Peanut sniffing Dog

[swimcatsmom]

<p>Anyone else get People magazine? There is an article about a girl who is deadly allergic to peanuts to where even touching something that had been touched by someone who had touched peanuts could cause problems. She couldn’t even go to a regular school. Her Mom was watching a show about drug sniffing dogs and wondered if it was possible to train a dog to sniff out peanuts. Turned out it was and now the girl has a service dog and is able to go to school. The dog checks out rooms for her and can sniff out a crumb that is peanut related, and even checks books and sports things such as volleyballs for peanut traces.</p>

<p>Such a cool story.</p>

[BunsenBurner]

<p>Wow, that’s a clever idea! Kudos to the mom.</p>

<p>Animals are known for their keen snse of smell. For example, in addition to land mines, Gambian rats can sniff out TB:</p>

<p>

Animals’ noses already have been shown to have potential diagnostic powers. Some dogs seem able to identify cancerous moles and sniff out cancer from breath samples.</p>

<p>No one knows exactly what molecules the animals are picking up on, but some diseases can cause scent changes detectable even to the human nose. The Dutch word for tuberculosis refers to the tarlike odor of patients with advanced cases.</p>

<p>In verification tests, rats are about as accurate as human lab technicians who are working with microscopes. But the rodents are nearly 100 times faster. Every week, the rats spot five to 10 infections that hospital labs missed, Weetjens said.

</p>

<p>[Nation</a> & World | New weapon against land mines: rats | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003712156_rats18m.html]Nation”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003712156_rats18m.html)</p>

[VeryHappy]

<p>I saw this on the evening news. Very cool. It’s saved her life.</p>

[ellemenope]

<p>I wonder if you could take him to the restaurant and he could sniff the food…What would the other patrons think?!</p>

[swimcatsmom]

<p>Restaurants are a minefield for peanut allergy sufferers. My best friend is allergic to peanuts and has to be careful as some places use peanut oil. She carries an epipen with her everywhere.</p>

[ellemenope]

<p>I saw a feature on the TV about a man who trained his dog to sniff out bedbugs. True story. He found himself a new part time job–he’s hired his dog out to hotels and pest exterminators!</p>

[swimcatsmom]

<p>Clever - but not so cute. Shudder.</p>

<p>I think I stayed in a hotel with bedbugs once. My Mum and I went to Corfu and the hotel we were supposed to be in was double booked. So they put us in this dreadful place the 1st night - the room seemed to be over a generator or something and there would suddenly be this awful noise and the room would literally start vibrating. We were so miserable that we downed a whole bottle of creme de menthe liquere we had bough at duty free. (have never been able to drink it since). Then I woke up in the morning with these odd pink spots on just the one side of my face where my face was on the pillow. I could have done with a bed bug sniffing dog - preferably one that would also savage the tour operator.</p>

[ellemenope]

<p>Even good hotels in NYC had bedbug problems…</p>

[swimcatsmom]

<p>I am just about to got to bed , and now I will probably itch all night!!</p>

[ellemenope]

<p>^Sorry, swimcatsmom…</p>

[HImom]

<p>They are now starting clinical trials on helping folks with severe food allergies build up a tolerance for them so that they can safely be around and even consume the foods. It’s an exciting development, especially for those with nut and other anaphylactic allergies!</p>