We’re getting ready to launch the Canadian Pet Tick Study, with funding from the OVC Pet Trust. We’ve had great response from veterinarians in Ontario, but need more clinics from other provinces, so please share this link with out-of-province veterinary colleagues who may be interested! Details are available here: https://www.petsandticks.com/news/calling-all-veterinary-clinics-join-the-canadian-pet-tick-survey… Continue Reading
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Leftover zoonotic disease Q&A, Part 2
Posted in Cats, Dogs, Rabies, VaccinationHere are some more leftover questions from the talk I did a talk recently for Third Age Learning in Guelph: As West Nile virus seems to be spreading, is there a vaccine becoming available for the general population? Probably not, but that’s just a guess. While it should be possible to make an effective human… Continue Reading
Leftover zoonotic disease Q&A, Part 1
Posted in Cats, Dogs, RabiesI did a talk recently for Third Age Learning in Guelph, and there was an abundance of questions. I didn’t get through them all at the time, so I figured I’d address some of them here: Do mice carry rabies? Mice aren’t rabies reservoirs like raccoons, skunks or bats, as they don’t have a rabies… Continue Reading
Rabies vaccine conspiracy
Posted in Cats, Dogs, Rabies, VaccinationBefore the emails start rolling in… yes, it’s from a satire site. See Dr. Sarah Boston (veterinary cancer surgeon extraordinaire)’s take on how veterinarians are misleading people into protecting people. EXPOSED – Vaccination of Pets Found to be Part of Larger Plot to Prevent Rabies in Humans… Continue Reading
Rabies knowledge of vets and physicians
Posted in Cats, Dogs, RabiesI spend a lot of time answering questions about rabies exposures, and sometimes trying to clear up misinformation. Rabies is a very important infectious disease but in many regions (like here) it’s fortunately rare in domestic animals and people. However, rarity can breed complacency or lack of (or loss of) knowledge. That creates problems when… Continue Reading
Endangered panthers and a domestic cat virus
Posted in Cats, Deworming, VaccinationThe indoor vs outdoor cat debate never seems to end. Some decry outdoor cats as the world’s most destructive “invasive species.” Some say that outdoor cats do what outdoor cats (and any other carnivores) do… they hunt to eat. Cats kill large numbers of birds every year. So do lots of other things. In an… Continue Reading
Annual US rabies report 2017
Posted in Cats, Dogs, Horses, Other animals, Rabies, VaccinationAs is typical for this time of year, the annual US rabies report has been published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (Ma et al, 2018). Here are some highlights: 4454 rabid animals were identified across the country. This is certainly a marked underestimate of the actual number since most rabid animals… Continue Reading
Feline TB warning: Possible food link
Posted in CatsA recent article from the Veterinary Information Network (VIN) News Service describes a strange cluster of feline tuberculosis (TB) cases in the UK, with a possible link to food. In cats, TB is rare and usually caused by Mycobacterium bovis, a bacterium most often associated with cattle and bovine TB. M. bovis is present in the… Continue Reading
Raw pet food and human salmonellosis
Posted in Cats, Dogs, SalmonellaWe’ve known for some time that there are human health risks from feeding pets raw meat-based diets. Most of the evidence of this has been anecdotal, as published reports have been sparse. A few better documented reports have started to appear, including the fatal E. coli O157 infection I wrote about recently. A few days… Continue Reading
Raw pet food and human illness
Posted in Cats, DogsHuman health risks from raw pet food (either from exposure to pathogens in the food or in the feces of pets eating the food) are known to exist but they’re not well characterized. We know that dogs fed raw meat-based diets clearly have increased risk of shedding various pathogens, particularly Salmonella and multidrug resistant E.… Continue Reading
PetsAndTicks.com: Our 400th tick of the year
Posted in Cats, Dogs, Horses, ParasitesHere’s a post by Dr. Katie Clow from our sister site, PetsAndTicks.com: Today, we received our 400th tick submission (actually, 401 to be exact). Does that sound like a large or a small number? Although there’s no real answer to that question, to me it seems like a pretty small number. At this time last… Continue Reading
Pets as a cause of death in natural disasters
Posted in Cats, DogsNo, it’s not pets freaking out and killing people. It’s people staying in harm’s way during natural disasters because they can’t take their pets with them. I saw some data about this from Hurricane Katrina years ago, and while I can’t remember the exact number, an astounding number of deaths were associated with people who… Continue Reading
Human rabies death, Delaware, US
Posted in Cats, Dogs, Other animals, Rabies, VaccinationHuman deaths from rabies are common in some developing countries (where tens of thousands die from canine rabies every year) but rare in developed countries. It’s an almost invariably fatal disease, but at the same time it’s almost completely preventable because of the quality of vaccines and post-exposure prophylaxis available. Getting those treatments to the… Continue Reading
Ticks know no borders
Posted in Cats, DogsWhile ticks don’t care about political boundaries, researchers often do (or practical aspects dictate that we must). That doesn’t mean we can’t work together, though. A recent post at our related site petsandticks.com talks about the differences between US and Canadian tick submissions, and how US residents can submit ticks to the Show Us Your… Continue Reading
Update: Tick map July 30, 2018
Posted in Cats, Dogs, HorsesHere are some pictures of the latest tick maps from PetsAndTicks.com. As expected, tick reports are down this time of year, but they’re likely to increase a lot in September as we see the next big wave of ticks come out looking for food.… Continue Reading
‘Tis the season for travelling (ticks, that is)
Posted in Cats, Dogs, ParasitesA post from guest blogger Dr. Katie Clow, reproduced from our sister site www.petsandticks.com. It’s summertime, and for most Canadians that means we’re taking some time off work to enjoy a little rest and relaxation. Maybe that’s a week at the cottage, or an adventure in another county. And if it’s a family trip, there’s… Continue Reading
Canine and feline antiparasitics
Posted in Cats, Dogs, ParasitesNegotiating the world of antiparasitics for dogs and cats can be daunting. With the wide range of products, similarly named products with different ingredients and differently named products with the same ingredients, it’s hard to keep up. The Ontario Animal Health Network as put together some useful tables that outline antiparasitic products available in Canada… Continue Reading
Freeze dried vs fresh vs frozen raw pet foods
Posted in Cats, Dogs, Parasites, Salmonella, ToxoplasmosisI think I’ve covered this before (probably a few times), but the question keeps coming up so it can’t hurt to talk about it again: “Is freeze-dried raw pet food any different than fresh or frozen raw diets, from a microbiological standpoint?” We don’t have much pet food-specific research, but there’s little reason to believe… Continue Reading
Tick tracker maps: June 2018
Posted in Cats, DogsHere are the latest maps from our Pet Tick Tracker. More details (and submission information) are posted at PetsAndTicks.com. Keep the reports (and ticks) coming!… Continue Reading
Tick, tick, tick…Check!
Posted in Cats, DogsBy Dr. Michelle Evason, University of Prince Edward Island We’re all worried about ticks. Ticks on dogs, ticks on cats, ticks on horses and ticks on us. The reason for this concern is twofold: no-one wants to get sick (or have a loved one get sick), and ticks are quite simply “gross.” In dogs and… Continue Reading
Tick identification: Canada
Posted in Cats, Dogs, HorsesAs part of our recently launched PetsAndTick.com information and tick-tracker website, we are offering a pilot tick identification program. We will be offering identification of ticks that are removed from animals (non-human animals, to be specific). The program will complement our tick-tracking efforts and help gather more information about expanding tick ranges and incursions of… Continue Reading
PetsAndTicks.com
Posted in Cats, Dogs, Horses, Other animalsAfter a particularly miserable spring here (to put it mildly), it’s finally warming up, and the snow’s almost gone. That’s the good news. The bad news is that ticks are also going to start coming out and looking for food – that means looking for animals (including us). I assume there will be lots of… Continue Reading
Animal-associated deaths: United States
Posted in Birds, Cats, Dogs, Other animals, ReptilesQuick question: what species do you think accounts for the most human deaths in the US? A recent paper in Wilderness & Environmental Medicine (Forrester et al, 2017. An update on fatalities due to venomous and nonvenomous animals in the United States, (2008-2015)) explored this topic, using a CDC database to study deaths that occurred… Continue Reading
Salmonella in raw pet food: Kitten death and recall
Posted in Cats, Dogs, SalmonellaI haven’t written much lately about recalls of raw pet food because of Salmonella contamination. In large part that’s because it’s essentially an expected event. There are very good reasons why we cook food – one is to kill things that can make us sick. We assume that raw meat intended for our consumption is… Continue Reading