Last year around this time, were were talking a lot about a cluster of cases of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF) in dogs (and people) associated with Long Point, Ontario. Prior to 2025, we didn’t consider this tickborne disease to be established in the province, but then we detected multiple confirmed cases in dogs
This post is going to be long a long one, as treatment of Brucella canis infection in dogs is a complicated, and there are a lot of important associated issues to mention. TL;DR – I’m not a fan of the hard line “thou shalt euthanize or lock away a dog with B. canis.”
UPDATE: June 11, 2026. Nitenpyram has also been given emergency use approval (EUA) for dogs and cats over 2 pounds and 4 weeks of age.
While completely expected given the steady march of New World screwworm (NWS) through Central America and Mexico over the last several years, this horrific parasite finally crossed the US
As for a lot (or most) conditions we treat with antimicrobials in dogs and cats, data on how best to use antimicrobials before, during and after dental procedures are sparse. We know that antimicrobials are used a lot for canine and feline dental procedures (Weese et al. 2023), and that a large percentage of
I wasn’t very quick to write about this because while some incidents of contamination of raw pet food prompt recalls, such contamination is a largely expected event that occurs every day under the radar.
This was also another example of a company ignoring an FDA request to recall raw pet foods in response to
I’ve seen quite a bit of “can your dog or cat get hantavirus?” discussion in media lately, in follow up to the recent cluster of human hantavirus cases associated with a South Atlantic cruise ship. Fortunately, unlike past articles about many other emerging infectious diseases, these have mainly been pretty low key.
I got a lot of media questions about hantavirus after the recent cluster of human cases was identified associated with a cruise ship, but those questions were primarily focused on basic facts about virus itself and its general epidemiology. As things have dragged on, there are now more questions about hantavirus and companion animals
Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE) is a group of bacteria with resistance to powerful carbapenem antibiotics such as meropenem. They’re also usually resistant to various other antibiotics, which makes them a big concern because treatment options are very limited, and unfortunately the rate of CPE infections in people is increasing rapidly. To treat them, physicians typically need
I’m on the way home from ESCMID Global, a clinical microbiology and infectious disease conference. Although the conference didn’t include much veterinary-specific content, it did include a good collection of abstracts about zoonotic diseases, including a couple about diseases in veterinarians, one of which described an infection with Brucella canis.
I’ve written about
Words matter. Inconsistency and inaccuracy with terminology can result in misinterpretation, poor communication and creates challenges when discussing cases, interpreting research and developing guidelines.
This has been particularly evident when it comes to urinary tract disease in dogs and cats. For example, “urinary tract infection (UTI)” is a very generic term that has been commonly
