The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of Fu Zi on changes in the body heat of dogs. Twelve clinically healthy dogs were divided into two groups: the control group (six dogs) and the experimental group (six dogs). The control group was made to ingest normal saline mixed with canned meat, while the experimental group was made to ingest the Fu Zi solution mixed with canned meat. The infrared thermographic system was used to determine the level of body heat generated by these dogs. These areas include the dorsocranial (DCr), dorsocaudal (DCd), ventrocranial (VCr), and ventrocaudal (VCd) regions at pretreatment and were determined at 10, 20, 30, 50, 90, 120, 240, and 360 minutes after treatment for each of these areas. The results showed a tendency toward increased body heat until 30 minutes after ingestion of the Fu Zi powder mixed with canned meat. The significant differences in the changes of body heat were detected at 360 minutes in the DCd regions, 20 minutes in the VCr regions, and 30 minutes in the VCd regions between the experimental and control groups (p < 0.05). Based from our results, we find that Fu Zi can increase and maintain the dogs’ body heat for at least 6 hours.

This study was carried out a survey for the presence of Giardia intestinalis infections in dogs using a Giardia ELISA kit (SNAP test, IDEXX Laboratories, Inc., Westbrook, ME). Four hundred and seventy-two dogs (190 males and 282 females) were examined for a G. intestinalis infection in four different provinces (Kyunggi, Chonnam, Kyungnam and Chungnam) and a Seoul city in South Korea. Slightly more male dogs (15.0%) than female (8.6%) dogs were affected, there was no significant difference between the two groups. The overall positive rates of G. intestinalis infection were 11.2%, 14.9% being found in the <2-year-old group, 8.7% in the 2-5 year-old group, and 2.1% in the >5-year-old group. X2 analysis revealed a significantly higher prevalence (14.9%, P<0.05) in the <2-year-old group than in the other two groups, and a significantly higher prevalence in symptomatic dogs (47.6%, P<0.001) in asymptomatic dogs (7.7%). This study is the first large-scale survey of canine G. intestinalis infections in South Korea, and is expected provide a useful reference for clinicians. Giardia-infected dogs should be treated for hygienic management as well as to prevent dog to human transmission.

We investigated possible therapeutic approaches to treat contagious naturally occurring ecthyma in Korean native goats in the Gongju area of Korea. Contagious ecthyma was found in 130 of 150 Korean native goats studied. Sixteen goats, ranged from 2 months to 2.5 years old, were selected for further experiments. The goats were divided into a control group, an ozonated oil group, and an ozonated water group consisting of 5, 5, and 6 goats, respectively. The control animals were not treated during the experimental period. The ozonated oil group was treated with ozonated oil, made by bubbling 200 ppm ozone gas into the oil, daily for 2 weeks. The remaining group of animals were given ozonated drinking water (0.1 ppm) ad libitum for 2 weeks. The ozonated oil treated group (4/5, 80%) had the highest therapeutic rate. The ozonated water group (4/6, 66.7%) had the second highest therapeutic rate, followed by the control group (1/5, 20%). Based on these results, a secondary experiment was performed that included a total of 121 Korean native goats with contagious ecthyma. Ozonated oil was applied daily for 30 days. All of the lesions on the goats with contagious ecthyma were completely cured by application of the ozonated oil. We concluded that ozone therapy was an effective treatment for contagious ecthyma in goats

We investigated the therapeutic effect of oculo-acupuncture on dogs induced with acute hepatic injury. Hepatic injury was induced by intraperitoneal injection with carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) in 8 mongrel dogs (4 females and 4 males, aged 2 to 4 years). The dogs were divided into the control group (4 dogs) and the experimental group (4 dogs). The experimental group was treated with oculo-acupuncture at the liver/gallbladder regions plus the zhong jiao region of the eye after the induction of hepatic injury. Serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) activities were measured in both control and experimental groups. The serum AST, ALT, and GGT activities in the experimental group were decreased as compared to those in the control group. The significant differences were detected on the third day (AST, p<0.05), second day (ALT, p<0.05) and third day (GGT, p<0.05) in the experimental group, respectively. Oculo-acupuncture alleviated acute liver damage induced by carbon tetrachloride in dogs was also confirmed by histopathological examination. We concluded that oculo-acupuncture at the liver/gallbladder regions plus the zhong jiao region was effective in the recovery of dogs from hepatic injury in a CCl4-induced model.