diabetes.

glennsajan, Flickr Cataracts are a common affliction for household pets. This disease, which clouds the eye's lens, can lead to blindness if untreated. As part of a Paw Nation series providing background about the medical problems your pet may suffer, we spoke to Dr. Gregg Griffenhagen, DVM at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine in Baton Rouge, La., to get some insights about the condition. You should always consult your veterinarian before giving medicine or supplements to your pet. What are the signs that my pet has cataracts? The signs would be as you'd expect. They include bumping into objects -- especially at night or in low light situations -- difficulty following thrown or dropped ...

Rounding up our favorite animal stories, photos, and videos on the Web each week! Camel vs. Crocodile The battle for ultimate domination of the animal kingdom has begun in Australia. Who will win? Crocodiles or feral camels? [via Timesonline.co.uk] Do I Have To Wear Them? The New York Times tests and rates boots for dogs to help you better humiliate them. [via New York Times] We Wuv Our Cwitters Who took a Reuter's poll determining pet owners prefer V-day with their pets? You did! [via New York Post] Diabetes Defying Doggy When an elderly man went into hypoglycemic shock, his dog saved his life. His cat watched, yawned, then fell asleep. ...

Rounding up our favorite animal stories, photos, and videos on the Web each week! Howling Improves Stefani When Gwen Stefani's music comes on, many of us would prefer listening to a howling dog. Now we can have both! [via Urlesque] Seal Mothers Photographer Hey, honey. You look sad. Eat this penguin. No? How about this one? Okay, what about this one? What? Really? Who doesn't eat penguins? [via BuzzFeed] Saucy Sea Cow Recently on the brink of death, this brave manatee is now on the brink of gettin' it on. [via New York Magazine] America Needs This A British man is banned from keeping pets for ten years after he feeds his dog eleven stones. Or something ...

Flickr/Mrs. Logic When Seattle-area resident Kim Pouncy's dog, Mack, kept waking her up in the middle of the night, she thought the 3-year-old Labrador was having behavioral problems. But when the midnight nudges became simultaneous with Pouncy herself feeling dizzy and weak, she realized there was more to it. Mack was alerting her owner to a drop in blood sugar. "I'm a Type II Diabetic," Pouncy told Paw Nation, "and I'm dependent on insulin. It's hard to say how long it took for me to catch on that Mack was alerting me. I didn't realize when she was doing it during the day, but when she did it at night three or four times, I finally got it because she would wake me out of a sound ...

DeeDee and Tino sleep off their workout Photo: Laura Gilbert Wherein I try to get my pets to a healthy cat weight. After finally accepting the fact that Tino and DeeDee must lose weight, I made an appointment with the obeasts' vet for advice on a game plan. It had been a little over a year since the two had officially been weighed and I knew both had added on some chub. It wasn't until they got on the scale that it became obvious just how much had been added to their heft. DeeDee weighed in at over 19 pounds -- a pound or two up from last year. Tino, meanwhile, was over 18 pounds -- less than DeeDee, but considering he was 14 pounds just last year, that meant he'd put on about ...