I’m getting a lot of questions now about canine aspects of this recall, so I’ve addressed my take on some of the important issues below.

Can Salmonella cause disease in dogs?

Absolutely. The common myth about dogs being immune to Salmonella (mainly found on raw food sites) is just that: a myth. Dogs can and do get Salmonella infections, and it can make them sick.

Are dogs getting sick because of the recalled food?

I don’t know but I suspect they are. There’s no reason to think that the strain of Salmonella involved here would infect people but not dogs. The reason that there are reports of human but not canine cases could simply be because there is a formal surveillance and reporting system for humans but not dogs. Also, testing is not commonly performed on dogs with diarrhea, so large numbers of cases could go unidentified.

What would a sick dog look like?

The most common presentation of salmonellosis in dogs is diarrhea. Vomiting, lethargy and lack of appetite may also be present. Diarrhea can range from mild to severe and bloody. Chronic diarrhea can also develop but is less common. Other types of infections such as bloodstream infections can occur, with or without diarrhea, but these are pretty rare.

How do I know if my dog has salmonellosis?

The only was to know is to try to detect the Salmonella bacterium. This usually involves testing of stool samples. Culture is the standard and preferred approach, and is best done by a lab experienced with Salmonella testing and one where selective culture methods will be used. PCR, a type of molecular test, can also be used to detect Salmonella DNA. The quality of these tests (and the labs that offer them) is quite variable, but some of these tests are quite good. The downside is that all you find out with PCR testing is whether Salmonella is present or not. With culture, the bacterium can be tested further to see if it is the outbreak strain, and it can be tested for its susceptibility to antibiotics in the uncommon event that antibiotic treatment is needed.

My dog is healthy but has been fed recalled food. Should he/she be tested?

I don’t recommend that. I only want to do a diagnostic test if I have a clear plan regarding how to use the results, which wouldn’t be the case is a situation like this. If the dog was positive for Salmonella, I wouldn’t do anything special except remind you to avoid contact with its poop (which you should be doing anyway). We don’t treat Salmonella carriers – dogs that are healthy and shedding Salmonella will eliminate it on their own, usually within a couple weeks. A negative result also doesn’t guarantee that the dog is truly negative. Usually we want multiple negative cultures to rule out Salmonella since it can be shed intermittently and can be hard to detect.

My dog is healthy but has been fed recalled food. Should he/she be treated with antibiotics?

NO. That’s the last thing I want to do. Antibiotics are not very effective (or effective at all) at eliminating Salmonella that’s living in the intestinal tract. A healthy animal shedding Salmonella is an indication that the body is handling it. It doesn’t mean that disease won’t occur, but one critical aspect for preventing intestinal infections is the protective effect of the gut microbiota – the trillions of bacteria that are in the gut helping suppress "bad" bugs like Salmonella. My concern with prophylactic treatment is that we might make things worse by suppressing this protective bacterial population and letting Salmonella overgrow in a situation where it otherwise would not have been an issue.