The importance of pets in families, especially during major life stressors, is well documented. Research suggests links between pet ownership and intimate partner violence (IPV). This study explored abused women's decisions about pets when seeking help from a shelter. Interviews were conducted with 19 women who were pet owners. Using grounded theory methods, two patterns emerged surrounding abusers' treatment of pets, bonds to pets, women's decisions about pets upon seeking shelter, and future plans for pets. The presence of coercive control was central to these patterns. Women also discussed their experiences with and needs from shelter professionals and veterinarians with implications for practice.

BackgroundIonized calcium concentration is the gold standard to assess calcium status in dogs, but measurement is not always available.Objectives(1) To predict ionized calcium concentration from biochemical results and compare the diagnostic performance of predicted ionized calcium concentration (piCa) to those of total calcium concentration (tCa) and 2 corrected tCa formulas; and (2) to study the relationship between biochemical results and variation of measured ionized calcium concentration (miCa).AnimalsA total of 1,719 dogs with both miCa and biochemical profile results available.MethodsCross‐sectional study. Using 1,200 dogs, piCa was determined using a multivariate adaptive regression splines model. Its accuracy and performance were tested on the remaining 519 dogs.ResultsThe final model included creatinine, albumin, tCa, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, chloride, alkaline phosphatase, triglycerides, and age, with tCa, albumin, and chloride having the highest impact on miCa variation. Measured ionized calcium concentration was better correlated with piCa than with tCa and corrected tCa and had higher overall diagnostic accuracy to diagnose hypocalcemia and hypercalcemia, but not significantly for hypercalcemia. For hypercalcemia, piCa was as sensitive (64%) but more specific (99.6%) than tCa and corrected tCa. For hypocalcemia, piCa was more sensitive (21.8%) and as specific (98.4%) as tCa. Positive and negative predictive values of piCa were high for both hypercalcemia (90% and 98%, respectively) and hypocalcemia (70.8% and 87.7%, respectively).Conclusions and clinical importancePredicted ionized calcium concentration can be obtained from readily available biochemical and patient results and seems more useful than tCa and corrected tCa to assess calcium disorders in dogs when miCa is unavailable. Validation on external data, however, is warranted.

Dogs with diabetes mellitus may develop occult urinary tract infections. In this study, diabetic dogs with negative and positive bacterial urine cultures were compared. Records from 51 dogs with diabetes mellitus were reviewed at the University of Illinois. No difference was identified between the groups in urine specific gravity, pH, glucose, ketones, protein, red blood cells, white blood cells, or epithelial cells. Dogs with occult urinary tract infection did have an increased incidence of bacteriuria, but this was not a consistent finding. Therefore, the urine on all diabetic dogs should be cultured to accurately identify the presence or absence of bacterial urinary tract infections.

In dogs with LRT disease, Mycoplasma-specific PCR assay results for BALF samples should be interpreted in terms of possible oral bacterial contamination. Mycoplasma-specific PCR assay of BALF samples from herding dogs, hound dogs, and dogs with bronchitis may be less rewarding than for other dogs with LRT disease.