A Colorado family is suing PetsMart and a rat supplier after their son developed rat bite fever (RBF), following a bite from a newly acquired rat. Lawsuits seem to be increasingly common after zoonotic infections, which is probably more of a reflection of an increasing tendency for people to sue, not an increasing occurrence
December 2013
From the archives….the mysteries of the 100 acre wood
Another popular post from the archives, and a nice light topic for the holidays! (Original post date 25-Nov-2010).
Pardon my straying from the zoonotic disease realm, but here’s a little light reading…
Medical Mysteries of the 100-Acre Wood
Children around the world have been entertained by activities in the 100-acre-wood for decades. But…
All I want for Christmas is hydro…and related musings
As we were heading into our 5th day without power as a result of a nasty ice storm, the power came back on. It’s been a pain, but with the generator, fireplace and family to visit in unaffected areas, it’s more disruptive than anything.
Not everyone’s that lucky.
If you don’t have a generator or…
“An unwanted gift from man’s best friend”
I write about Capnocytophaga canimorsus regularly… disproportionately so, since it’s a rare cause of disease in people. However, though rare, when disease does happen it’s usually serious, and cases illustrate some important basic concepts that apply more broadly to other zoonotic diseases from pets.
The title of this post is from the latest edition of…
Zoonoses for physicians
I just read a recent Medscape article entitled Human-Animal Interactions: a primer for clinicians. I assumed it would be one more relatively generic article about zoonoses, focusing on agriculture. Some of those aspects were there, but it had a lot more depth than I expected and went beyond the same old superficial talking points.…
From the archives…How do you disinfect a cat?
Here’s another one of my favourites from the archive (largely because it didn’t happen to me) that was worth re-posting (original post date 11-Oct-2009).
I was talking with a colleague the other day and somehow norovirus came up. He explained how once, his wife had viral gastroenteritis and ended up vomiting on their cat. Weirdly…
From the archives…Why should I vaccinate Fluffy, he’s an indoor cat? (aka Why I’m glad I vaccinated Finnegan, my indoor cat)
Over the past few years, I’ve written a lot of posts on this blog. Hopefully the odd one’s been interesting and/or informative, and in the spirit of recycling (not laziness!) I’m going to re-post some that I thought were memorable or of particular interest.
The first one is actually the second post ever on this site…
The Twelve Days of Zoonoses
For the complete song lyrics, see below. For the grand finale by the Worms&Germs singers (otherwise known as members of the Rainbow Chorus of Waterloo-Wellington – more details below!), click on the YouTube video.
//www.youtube.com/embed/mCCF1xdpJ8w
On the first day or Christmas, my true love gave to me,
A dog with lepto in its pee.…
Human health risks from canine flu?
It’s flu season so I’ll take advantage of the time to talk about flu of a different type… canine flu.
Canine flu is different from seasonal flu in people. It’s caused by canine influenza A H3N8, and has spread around the US is a rather meandering and unpredictable manner. It’s caused major problems in dogs…