WHY You Shouldn’t Feed These 10 Foods To Your Dog

the himalayan monal is a large member of the pheasant family found in parts of asia. while during the breeding season they mainly stay in pairs, in winter they form small communities and roost together. they feed on grasses, insects, seeds and berries. they are known for their vivid iridescent plumage, particularly colorful for a pheasant. x

My best friend is defending next month, and he has decided to dedicate his thesis to his son and daughter (who are cats) and to his godson (who is my cat). I will never be sad again. This has cured all that ails. 

Went out to a vernal pool today and saw some crazy toad action

Recognising silent acute pain in animals - assorted species grimace scales:

Development of the Horse Grimace Scale (HGS) as a Pain Assessment Tool in Horses Undergoing Routine Castration 

The composition and initial evaluation of a grimace scale in ferrets after surgical implantation of a telemetry probe 

The Assessment of Facial Expressions in Piglets Undergoing Tail Docking and Castration: Toward the Development of the Piglet Grimace Scale 

The Sheep Grimace Scale as an indicator of post-operative distress and pain in laboratory sheep and the  Coding and quantification of a facial expression for pain in lambs 

Mouse -  How to be a pain management advocate for exotic and zoo animals (full text available - includes additional species)

The Rat Grimace Scale: A partially automated method for quantifying pain in the laboratory rat via facial expressions 

Evaluation of EMLA Cream for Preventing Pain during Tattooing of Rabbits: Changes in Physiological, Behavioural and Facial Expression Responses 

Pain evaluation in dairy cattle 

Pain is subtle - we cannot depend on vocalisations or extreme abnormal behaviour to determine if an animal is on pain - animals can cover up pain while going about their daily life. Grimace scales have been found to be reliable indicators of pain (full text available)

Unfortunately, I could not find a clear visual grimace scale for dogs, cats or birds :(  

Which is a shame, because perhaps I could have recognised my own dog’s discomfort for the acute pain it was sooner:

(left: dog in pain. See eyes, tension, cheeks, whiskers, ears compared to the multiple species grimace charts above. right: tired but not in pain dog)

Perhaps my new books that arrived today might have some on dogs at least. There’s this visual blog post of a stressed dog at the vet - stress in the absence of a trigger looks very much like pain.

Here is a small comparative cats, with the link going into more detail. Not a scale but better than nothing:

Bonus round - you can get free A3 posters on recognising pain for Rabbits, Mice and Rats from the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research. My rabbit specialist vet has the rabbit one!

Contest Entries: Hypatia of Alexandria

My favorite Female Scientist by Drziggystardust

Mathematician, philosopher, astronomer- Mostly known for her work in mathematics because she is the first well documented woman in the field. Her life and work were so important that many scholars agree that her brutal murder by religious zealots marks the end of the Classical Antiquity era, at the very least her death marked the downfall of intellectual life in Alexandria.    

Thumbs Up For Science

The cover of the legendary journal Nature from February 1879, featuring this thumb microscope, yours for the low, low price of three pounds. 

(via Ptak Science Books, which you should really check out)

I just read that bees don't have lungs how do their respiratory system works??

Correct. Insects do not have lungs they breathe through spiracles (tiny openings) that can open and close, as well as having filters to keep dust and other external contaminants out. 

The spiracles run across their abdomen connecting to tracheae  which is where oxygen exchange takes place (In mammals this happens in the blood), that then connect to tracheole. The air sacs expand and collapse so force the air in the spiracles and into the trachea and almost function in that they can reserve air in them so insects can conserve water.

Honey bees have 10 pairs of spiracles, 3 pairs on the thorax and 7 pairs on the abdomen. Bees can use and accelerate the passage of air in their bodies via their air sacs, contacting them and increasing their respiration rate.

This adaptive function of their respiratory system actually helps them to fly and the first few spiracles are used for air to exit while the others for air entering, they also have valves to prevent backflow. This also allows the bee to cool down or heat up if it needs to, which is why you’ll see bees abdomens wiggling while they’re resting. They’re forcing air in and out of their bodies in order to rapidly cool down or heat up, which is important for flight.

My blog is a private thing that is open to everyone in the world except to the people I know in real life.