Small Winged Animals Help Dogs in Times of Need

Fairy tale lovers often remember the story of a tiny little mouse that helped a lion get the thorn out of its paw. Everyone knows that that story is just a myth but local veterinarians in the New Jersey area are working on what can only be compared

Seattle, WA (prHWY.com) August 14, 2012 - Fairy tale lovers often remember the story of a tiny little mouse that helped a lion get the thorn out of its paw. Everyone knows that that story is just a myth but local veterinarians in the New Jersey area are working on what can only be compared to the modern day version of the lion and mouse story.

Jean Silvers, a local area vet, is working with a group of parakeets to help them detect when dogs may be experiencing a seizure. These birds can then take appropriate actions to alert the owners and help the dog get the care and attention it needs.

"Dog seizures are rarely life threatening" said Silvers. "However, they can be a sign of a condition that might be life threatening. It is my hope that if I can train parakeets to alert the owners of when a dog is experiencing a seizure the dog can get the care it needs. After all, not all seizures happen when the owner is home."

Jean Silvers takes several parakeets and trains them to sense the delicate change that dogs experience when they start to seizure. The birds are trained to detect when this happens and fly to a button placed on the wall. This button is connected to a text alert system that can alert the owner to when the dog is having a seizure.

"The whole idea is to have early detection of these seizures this will help owners get them to the vet immediately", said Silvers. "I'm thinking hundreds of dogs lives could be saved with this team of birds."

Many people were skeptical that birds could be trained to sense the slight difference in dogs that happen when they experience a seizure. Jean Silvers worked with for months to train the parakeets to feel the difference.

"It was really difficult to coordinate the birds to feel the difference, know they needed to fly to the button and then get that all into a system that worked", said Silvers. "I had faith this would work so I kept at it."

Jean Silvers plans on presenting her findings to local vets at the next dog and cat expo. The ability to purchase trained parakeets should be available sometime next year.

"My dog experienced severe seizures", said Sally Cook. "This would have helped my poor dog while giving me a sense of freedom to not feel tied down to the house waiting for their next seizure."

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Tag Words: dog seizures

Categories: Pets

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