When it comes to disease surveillance and communication, we have a tendency to throw lots of stuff at the wall to see what sticks. Some things stick around (like this blog!), others things not so much… like our first attempt at WormsAndGermsMap about ten years ago. It was a good idea, but the technology
Raw Pet Food & Pathogens: UK Surveillance
I haven’t written about raw diets lately (beyond risks from H5N1 influenza, particularly in cats), but that doesn’t mean the risks from these diets have gone away, and they are still really popular in some areas, and some messages are worth repeating.
Potential problems with raw diets for dogs and cats include infections (e.g. Salmonella
Antiviral Resistance in Cats: Let’s Not Screw Up Our Game-Changing Drugs
Maureen’s going to give me grief over the length of this post, but the use of antivirals in cats is important topic with a lot of issues to consider, so let’s dig into it once again.
Access to effective antivirals to treat feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), particularly GS-441524 (a relative of the anti-COVID-19 drug
Review: Cranberry Supplements For Urinary Tract Infections in Dogs and Cats
As part of our upcoming revision of the 2019 ISCAID guidelines for diagnosis and management of bacterial urinary tract infections (UTIs) in dogs and cats, we recently did a systematic review to determine if cranberry supplements reduce or help treat urinary tract infections (UTIs) in dogs and cats. Our conclusion was… we have
IMRAB 3 TF Canine/Feline/Ferret Rabies Vaccine Recall
Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) has issued a voluntary recall of one lot (serial #18665) of its IMRAB 3 TF rabies vaccine that was distributed in the US, because some vials in the lot were found to contain sterile water instead of vaccination. That’s a big oops, but it’s also good to see that it was
H5N1 Influenza Updates: Dead Cat, Dutch Cows
Here are a couple of quick H5N1 flu updates about which I’ve been wanting to write. Neither is very surprising, but they highlight (again) some issues of concern.
(Presumed) fatal H5N1 influenza infection in a cat
An outdoor cat in Washington State tested positive for H5N1 influenza. Spillover of H5N1 infection into cats isn’t new.
H5N1 Influenza Antibodies in a Cow, The Netherlands
A few months ago, there was a cluster of kittens from a dairy goat farm in the Netherlands that likely all died from H5N1 influenza (only one kitten was tested). That wasn’t too surprising since the H5N1 virus is circulating in wild birds internationally, and we know that cats are highly susceptible to the
Treatment Duration For Pneumonia in Dogs and Cats: Systematic Review
Whether it’s dealing with an individual patient or developing international antimicrobial use guidelines, one of the bigger challenges we face in regard to antimicrobial treatments for dogs and cats is determining how long different infections need to be treated.
Unfortunately the treatment durations most commonly used are not evidence-based. We have very little data to
Rabies Treatment: Demise of the Milwaukee Protocol
We call rabies “almost invariably fatal” in people. Rabies kills an estimated 50,000 people a year globally, mostly in Africa and Asia. Even with very intensive care, the prognosis is grave. Only a very small number of people have survived rabies: there are approximately 34 documented cases of survival, but an even smaller number
Surgical Antimicrobial Prophylaxis Guidelines In Dogs and Cats
Antimicrobials are often used at the time of surgery, but it’s widely accepted that there is tremendous overuse of antimicrobials in this context in both human and veterinary medicine. Antimicrobial prophylaxis is indicated in some surgical patients to reduce the risk of surgical site infection, but in a large percentage of cases use of antimicrobials