A brief report in the latest edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal describes a child with lymphadenopathy (swollen lymph nodes) due to cat scratch disease.
I was a bit surprised to see a straightforward case like this published in such a journal, but it’s a good reminder of a few issues.
Cat scratch
I get asked about this topic a lot. Early in the pandemic, I wrote a post about options for caring for pets of people with COVID-19. Some things have changed a bit now that we know more know about SARS-CoV-2 in animals and the associated zoonotic risks, and we have a vaccine for people.
We have a lot of different concerns about SARS-CoV-2 on mink farms. Mink are really susceptible to this virus, and human-to-mink transmission isn’t uncommon, so if we continue to farm mink, we will continue to expose mink to SARS-CoV-2 as long as the virus is still circulating in people.
Two of the biggest concerns relate
I’ve written before about animal vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 with regard to mink, but with Russia having recently licensed its Carnivac-Cov vaccine for use in several species (namely dogs, cats, foxes and mink) and Zoetis developing a vaccine in the US for mink, there’s continued interest in the subject, so I’ll revisit it.
I’m glad
I’ve had a blog writing dry spell lately (too much other stuff to catch up on), so I’ll jump back with a quick summary of some recent papers on SARS-CoV-2 in animals. There isn’t really anything surprising here, but it’s a continuation of what we’ve been learning and saying for a while.
I’ve taken a look back at some posts from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, to see how my thoughts have evolved, what I got right and what I screwed up. We have a lot of COVID-19 posts (starting from when we called it “novel coronavirus” or “Wuhan coronavirus” before the SARS-CoV-2 terminology existed).
I tweeted recently about the first report of the B.1.1.7 SARS-CoV-2 variant being found in animals, specifically in a dog and cat in Texas, which deserves some more discussion. Also a new pre-print article (i.e. non-peer-reviewed paper) was posted recently that will probably raise more concerns, so I figured I’d better write about that
I’m always on the lookout for good-looking, easy-access resources to help communicate (and to help others communicate) messages around safe and responsible pet ownership, which is how this blog got its start! I also don’t like re-inventing the wheel when I don’t have to, and I appreciate that many organizations have people with vastly better
In some ways, the approach to rabies vaccine is easy. In other ways, it’s complicated. To some degree, the medicine is easy, but other considerations (like regulatory requirements) cloud the picture.
The medicine:
Rabies vaccines are highly effective. A single initial dose provides at least 1 year of protection. The first dose is supposed
I’ve been dealing with questions (and some threats) about this issue for many months:
How to handle overdue vaccines because of COVID-19 delays
It’s a complex issue that’s hard to navigate because of limited data. We know how most vaccines work when used according to the label instructions. We don’t know much about what happens
