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Despite current recommendations by UK welfare organisations that cats should be neutered at four months, a new study from the 'Bristol Cats' study cohort has shown that 85 per cent of pet cats are not neutered by the recommended age possibly due to cat owners needing better information about when to neuter their cat.

A study has gained new insight into domestic dogs' fear responses to noises. The behavioural response by dogs to noises can be extreme in nature, distressing for owners and a welfare issue for dogs. The research by academics from the School of Veterinary Sciences at the University of Bristol, and funded by the RSPCA , is published in Applied Animal Behaviour Science .

The UK dog population is estimated to be around ten million, with dogs producing approximately 1,000 tonnes of excrement each day. New research has shown that dogs act as a major source of the parasite egg, Toxocara, which can potentially contaminate the public environment and infect humans.

Headshaking syndrome is when a horse shakes or jerks its head uncontrollably for no apparent reason. There are striking clinical similarities between facial pain syndromes in people, most notably trigeminal neuralgia, and headshaking in horses. Although some progress has been made towards both diagnosing and treating the condition in horses, the pathology of the disease remains unknown and further research is needed.

Dogs with hemangiosarcoma that were treated with a compound derived from the Coriolus versicolor mushroom had the longest survival times ever reported for dogs with the disease. These promising findings offer hope that the compound may one day offer cancer patients - human and canine alike - a viable alternative or complementary treatment to traditional chemotherapies.

In a two-day-old mouse, a heart attack causes active stem cells to grow new heart cells; a few months later, the heart is mostly repaired. But in an adult mouse, recovery from such an attack leads to classic after-effects: scar tissue, permanent loss of function and life-threatening arrhythmias.

Aspects of a horse training method made famous by Monty Roberts, author of the The Man Who Listens to Horses , have been called into question by research at the University of Sydney. "This training technique was popularised worldwide by Roberts as the Join-Up method and was used by him to train Queen Elizabeth's horses at her personal request," said Cath Henshall, a Master of Animal Science candidate in the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University.

With no guidelines on how best to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on pets, only 6 percent of dogs and cats that suffer cardiac arrests in the hospital survive to go home. Now the Reassessment Campaign on Veterinary Resuscitation, or RECOVER, offers the first evidence-based recommendations to resuscitate dogs and cats in cardiac arrest.

The management of influenza outbreaks in horses will directly benefit from research by the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney. "We have demonstrated in non-laboratory conditions how air temperature, humidity and wind velocity influence the spread of influenza viruses. It puts us in a much better position to understand an actual outbreak of influenza in horse populations, under natural conditions," said Navneet Dhand , the principal investigator of the research project.

Planned changes to the way vets are allowed to conduct TB tests could have a dramatic impact on rural veterinary practices and fail to address quality control issues surrounding tests for bovine tuberculosis, University research has found. The Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) recently announced their intention to require veterinary practices in England to competitively tender for TB tests in specific geographical areas.

A new osteoarthritis drug combination trialled by University of Sydney researchers could significantly extend the working life of racing and other performance horses and could potentially benefit humans. Various medications have been assessed for the treatment of osteoarthritis in horses, but this is one of the first studies to show a new drug combination has the ability to slow down damage to joints, rather than just alleviate pain.

A simple application of honey to horses' leg wounds results in smaller wound sizes and faster healing time, University of Sydney researchers have found. Honey has been used to treat wounds in humans since ancient Egypt, but this study, using manuka honey from New Zealand, is the first time in the world a clinical trial has been conducted in horses.

The structures inside animals' thigh bones that enable them to support huge loads whilst being relatively lightweight are revealed in research published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The researchers say their work could lead to the development of new materials based on thigh bone geometry.

A study has gained new insight into the minds of domestic hens, discovering, for the first time, that domestic hens show a clear physiological and behavioural response when their chicks are mildly distressed. The research by academics at the University of Bristol's Animal Welfare and Behaviour research group in the School of Veterinary Sciences , and funded by the BBSRC Animal Welfare Initiative, is published online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B .

From the Asian elephant to the roadrunner: study of 90 animals? thigh bones reveals how they can efficiently carry loads Study suggests new materials could be developed that are inspired by geometry inside thigh bones The structures inside animals' thigh bones that enable them to support huge loads whilst being relatively lightweight are revealed in research published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The researchers say their work could lead to the development of new materials based on thigh bone geometry.

Anyone taking the recent, mysterious deaths of 200 steers in a Portage County, Wis., feedlot as a sign of the apocalypse can rest easy. The cows, according to the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory , were done in by bad spuds. Specifically, the cows were poisoned by a toxin found in moldy sweet potatoes, which apparently were mixed in with potato waste fed to the animals.

PA 13/11 At least one in five horses used for leisure are overweight or obese. It's a condition which can lead to laminitis and equine metabolic syndrome. The pilot study, carried out by The University of Nottingham's School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, showed that rates of obesity among horses are likely to be just as high as they are among people.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Researchers have identified a new target for the treatment of lymphoma and are testing a potential new drug in pet dogs afflicted with the disease. At low doses, the compound, called S-PAC-1, arrested the growth of tumors in three of six dogs tested and induced partial remission in a fourth.

The research, published in scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B , shows that fossil eggshell is a previously unrecognised source of ancient DNA and can provide exceptional long-term preservation of DNA in warmer climates. The findings will boost research in archaeology and biology where species identifications can add significantly to our understanding of biodiversity, evolutionary processes, past environmental change and dispersal of animal and human populations.

PA 47/10 It will cost £3.5m and take 10 years, but once established the new Centre for Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine (CEVM) will be the very first initiative that integrates the most up to date, accurate and relevant evidence with clinical decision making in the veterinary profession. Hosted by The University of Nottingham and partly funded by Novartis Animal Health, the new Centre aims to develop and promote the principles of evidence-based veterinary medicine in all aspects of the veterinary profession.