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Animal Charities: PDSA
One Health, One Medicine
Have your household or contact details changed?
Prize winners!
Animal Charities: PDSA
The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) was founded by Maria Dickin in 1917 to help alleviate the illness and suffering of animals such as stray cats and dogs and injured work horses. The charity began in the Whitechapel area of London where a clinic was opened to provide free treatment to animals in need. Soon after this, mobile dispensaries were introduced to reach animals further afield, travelling across Britain where more clinics were set up along the journey. By 1935 the PDSA had 71 dispensaries, 11 mobile dispensaries, and 5 hospitals.
Today, PDSA’s dedicated teams of over 900 vets and nurses continue to provide sick and injured pets across the UK with free help and treatment if their owners are not able to afford veterinary fees. In 2011, the PDSA provided over 2.4 million treatments and 420,000 preventative treatments (such as neutering and microchipping) through their 50 PetAid hospitals, and additionally more than 40,000 pets are registered for PDSA-funded treatment through nearly 380 PetAid practices. To be eligible for PDSA help, owners must receive either housing benefit or council tax benefit.
PDSA also promotes responsible pet ownership through various initiatives. The PDSA Animal Wellbeing (PAW) Report 2011, which interviewed over 11,000 owners and is the largest survey of its kind into pet health and welfare, found that over 10 million pets (46%) were not having their needs met. It found that the vast majority of owners love their pets, but many had a lack of understanding about their pet’s needs and how to meet them. The full Report can be downloaded from www.pdsa.org.uk/pawreport.
Through projects such as the PDSA Education Programme, which provides free lesson plans, interactive courses, and talks, PDSA aims to improve the public’s understanding of the five welfare needs, as defined by the Animal Welfare Act 2006. The PDSA website provides pet owners with lots of useful information on pet health, including pet care leaflets and e-Learning courses. Ensuring people have the right information prior to purchasing a pet is also important, and the PDSA website ‘Your Right Pet’ (www.your-right-pet.co.uk) helps potential owners to select an appropriate pet for their lifestyle, then provides advice and guidance on that pet’s key welfare needs.
PDSA’s PetCheck Scheme, launched in 2002, continues the charity’s long-held tradition of travelling the country to reach as many pets as possible. The three custom-designed vehicles tour the country from March to October every year with an on-board Vet Nurse, offering free health checks for dogs, affordable microchipping and expert pet care advice.
PDSA is also home to animal bravery awards. The PDSA Dickin medal, also known as the animals’ Victoria Cross, has been awarded since the Second World War for animals’ bravery and service during military conflict (to view our previous article on Labradors that have been awarded a PDSA Dickin medal, please click here). In 2002 the PDSA Gold medal, now known as the animals’ George Cross, was created to recognise the highest honour of outstanding animal dedication and gallantry in civilian life. So far, all the recipients have been dogs.
For more information on PDSA, please click here.
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One Health, One Medicine
Human and veterinary medicine are linked in many ways. Humans and animals suffer the same diseases, can be infected by the same viruses and bacteria, and respond to the environment in the same way. This has led to the concept of “One Health”, which is about improving the life of all species, human and animal, through combining human and veterinary medicine and environmental science.
One of the reasons we ask about your household as part of the Dogslife project is to try to find the links between your dog’s environment and any diseases it might get. Since you are in the same environment, you might be at risk as well, and finding out about the disease in dogs will help us to understand the same condition in humans. For example, obesity is a major problem in both human and dog populations today and we hope that the information you provide to Dogslife will help us understand the factors that influence weight in dogs and can be extended to humans.
Dogs experience many genetic diseases, and because of the close genetic relatedness of populations of pedigree dogs it’s much easier to identify the genes responsible in dogs than in humans. So there are a large number of studies looking for genetic causes of disease in dogs in the hope of providing clues for the disease in humans. For example, the gene in a form of genetic kidney cancer in dogs was identified and turned out to be responsible for a familial cancer condition in humans as well. Epilepsy occurs in many breeds of dogs, caused by different gene changes. In humans epilepsy is inherited in a complex manner, but finding the genes involved in dogs will help identify a range of genes that might also be responsible for the same or similar disease in humans.
Dogs have been used recently to develop treatments for humans. Leber’s congenital amaurosis type 2 is a genetic eye condition caused by changes in the DNA of a gene called RPE65. The disorder was treated in affected dogs by introducing a functional copy of the gene carried on a virus into the eyes. This restored the dogs’ vision, and is still working more than 10 years later. Now the same strategy is being used to help humans with this condition regain some sight.
In another example, a family of dogs with nystagmus (to-and-fro involuntary movement of the eyes) were used to develop a surgical approach to this condition. The surgery reduced the eye movements and improved vision in the dogs. It is now also being used for humans with nystagmus.
The concept of One Health highlights the similarities between humans and our animal companions. It’s clear that our dogs are not just our loyal friends; they may also hold the clues to solving our own health problems. By contributing to Dogslife you are taking part in a massive One Health study that will help both dogs and humans.
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Have your household or contact details changed?
Dogslife would really like to know if there have been any changes in your household, for example, if you have moved house, or if any adults, children or other pets have joined or left your household. This is so that we have the right information about your dog’s environment; where they live and with how many other people and/or pets.
We would also like to know if any of your contact details have changed so that we can be sure to contact you on your preferred telephone number and/or email address. All contact and household information is confidential and is not passed on to any other party.
To make any alterations to your contact or household details, simply login at www.dogslife.ac.uk and click on the ‘Edit’ or ‘edit your profile’ links (circled in red in the image to the right). Here you can check/amend your details, clicking ‘Save & Continue’ to scroll through the pages.
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to email us at info@dogslife.ac.uk. Thank you for keeping your details up to date.
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Prize winners!
Congratulations to our latest prize winners! Miss B from Lancashire, Mr S from County Antrim, Miss H from Lincolnshire, Mrs B from West Lothian, Ms R from Birmingham, Mr A from Derbyshire, Mrs H from Hampshire, Mr B from Greater London, Mrs H from Hampshire, and Mrs F from East Sussex have all won £10 of Pets at Home vouchers. We hope you enjoy spending the vouchers on your pet!
Don’t worry if you haven’t won a prize this time; by keeping your dog’s record up to date, you are automatically entered into the next prize draw in three months’ time – good luck!
Huge thanks to everyone who contributes to the study. Your continued support will help us find out what keeps dogs healthy!
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Don't forget to come back to Dogslife to update your dog's record www.dogslife.ac.uk
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