By Scott Weese on Posted in Dogs,Other diseasesI’m once again prepared to call Ontario (and Canada) canine influenza-free… for now, at least. The latest cluster, associated with another importation of the virus from China, seems to have been contained. The last new positive case was identified October 30, with the likely date of exposure being October 23. We are now beyond the… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on 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
By Scott Weese on Posted in Other animals,SalmonellaLots of media reports have been saying that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have warned people not to dress up their chickens for Halloween. Yes, chickens. I wouldn’t have thought that policing chicken fashion would be high on the CDC’s to-do list, but the concern is obviously related to the perpetual outbreaks… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on 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
By Scott Weese on Posted in Dogs,MRSA/MRSPMy email and phone have been lighting up over the past few days about news reports describing a study presented at a recent scientific meeting in San Francisco. I wasn’t there and the results aren’t published, so I don’t have a lot to go on, but here are some highlights from the news article on… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Dogs,Other diseasesIt’s probably not actually a “new” bacterium but rather recognition of a species that we’ve been mixing up with something else, but regardless, a paper in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology (yes, that’s an actual journal) describes a new Staphylococcus species, Staphylococcus cornubiensis (Murray et al. 2018). Here’s what we know: The… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Dogs,Other animals,RabiesI realize headline writers are trying to attract attention, and sometimes they don’t know much about the content. As a result, some headlines are quite over the top, and that can freak people out. Here are some examples from the past couple of days: 4 year old girl catches life-threatening infection by trying on shoes… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on 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
By Scott Weese on 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
By Scott Weese on Posted in Horses,Other diseases,VaccinationBeing an equine vet in some parts of Australia (namely Queensland) is scary… to the point that people are leaving equine practice or refusing to treat certain cases. That’s because of Hendra virus, a bat-associated virus that infects horses and which can spill over into people. It hasn’t infected many people, but it is most… Continue Reading
By Maureen Anderson on Posted in Other animals,RabiesToday’s post comes from Rachel Gagnon, Rabies Science Transfer Specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF), highlighting some of the amazing work being done in Ontario in the ongoing battle against wildlife rabies. Ontario’s rabies control program is a world leader when it comes to controlling and eliminating rabies. The MNRF… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on 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
By Scott Weese on 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
By Maureen Anderson on Posted in Dogs,Other diseasesPublic Health Ontario has once again posted their updated Lyme Disease Risk Areas map for 2018. For comparison, you can still also access the 2017 map too, and you can see that once again (not surprisingly) the risk areas have expanded somewhat, including more of Eastern Ontario, as well as a few notable spots in… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Dogs,ParasitesIf you’d asked me a few years ago, I wouldn’t have said that’s a question I’d expect to get (daily). However, we’re in a different world tick-wise now, so it’s a common and understandable question, particularly because of our tick tracking efforts. The answer is no/possibly/maybe later. How’s that for a straight answer? We are… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Other animals,Reptiles,SalmonellaTaking a break from canine flu and going back to an old favorite… Salmonella and reptiles. CDC has released their final update on a multistate outbreak of Salmonella Agbeni infections associated with contact with pet turtles. Turtles are very well known as high risk animals for transmitting Salmonella. Even healthy turtles often carry Salmonella and… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Other animals,SalmonellaI’m giving my brain a short break from canine flu, so here’s an interesting report about a multistate US outbreak of salmonellosis linked to… no, not turtles… no, not baby poultry… but guinea pigs. While guinea pigs have been associated with a few different zoonotic diseases, they’re a pretty benign pet species overall. Yet, our… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on 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
By Scott Weese on Posted in MRSA/MRSP,Other animalsBacteria are smarter than we give them credit for. Or maybe we’re not a bright as we think we are. Antimicrobial stewardship is sometimes (wrongly) assumed to simply be the practice of “using fewer antimicrobials,” but it’s more complex than that, because the issue is complex. At face value, overall reduction in antimicrobial use is… Continue Reading
By Maureen Anderson on Posted in Dogs,Other diseasesAs if another reason was needed, a recent study from Australia (Martinez-Anton et al. 2018 J Vet Internal Med) found a strong association between dogs that consume raw chicken meat and a serious neurological condition known as acute polyradiculoneuritis (APN). APN is comparable to Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) in humans. The main objective of the study… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Dogs,SalmonellaWhen we have discussions about the risks of feeding raw meat to dogs and cats, a frequent refrain is “where are the published reports of people getting sick?” While we know some illnesses occur, they tend not to get investigated to the level that they are published, which is problematic when trying to demonstrate the… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Dogs,Rabies,VaccinationThe World Health Organization has issued new rabies vaccination and post-exposure prophylaxis recommendations. Here are some of the highlights: Post-exposure prophylaxis People who have not been previously vaccinated against rabies should receive immunoglobulin (antibody) promptly, followed by a series of rabies vaccines. Immunoglobulin can be given after vaccination has started, if logistics require that; however, it… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Dogs,Other diseasesI was talking to someone today about their new puppy, their puppy’s diarrhea and (take a guess) the fact that they developed diarrhea shortly thereafter. Odds are pretty good that puppy and owner both have campylobacteriosis. While this infection isn’t related to the ongoing US multistate Campylobacter outbreak linked to puppies from Petland stores, it’s… Continue Reading
By Scott Weese on Posted in Cats,Dogs,Horses,RabiesHere are updated versions of the US rabies maps from yesterday’s post, with the addition of some more data. Pennsylvania’s looking more biohazardous now but that’s because we got a lot more data for that state. If we get more data from other areas, the maps will be updated accordingly.… Continue Reading
