The University of Guelph’s Animal Health Laboratory recently published a summary of selected zoonotic disease diagnoses in its monthly newsletter. It’s an interesting summary of what’s gone through the lab in the last year. It also helps to remind us of the zoonotic potential of all of these pathogens, some of which are relatively common
Rat bite fever…who’s to blame?
A couple months ago, I wrote about a family suing PetsMart over a case of rat bite fever in a child.
Now, a San Diego family is suing PetCo after their ten-year-old son died of the same infection. Rat bite fever is a bacterial infection caused by Streptobacillus moniliformis, and it is almost
Rabies in dog(s?) in Texas
A female Corgi was presented to a Parker County, Texas veterinary clinic and subsequently diagnosed with rabies. Presumably, the dog was exhibiting neurological signs, died or was euthanized, and the veterinarian made sure the dog was tested for rabies (something that could become more complicated in Canada now that the CFIA has inexplicably dumped
Sochi puppy adoptions
I’ve written before about concerns I have with international rescue programs. We’ve been seeing various "foreign" diseases in dogs that have been imported to Ontario, and some of these could pose a risk to the broader dog population. I also have a hard time justifying someone spending a few thousand dollars to import a dog
Cat bite infections (and dumb headlines)
It’s a scary sounding headline: “Cat Bites Pose Risk Of Infection As 1 In 3 Patients Bitten Hospitalized; Teeth Inject Bacteria Into Joints, Tissue” and it cites a research article from the Mayo Clinic in the Journal of Hand Surgery (Babovic et al 2014).
Cat bites are nasty. The mouth of
“Angels’ eyes”…and this is a good idea because…?
Antibiotic resistance is a big deal. Lots of people and animals die because of it every year. It costs the healthcare systems (human and veterinary) tremendous amounts of money and it’s not getting better.
It’s been clear for years that we have to do a better job of using antibiotics responsibly, in both animals and
More on classroom reptiles
Sometimes, people send me links to articles because they think I’d be interested in them. Sometimes, they do it to see what kind of response they can evoke. I’m not sure which one this was:
I was directed by a couple of people to a recent post of PLOS’s blog about snakes in classrooms.
More spillover flu cases…2 cats in Canada
A few news articles have reported infection of two cats with the H1N1 flu virus. These are the first feline cases reported in Canada, but similar cases have been reported elsewhere, so it’s reasonable to assume that there have been previous undiagnosed feline cases in Canada. Nevertheless, it’s useful information.
Unfortunately, the new reports
Equine neuro herpesvirus outbreak, New Zealand
An outbreak of equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) neurological disease (also known as equine herpes myeloencephalopathy (EHM)) is underway in a currently undisclosed location in New Zealand. It appears that at least 12 horses have been affected with 6 deaths, all on one farm.
This is being described as the first outbreak of the neurological
Raccoon roundworm reminder
An article by Dr. Ann Britton of British Columbia’s Animal Health Centre (AHC) on the blog site healthywildlife.ca is another reminder of the perils of raccoon poop. Over a 2 year period, 17 raccoons were submitted to the AHC for necropsy, and 12 (71%) of them were infected with Baylisascaris procyonis, the