Contacts make cat's eyes see again

Sky News:

Ernest the cat has had his sight restored by contact lenses in what is believed to be a medical first.

Fat Cats

From Yahoo News:

Eight of Britain's most overweight pets are to embark on a 100-day diet and fitness regime in a bid to be crowned this year's pet fit club champion.

The seven dogs and one cat, who are all more than 30 percent overweight and weigh a combined total of 191 kg (421 lb), were picked by veterinary charity PDSA who are running the slimming contest.

The animals, who need to lose a total of 74 kg to reach their ideal weight, will be put on specially tailored diet and exercise programs.

The pet who achieves the biggest percentage weight loss and best follows their new regime will be crowned champion, winning their owner a pet-friendly holiday.

At the hour of the Credit Crunch, it's apparently not only corporate fat cats that are shedding a few pounds!

UPDATE: Link is now broken, see a copy of the story here.

The purr-plexing love of cats for car engines

Animal News is well aware that cats love to travel - but just why they choose to do it inside bonnets of cars, encased in their engines, is a veritable moggy mystery.

Take Beamer, who suffered horrific burns after spending three days being driven around West Sussex in a BMW. Or misfortunate Mina, who travelled for 30 miles "clinging to the inside of a car bonnet" before being discovered alongside the engine's spark plugs.


Bad luck befell Black Jack, a seven-month old cat who sustained abdominal injuries, a severed Achilles' tendon and a significant loss of muscle tissue after becoming trapped in the fan belt of her neighbour's car. Black Jack required 80 stitches, several operations and eight days in intensive care - but fortunately survived. A fan belt injury also occurred in Rutland, where Lucky

lost much of the skin from the side of his stomach and needed to have a leg amputated after it became trapped in the fan belt.

Halloumi and Mele suffered similar ordeals, as did Maisy - who was discovered when her legs were seen dangling beneath the car. It is said that Maisy

was still deeply traumatised, but was improving.

"Maisy survived a four-mile journey from Abermule to Newtown after becoming trapped in a car engine," she said.

"After the journey her back legs didn't seem to work, but they're back to normal now. She is still deeply traumatised and it's going to be a slow, long journey with lots of tender loving care.

Charlie spent three hours in a car engine journeying from Hull to Norfolk, while in Aberdeen a ginger kitten named Gingi was discovered trapped inside a bonnet after driving for several miles - when the car's owner noticed the engine sounding an unusual purr. Nacho hitched a ride in a car engine all the way from Bristol to Liverpool. But perhaps the most impressive cat-hop was stowaway stray Lucky who, in an act reminiscent of a feline Phileas Fogg, managed to travel all the way from France to England in a car engine, in a journey lasting three days.

But a close second is probably Luna, who survived 300 miles over the course of a week in Austria, trapped inside the bonnet of a Mercedes-Benz - narrowly avoiding a cat-astrophy.

The popularity of engine-dwelling is not limited to cars. Cats have also survived journies trapped inside the engines of a van (in Hampshire), a coach and even a fire service lorry.

It would seem that vehicle engines are simply the purr-fect mode of cat travel! But as this adventurous lifestyle often leaves our feline friends just a whisker from death, it certainly is fortunate that they have nine lives.

Bird got the blues

From the Mail:

Spare a thought for Fred the parrot, who was so heartbroken by the death of his owner that he's been prescribed an animal-friendly version of the anti-depressant.

The African Grey got the blues after owner George Dance's passing - and ended up biting all his neck feathers off before animal experts offered the radical solution.

The bird has now been prescribed a twice-daily liquid dose of a bird-friendly version of Prozac, called Clomicalm.

Other recent cases of animals being given mental health treatment include

collie-Labrador Winnie, who last year was given Clomicalm after being diagnosed with canine separation anxiety.

Sad.

Hedgehog update

Two hedgehog news nuggets:

A hedgehog has lived to see another day after accidentally undergoing a 40 degrees spin cycle in a washing machine. The aptly named 'Lucky' is now recovering from her ordeal before being returned to the wild. On the upside, Lucky has never been cleaner!



Fellow hedgehog George is probably the fattest hedgehog in the country - weighing in at a whopping 2.2 kg! In fact, George is so overweight that he has now been placed on the Atkins diet. High protein, low carbs - that's the way to do it George!

Dental treatment, artificial limbs and a hernia operation... all given to animals

A series of reports are emerging on the latest medical care being recieved by animals. While all attempts to undertake medical care on animals is of course welcome, perhaps most incredible of all is the hernia operation recently performed on Carla the angelfish.

Vets at the London Aquarium used anaesthetic, a scalpel, a needle and forceps to perform the operation, who is a 10-year veteran of the popular tourist attraction. Happily, Carla has now made a full recovery and is once again pleasing visitors in the Caribbean tropical fish display tank.

Another case of animal medicine to come to life is that of Riley the horse, who was lucky enough to receive a prosthetic leg in a pioneering operation that is being credited with saving her life.

In addition to general surgery, there have been significant advances in recent years in the field of animal dentistry. Henry the puffer fish was given an emergency tooth extraction after coming off worse in a fight with a stingray half his size. The stingray, named Clyde, has been relocated to another aquarium, while Henry is still contentedly passing out his days at the Sea Life Adventure centre in Southend, Essex.

Meanwhile, in India, a British dentist has been giving extensive dental treatment to tigers and bears living in a rescue centre run by International Animal Rescue.