I received the following question the other day: "I have a friend who had chemo embolization on tumor on liver in late June. She is in hospital now, and an abscess was discovered on liver.  Pathology results said "equine strep".  Her brother visited immediately after procedure, and he works with horse full time."

Streptococcus is

I received this question on hospital visitation animals today…

For patients who are on contact precautions for a multidrug resistant organism, what other than hand hygiene could be suggested?  I am currently rewriting our hospital infection control policy related to pet therapy and visitation with clients with a MDRO [multidrug resistant organism]. I was

Meat QuestionFeeding raw meat diets to dogs is a very controversial issue. Some proponents passionately advocate these diets (e.g. the BARF diet) based on vague and unproven recommendations. Opponents cite various studies showing that pets fed raw meat (not surprisingly) have high carriage rates of potentially harmful bacteria such as Salmonella, and reports of

It’s not “take 2 doses of Fido and call me in the morning”, but contact with pets has been shown to be beneficial to people in hospitals and nursing homes. However, concerns have been raised about whether Fido could be spreading more than good will; from Salmonella and ringworm to superbugs like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus