give antibiotics or antifungal medicine to treat the problem.

What Steps Can I Take to Minimise My Dog's Risk of Skin Allergies?

Dog owners can help their canines avoid skin allergies by keeping them away from common allergens, feeding them a balanced diet, and grooming them regularly.

 

When it comes to controlling dog allergens, environmental measures are crucial. Dust mites and pollen can be lessened by maintaining a clean living space by frequent vacuuming and washing of bedding.

 

For a healthy immune system and skin barrier, dietary factors are crucial. Supporting a dog's overall health and lowering the danger of allergic reactions is a balanced diet that is rich in necessary nutrients.

 

Ensuring that dogs get regular grooming is crucial for the prevention of skin disorders. To promote good hygiene and remove allergies from fur, bathe pets using mild, hypoallergenic shampoos.

What is the Life Expectancy of a Dog with Skin Allergies?

Although skin allergies can reduce a dog's quality of life, cause discomfort, and increase the risk of secondary skin infections, the dog can still enjoy a normal lifespan. According to a study titled "Quality of life of dogs with skin disease and their owners. Part 2: administration of a questionnaire in various skin diseases and correlation to the efficacy of therapy, 2011," dogs whose skin allergies go untreated have a worse quality of life overall. The top five skin diseases in dogs are scabies, pododermatitis, complicated atopic dermatitis, pemphigus foliaceus, and endocrine alopecia.

 

Itchy, scratchy skin is a common symptom of untreated skin allergies, which can develop into infection-prone wounds and ulcers. Irritability, restlessness, and aggressiveness are symptoms of chronic irritation in dogs, which impacts their relationships with people and other animals.

How Can We Keep Our Dogs' Skin Healthy and Problem-Free?

Consistent grooming, a healthy diet, and limiting exposure to allergens are the ways to keep dogs' skin in good condition and less likely to develop problems.

 

To prevent skin problems caused by clogged pores and excess oils, regular grooming is necessary. A dog's coat can be brushed to spread its natural oils and protect it from dryness and allergy sensitivity. Proper nutrition, in the form of high-quality, well-balanced meals, is an important factor in maintaining healthy skin.

 

The World's Oldest Dog

Bobi is world’s oldest dog. Yours can live a long, happy life, too.

Walk, eat, play, sleep. Repeat.

That’s how Bobi, recently deemed the world’s oldest living dog by Guinness World Records, spent much of his 30 years on his family’s farm in the village of Conqueiros, Portugal. Unlike the owner of the Rafeiro do Alentejo, the rest of the world hasn’t had the chance to watch their furry friend age three decades with them.

“That really is an unusual thing,” Erik Olstad, an assistant professor at the University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, told The Washington Post. “Owners will always ask me, ‘How can I make my dog live the longest life that they can?’ That’s a loaded question because there are so many variants that go into life expectancy.”

A lot of it is genetics. Life expectancy and predisposition for diseases vary by breed, Olstad said. But there are still things dog owners can do to give their pets the opportunity to live a long and happy life, vets told The Post.

“Dogs are very much like people,” said Natasha Olby, a veterinary professor at North Carolina State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “They need healthy diets, exercise, community, engagement and regular health care.”

Maintaining a healthy weight is crucial, experts told The Post. Dog owners should strive to give them quality dog food and avoid overfeeding because, as they age, the extra weight will make it much harder to treat mobility conditions such as arthritis or ruptured ligaments.

“If I see dogs entering senior years overweight, I can always bet money that we are going to have some serious mobility conversations moving on,” Olstad said.

New record: Oldest dog EVER - Bobi at 30 years and 266 days 🐶

The secrets to a long life, according to human Leonel Costa, is free roaming, human food and socialising with other animals 🥰️ pic.twitter.com/Ur5c2Gh8yb

— Guinness World Records (@GWR) February 2, 2023

Preventive care is a must. Keep their vaccinations up to date, take them to the dentist and visit the vet once or twice a year for a regular checkup.

If you’ve been fortunate enough to raise a senior dog, you should not conclude that certain behaviors or conditions are just ailments that come with age, said Nicole Ehrhart, director of the Columbine Health Systems Center for Healthy Aging at Colorado State University.

“One thing that we should not assume as a pet slows down is, ‘Well, it’s just getting old,’” Ehrhart said. If you are seeing your dog slowing down, that should be a warning flag for you to seek veterinary assessment.”

Physical and mental exercise are also key. Take your dog on regular walks and runs that stretch out as long as your dog’s breed and age allow.

The five-mile run that works well for your 1-year-old border collie will not be the same workout that your bulldog with arthritis will require. In that case, experts said, you are better off with giving your dog 15-minute walks four times a day, for example. For mental stimulation, hide food and treats inside their toys.

As much as one wants their dog to live a long life like Bobi — who Guinness says is the oldest ever recorded — experts highlighted that the focus should be on giving pets the most quality of life possible. Life expectancy is not a contract, Olstad told The Post.

“My job as a vet is not to get your dog to live as long as possible if it compromises their quality of life,” Olstad said. “Their happiness is much more important to me than the longevity.”

“Try to not focus on that life expectancy, and look at your dog as an individual,” he said. “I have some [clients] that say, ‘Hey, I heard that someone’s Great Dane lived to 15!’” (Great Danes live an average of eight to 10 years.) “That can be a really tough thing if your expectations aren’t managed.”

Find the best pet products

Parrots Taught to Video Call Each Other Become Less Lonely

This interesting article from The Guardian makes a lot of sense!

Pet parrots that are allowed to make video calls to other birds show signs of feeling less isolated, according to scientists.

The study, which involved giving the birds a tablet that they could use to make video calls, found that they began to engage in more social behaviour including preening, singing and play. The birds were given a choice of which “friend” to call on a touchscreen tablet and the study revealed that the parrots that called other birds most often were the most popular choices.

Dr Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, of the University of Glasgow and a co-author of the research, said that video calls had helped many people feel less isolated in the pandemic. She added: “There are 20 million parrots living in people’s homes in the USA, and we wanted to explore whether those birds might benefit from video calling too. If we gave them the opportunity to call other parrots, would they choose to do so, and would the experience benefit the parrots and their caregivers?”

Their analysis, based on more than 1,000 hours of footage of 18 pet parrots, suggested that there were, indeed, benefits for the birds. In the wild, many species of parrots live in large flocks, but as pets tend to be kept alone or in a small group. Isolation and boredom can cause birds to develop psychological problems, which can manifest as rocking, pacing back and forth, or self-harming behaviours such as feather-plucking.

Video calling could reproduce some of the social benefits of living in a flock, the scientists suggested.

The parrots were recruited from users of Parrot Kindergarten, an online coaching and educational programme for parrots and their owners. The birds first learned to ring a bell and then touch a photo of another bird on the screen of a tablet device to trigger a call to that bird, with the assistance of their owners. In total the birds made 147 deliberate calls to each other during the study, while owners took detailed notes on the birds’ behaviour and the researchers later reviewed the video footage.

Dr Jennifer Cunha, of Northeastern University and co-founder of Parrot Kindergarten, said that the parrots “seemed to grasp” that they were engaging with other birds because their behaviour mirrored that seen during real-life interactions. “All the participants in the study said they valued the experience, and would want to continue using the system with their parrots in the future,” she said.

“I was quite surprised at the range of different behaviours,” said Hirskyj-Douglas. “Some would sing, some would play around and go upside down, others would want to show another bird their toys.”

The team’s paper is published in Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

Tracking Your Dog's Fitness With a Smart Collar

News about the ability to track your dog's fitness was announced at this years Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas. A French company called Invoxia announced a "smart" dog collar that can measure and tracks a dog's health through sensors and other tech. It can not only monitor health, it also keeps track of their whereabouts and warns of any potential health issues that come up. This is done by measuring respiratory and heart rate. It also has WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth to track the physical location of your pet.

Listen to the podcast here, thanks to USAToday:

The Joy of Pets

Humans are naturally drawn to companionship, and the bond between people and their pets has developed and strengthened throughout time. Studies have shown that owning a pet has a range of positive effects on mental health, like decreasing anxiety and depressive symptoms, boosting self-esteem, and giving people a sense of purpose.

And so I wanted to share this well-researched guide, Joy of Pets: How they are Helpful for Mental Health

Here are a few of the many researched facts regarding pets and companionship:

• 84% of pet owners attest that owning a pet improves their mental health, according to the PDSA Animal Well-being (PAW) Report.
• 76% of the surveyed respondents in research, agree that interactions between pets and humans address social isolation.

Pet Body Language You Might Be Misreading

According to AARP magazine, there may be some dog and cat behaviors that we may be misreading. You may think you know what that tail wag or cuddle means, but do you? We asked a few experts for guidance.

Dog smiling

Getty Images

What you think it means: All is well.

What it really means: That grinning look is not the same for dogs as for humans. “Generally speaking, tension in the mouth is a sign of stress,” Case says. “If the dog is actually feeling happy, their mouth isn’t going to have tension to it. It might be open a little bit with what we call a soft face.”

Dog wagging tail

 

Getty Images

What you think it means: I’m happy.

What else it can mean: “People think just because the tail is wagging, all is well, but that’s not always the case,” says certified applied animal behaviorist Jill Goldman. A good tail wag is side to side or in circles. This often means that the dog is excited to see someone. But a wagging tail that is a “high mast, hooked all the way over,” Goldman says, can signal a heightened emotional state that isn’t necessarily social.

Cat rolling over

Getty Images

What you think it means: Rub my belly.

What it really means: Not that. “Most cats do not love belly rubs,” says feline behaviorist Marci L. Koski. “That’s where the Venus cat trap comes into play. You put your hand on the belly and then, whoo, there go the claws.”

Dog panting

Getty Images

What you think it means: I’m hot.

 

What else it can mean: “Panting can sometimes mean stress,” says Courtney Case, a trainer at the Granada Hills, California–based J9’s K9s Dog Training. “So if you’re sitting inside and your dog hears a noise and they start panting, it might mean that they’re a little bit stressed, and they’re just trying to get a little bit more oxygen into those lungs.”

Cat rubbing up against you

Getty Images

What you think it means: I like you.

What else it can mean: “It’s also as a way to leave their scent behind,” Koski says. “The most common way a cat will rub up against somebody is with their cheek. This deposits those facial pheromones that are often used in marking territory.”

Dog Barking

 

Getty Images

What you think it means: Someone is invading my space.

What else it can mean: “Barking can be, ‘Oh, I’m so excited to see you,’ ” Goldman says. “But it also can mean, ‘Keep your distance. I’m very territorial. Don’t come any closer.’ ”

Dog rolling over

 

Getty Images

What you think it means: I’m feeling lazy.

What else it can mean: “If a dog is rolling over and exposing their belly to a person that they’re comfortable with, they’re probably asking for affection,” Case says. It could also be a sign of submission. “If a dog does that to a person they don’t know, I’m going to assume that dog is trying to show me, ‘Look how small I am. Please don’t hurt me.’  ”​

Craig Rosen is a contributing writer who whose work has appeared in Billboard and on Yahoo Music and TIDAL. He's also the author of R.E.M. Inside Out: The Stories Behind Every Song and The Billboard Book of Number One Albums.

Turtles Talk to Each Other

Get this from Salon - A new study reveals that, in their own special way, turtles chat with each other!

"It was a great surprise to discover they not only vocalize but also do so very often, producing very funny sounds"

University of Zurich's Gabriel Jorgewich-Cohen is part of a team of international researchers who produced a landmark new study for the journal Nature Communications. Seeking to learn about the evolutionary origins of acoustic communication in vertebrates, the scientists recorded 53 species from four major clades — turtles, tuatara, caecilians and lungfish — to analyze what they heard. In the process, they learned that there are turtles, tuataras, and caecilians that engage in vocal communication, even though those clades had previously been perceived as non-vocal.

"When put in perspective, these findings show that vocal behavior is an evolutionary innovation that first appeared in the common ancestor of tetrapods (amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) and lungfish," Jorgewich-Cohen explained.

To be clear, this vocal behavior does not resemble anything as magnificent as a wolf howling or a bird tweeting. The Cayenne caecilian, in this journalist's opinion, produced sounds a bit like exaggerated yet strangely half-hearted armpit farts, while the mata mata turtle almost came across like a purring cat. Yet despite these seemingly alien vocalizations, the new study reveals that these creatures have much more in common with human beings than we had previously assumed. Rather than making these animals more exotic when compared to us, the new study discloses the extent to which we are part of the same family tree.

Dog Age Calculator

I tend to compute dog age into human age by multiplying the dog's age by seven. But according to Dr Leslie Brooks, an advisor at Betterpet, different breeds require different calculations.

Betterpet has developed a free online tool that is a dog age calculator that allows users to enter a dog's age and see it converted to human years. Even more, the tool provides insights like average life expectancy, weight, and height for over 100 dog breeds. 

Unfortunately, many pet owners don't always know how old their dog actually is and how they should be caring for their furry friend. If pet parents know their dog's exact stage of life, they can make better decisions about their diet, nutrition, exercise, and health. That’s why my team decided to make a resource like this free and accessible to the public. 

Key takeaways about a dog's age

• The 7:1 ratio is flawed —As it turns out, figuring your dog’s age is more complex than multiplying by seven. That old rule of thumb that one dog year equals seven human years is based on the notion that dogs live about 10 years and humans live to about 70.
• There isn’t a perfect formula — A dog age calculator is a great way to get a better idea of your dog’s age in human years, but parents of rescue dogs may not know their pet’s birth date. There are other ways to estimate if you don’t know your dog’s age.
• Small dogs typically live longer than big dogs — Dogs under 40 pounds aren’t as prone to conditions such as hip dysplasia that can limit their mobility and increase their risk for obesity and other health conditions.

So enjoy every moment with your fur baby and celebrate!

Dogs Can Smell Your Stress, Study Finds

As any dog owner will attest, dogs can seem eerily attuned to human behavior. When humans yell or pick a fight, dogs often respond with anger and fear. Similarly, people with sedentary lifestyle may have seemingly sedentary pets: a 2021 study found a correlation between dog obesity and human obesity.

Now, a new study sheds light on the peculiar ways that dogs seem to be able to pick up on human vibes. Specifically, researchers found that when you are stressed, your body produces a distinct odor — and our canine friends can smell it. Read the rest from Matthew Rozsa.