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It seems that most people haven\u2019t.\u00a0 Leptospirosis (a.k.a.”Lepto”) is an infectious disease that has been around throughout history, but seems to be relatively unknown to most pet owners.\u00a0 It can infect dogs as well as many other species of animals, and is zoonotic, which means it can spread from animals to humans.\u00a0 In fact, according to the CDC, each year over 1 million cases of Leptospirosis in people occur worldwide, with over 60,000 human deaths due to this disease. Recently in our practice we have been seeing cases of Leptospirosis in dogs, including “Duffy”, the Cairn Terrier, who never leaves his own back yard!\u00a0 It is a disease that is in our area and deserves better awareness from dog owners.<\/p>\n
Leptospirosis is caused by a corkscrew-shaped bacteria that likes to live in damp soil and standing water. \u00a0In our area, the most common carriers of the disease are raccoons, skunks, opossums, and rats, and these animals spread the bacteria in their urine.\u00a0 Deer, horses, pigs, and other livestock can also be carriers.\u00a0 Outbreaks tend to occur after heavy rainfall and flooding, and the disease enters its host through drinking of contaminated water, as well as through skin abrasions and contact with mucus membranes. Traditionally Leptospirosis has been associated with dogs living on farms or rural environments, but in recent years as more wildlife seem to be happily living in our yards and neighborhoods, suburban dogs are now at higher risk.<\/p>\n
When dogs become infected they tend to run a high fever and can initially have vomiting or diarrhea as well as lethargy and lack of appetite. The organism goes to the kidneys, liver and sometimes the lungs, and can cause severe damage to these organs.\u00a0 Other symptoms include excessive drinking, jaundice, coughing, or difficulty breathing depending on which organ system is affected. \u00a0Infected dogs can pass the bacteria in their urine and potentially expose their owners to the disease, so precautions should be taken when handling or cleaning up an infected dog’s urine.<\/p>\n
Leptospirosis can be tricky to diagnose as it can have variable symptoms and can look like other diseases.\u00a0 Blood tests are needed to confirm the infection and to check for internal organ involvement. If the infection is caught early many dogs do well with antibiotic treatment and supportive care, and they can recover as long as there is not severe organ damage.<\/p>\n
The good news is dogs can be vaccinated to help prevent leptospirosis, and the current vaccines cover four of the most common strains of the bacteria.\u00a0 Nearly all dogs are at risk of infection, especially those who swim in ponds or swamps and spend a lot of time outdoors. \u00a0If your dog is not vaccinated against leptospirosis, or if you are not sure, talk to your veterinarian about getting him updated, and enjoy the outdoors with one less thing to worry about!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It seems that most people haven\u2019t.\u00a0 Leptospirosis (a.k.a.”Lepto”) is an infectious disease that has been around throughout history, but seems to be relatively unknown to most pet owners.\u00a0 It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pets","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/shoreline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/shoreline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/shoreline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/shoreline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/shoreline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/shoreline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3005,"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/shoreline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2976\/revisions\/3005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/shoreline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/shoreline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/shoreline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carevet.com\/shoreline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}