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Pug Health Research Projects Update |
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Dr. George Moore at Purdue gemoore@purdue.edu reports he still needs blood samples from Pugs who have vaccine reactions and from controls (Pugs who have no reaction). Please consider participation in this important research. All it takes is a quick blood sample drawn within three weeks of a vaccine. More informatin is available on the Purdue website at http://www.vet.purdue.edu/k9vaxrxn/ where study objectives and submission forms are available. The Board of Directors of the PDCA has voted to support four important research projects in support of Pug health. One is sponsored with the Morris Animal Foundation, and the other three are sponsored by the Canine Health Foundation. The first project is a continuation of the Mast Cell Study in Pugs and Shar-peis which is a genetic study to find the markers for the disease. You can read more about the original project on this page. The new continuation is briefly described on this page (click on "Canine" in the first column, "Cancer" in the second column, and "D06CA-066: Mast Cell Tumors" in the third column to read about it.) Sponsored by the Canine Health Foundation is a project to study genotyping in dogs with portosystemic (liver) shunts. The Pug is one of the more common breeds that can have this devastating condition. This is Grant No: 1160-A at the University of Pennsylvania on the Canine Health Foundation's web site. A second grant through the Canine Health Foundation will look at the effects of tetracycline (an antibiotic) on refractory, or non-healing, corneal ulcers. Further information is under Grant No: 726-A being researched at the University of Tennessee. The third study is looking at the effects of early stenotic nares (pinched notril) repair on development of the brachycephalic syndrome as the dogs mature. This is Michigan State University's Grant No: 1056-A which appears to indicate that early surgery does help. |