Posted on 03/22/2011 12:25:46 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Looks like it could have been an epilepsy attack.
I’m sorry to hear about Aladdin. I had a Schnauzer who had that, and it can be tough to deal with. I had to be on guard with meds all the time. The object was to prevent an attack because each attack makes the disease a little bit worse. We finally had to put him down when he started snapping at people in the family.
Possibly, if it was there then. It's also possible that this was something that onset later.
It's interesting, though... aren't there some studies of dogs being able, with some training, to detect certain cancers in people? It's amazing to imagine what the world must be like for an animal with such hypersensitive senses.
Right concept but wrong animal. The feline limbic system is fine-tuned to be able to detect human cancer. They can actually smell out cancer cells. That's how they developed the CAT scan.
I'll be here all week. Try the roast beef.
What’s really sad is that the zookeeper who took care of him for the first two years, died of a heart attack, at the age of 44.
That video is heartbreaking. I cried... wonder if it was rabies, maybe worms from tainted meat... awful video. I’m going home and hugging my dogs.
That was almost as bad as an unsuspecting photo of Helen Thomas. It hurt just as much.
ping for later
Brain disease? Too bad a number of turd world dictators with brain disease don’t keel over. It’s not a just world, is it?
I KNEW that somehow Algore was involved!
Its blood born and couldn't shoot her...poor thing I just sat in the barn with her nothing I could do..A vet trip out to put her down wouldn't be likely as again needle injections can cause contact with the blood. It is transferable to human's if you come in contact with the blood and have any kind of sore or scratch that could get infected..cost of the vet to come to the farm was also a factor.
I found the source of hay in an outside hay feeder, after a rain all hay had to be removed from these feeders and forgot one....Moldy hay will kill an animal quick..
A deaf cat can live a long and content life, though. Keep them indoors and there’s no reason at all for their lifespan to be any different than a hearing cat, barring additional health issues.
Absolutely right. Pup (we named her that since she looked like a seal pup as a kitten) was an awesome cat. She lived to the age of 12.
I watched that video a couple days ago. I wish I hadn’t. It’s heartbreaking.
German celebrity polar bear Knut drowned
Friday - 4/1/2011, 7:12am ET
Director of the Berlin Zoo, Bernhard Blaskiewitz, right, the Zoo’s manager Gabriele Thoene and director of the Zoo and Wildlife Research Institute, Heribert Hofer, left, stand behind a 3-D model of the skull of polar bear Knut after a news conference in Berlin, Germany, Friday, April 1, 2011. Germany’s celebrity polar bear Knut died from drowning after collapsing due to swelling of his brain and falling into his enclosure’s pool, an expert said Friday. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)By GEIR MOULSON
Associated Press
BERLIN (AP) - The Berlin zoo’s celebrity polar bear, Knut, drowned after swelling of his brain caused him to collapse and fall into his enclosure’s pool, experts said Friday.
A necropsy of the four-year-old bear who died suddenly two weeks ago showed he was suffering from encephalitis, an irritation and swelling of the brain that was likely brought on by an infection, pathologist Claudia Szentiks said.
It remains unclear what that infection was, but Achim Gruber, a professor of veterinary medicine at Berlin’s Free University, said it likely was a virus.
“We believe that this suspected infection must already have been there for a long time ... at least several weeks, possibly months,” Gruber said, although he added that there had been no sign of anything amiss in the bear’s behavior.
Knut died March 19 in front of hundreds of visitors at Berlin zoo, turning around several times and then falling into the water in his enclosure. Polar bears usually live 15 to 20 years in the wild and even longer in captivity.
Experts who examined Knut found massive quantities of fluid in his lungs, supporting the conclusion that the immediate cause of death was drowning. But they said that even if he hadn’t fallen into the water he likely wouldn’t have survived.
“Given the massive scale of the inflammation, Knut would probably have died sooner or later _ it wouldn’t really have been possible to save him,” said Szentiks, a pathologist at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin, which led the examination.
Experts ruled out rabies, botulism and bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease, as causes of the encephalitis that led to the animal’s spasm and collapse, said Szentiks.
Animal rights groups have alleged that the bear was traumatized by living in a zoo environment. But Szentiks told reporters that the examination showed no indications of any chronic stress.
The pathology team, which will continue searching for the cause of Knut’s illness over the coming weeks and months, also said there were no signs of any genetic defects.
Knut, who was born in December 2006 at the zoo, quickly rose to celebrity status as an irresistibly cute, fluffy cub.
Knut was rejected by his mother at birth _ along with his twin brother, who only survived a couple of days. He attracted attention when his main caregiver, Thomas Doerflein, camped out at the zoo to give the button-eyed cub his bottle every two hours.
The bear went on to appear on magazine covers, in a film and on mountains of merchandise.
Doerflein, the zookeeper who raised him, died in 2008 of a heart attack.
The zoo now wants to have Knut stuffed and put on display at Berlin’s Museum of Natural History.
The museum’s acting director, Ferdinand Damaschun, suggested that Knut could become part of an exhibit on climate change, but said there is “no need for excessive haste” in making decisions.
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