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The Pennsylvania SPCA (PSPCA) received test results from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine today confirming the cause of the recent canine shelter deaths as Streptococcus equi, commonly referred to as “strep zoo.”

The bacterial infection is easily treatable with penicillin.

Shelter officials had feared they might be be dealing an outbreak of  the more serious canine influenza, and imposed a quarantine after six dogs died from an unidentified respiratory illness earlier this week.

“We reached out to experts at Penn and we are in the process of implementing treatment protocol at both shelters,” said Director of Shelter Medicine and Chief Investigative Veterinarian Dr. Rachel Lee. The PSPCA reached out to animal shelters that have experienced similar “strep zoo” cases and is consulting with the Penn’s Infection Prevention Practitioner to eliminate the bacteria in the environment.

The first cancer drug made specifically for canines has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Palladia, manufactured by Pfizer Animal Health Inc., has been approved to treat a type of cancer that accounts for about one in five cases of canine skin tumors.

Canine cutaneous mast cell tumors, although they can appear insignificant and can sometimes be easily removed with surgery, sometimes lead to life-threatening disease, according to an FDA press release.

Cancer drugs are already used on dogs, under controlled circumstances, but until now they have all been medicines developed for human use.

“This cancer drug approval for dogs is an important step forward for veterinary medicine,” Bernadette Dunham, director of FDA’s center for veterinary medicine, said in a statement Wednesday.

“Prior to this approval, veterinarians had to rely on human oncology drugs, without knowledge of how safe or effective they would be for dogs,” Dunham said. “Today’s approval offers dog owners, in consultation with their veterinarian, an option for treatment of their dog’s cancer.”

Palladia is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that works by killing tumor cells and cutting off blood supply to the tumor. Common side effects include diarrhea, decrease or loss of appetite, lameness, weight loss and blood in the stool.

Jay Jay and Jessie are together again.

Jessie Pullins, separated from his dog Jay Jay during Hurricane Katrina, was reunited with the Akita mix yesterday — nearly four years later.

Pullins, busy helping 10 of his relatives evacuate, couldn’t take his dog with him when he left his house in New Orleans in 2005. Once he returned, weeks later, the dog was gone.

About a year later he saw his dog on TV, appearing, with a new owner, on an episode of the National Geographic Channel program, The Dog Whisperer.

An animal rescue group had saved Jay Jay from the home, and he was shuffled between different animal groups before being adopted in California.

After tracking Jay Jay down, Pullins entered a long legal battle, with assistance from the Katrina Animal Reunion Team, to try and get him back.

The legal wrangling ended recently when the woman who adopted Jay Jay decided to return him, WWL-TV in New Orleans, reported Tuesday. You can see a video here.

Pullins, who is one of the pet owners featured in the documentary, Mine: Taken by Katrina,  said he has no hard feelings toward the woman for resisting his attempts to get Jay Jay back.

“Everybody falls in love with Jay Jay. He’s lovable. I don’t fault them.”

A retired Annapolis lawyer whose assistance dog helped her cope with hearing loss is now training dogs to help the elderly and disabled.

Ilene Caroom, 56, recently opened Canine Solutions for Seniors, a service focused on training dogs to perform tasks to help the elderly.

“This is what I wanted to do with retirement. This is immensely gratifying,” Caroom says in a feature story in Sunday’s Annapolis Capital.

Caroom helps train dogs to do everything from picking up a dropped cane, to delivering a note, to  helping with the removal of clothing — depending on the needs of the client.

“The idea is that most people have dogs, and dogs love to do this,” she said. “The very things that (people might have) problems with can be turned to an advantage.”

Caroom has trained animals, including her own pets, for more than 20 years. She and her former “Super Hearing Dog,” Noah, who accompanied her to the law firm she worked at, were featured in the United States Border Collie Club newsletter, back 1996.

Caroom now has two border collies — Strike, a hearing assistance dog, and Moss, who is trained to do a variety of tasks.

For more information about Canine Solutions for Seniors, call 410-533-2832 or e-mail k9solutions4seniors@gmail.com.

(Photo: Annapolis Capital, by Colleen Dugan)

San Diego won’t be releasing the hounds — or recordings thereof — just yet.

 U.S. District Court Judge William Hayes this week reaffirmed his temporary restraining order preventing harassment or dispersal of the seal colony at Children’s Pool beach in La Jolla, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Under orders from another judge, in Superior Court, San Diego announced on May 22 a plant to use the amplified sounds of barking dogs to scare away the seals, and one council member has suggested using actual dogs.

The beach was designated in 1931 as a beach for human swimmers, but it’s now home to about 200 harbor seals, whose waste is causing health concerns.

City officials have said the barking strategy would cost at least $689,000 a year.

Last week, the Superior Court judge said he believed the federal restraining order had expired, so the city must move ahead with its plan. The federal judge gave no indication of when he might lift the restraining order, and is also scheduling another hearing.