Summer 2024
Pet safety in extreme heat
Four-legged friends need to be kept cool during the hot summer. » More ...
Animal health
Summer 2024
Wildlife care takes wing
WSU veterinarian Marcie Logsdon, a wildlife and exotic animal expert, aids injured animals from raptors to gerbils. » More ...
Spring 2024
Feeding time at the zoos
Erin Kendrick finds the right food for animals at the Smithsonian National Zoo. » More ...
Summer 2023
Hoop dreams
Here’s a circle of veterinary researchers making agility competitions safer. » More ...
Summer 2022
All creatures, far and near
Craig Nishimoto gives back to animals and communities. » More ...
Summer 2022
Tips on keeping animals safe during wildfires
Wildfires affect many aspects of a community beyond the charred and devastated landscape. During a major blaze, residents must deal with smoke, fire retardants, evacuations, power outages, disrupted supply chains, and more.
Often forgotten in the equation are the damaging effects wildfire has on domestic animals. Smoke-induced respiratory problems, exposure to firefighting chemicals, and injuries from running through barbed-wire fences are common.
Linda McLean, WSU Extension director for the Colville Reservation helps residents prepare for wildfire season through public workshops and a variety of fire-related resources. She urges all pet and livestock owners to create an emergency evacuation plan for the safe transportation and shelter … » More …
Fall 2019
Where have all the frogs gone?
WSU researchers have a deep love of the Pacific Northwest and its amphibian wildlife. They're leading the work to save and protect frogs and salamanders from some of the deadliest diseases in nature. » More ...
Winter 2017
Reconsidering health
Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates proposed that four basic personalities were driven by excess or lack of bodily fluids, the “humors.” Discredited by biochemistry, we may consider the idea humorous, but Hippocrates’ theories began a centuries-long consideration of temperaments and personality in psychology and philosophy.
Other ideas of human health were first spurned and then accepted. Germ theory, the thought that many diseases are caused by microorganisms, was treated with disdain when it was proposed in the sixteenth century. It didn’t receive its due until nineteenth-century experiments by cholera researcher John Snow and chemist Louis Pasteur, among others, proved germ theory’s validity.
Even today we continue … » More …
Winter 2015
Emerging disease: A case study
Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at WSU
1999
Hundreds of people, cats, dogs, porpoises, birds, and other animals on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, fell victim to what was diagnosed as a rare fungal infection called Cryptococcus gattii. Though physicians and veterinarians were familiar with the more common Cryptococcus neoformans, C. gattii was considered a tropical disease found only in places like Australia.
Upon deeper investigation, B.C. health officials were alarmed to discover that C. gattii had established itself in the native trees and soil—and was especially prevalent in decaying wood. Epidemiologists speculate that climate change and warmer summers helped create favorable habitat for the … » More …
Spring 2014
Robert Franklin ’75, ’76, ’79—A new leash on life
Over more than three decades, veterinarian Dr. Robert Franklin has advocated for animal welfare—even when those animals never set a paw into his specialty practice in Beaverton, Oregon.
Franklin ’75 BS, ’76 BS, ’79 DVM is on the frontlines of animal wellbeing and companionship issues in the Pacific Northwest, whether he’s working behind the scenes to save a stray or squarely in the spotlight ensuring that famed orca Keiko was getting appropriate medical care.
“The animal welfare movement is waiting for veterinarians to lead it like we should,” says Franklin, who recently received Washington State University’s Distinguished Veterinary Alumnus Award. “We’ve got to look at … » More …