I Own A Husky-Why Pee Scares Me!!!

As mentioned in my previous blog, Kenzie and I spend a great deal of time outdoors walking in the beautiful fields and woods north of Bowmanville. This area is also home to an abundance of wildlife.

The owner of an active out-doorsy type of dog does have to consider more vaccines to protect their animal in comparison to those dogs that rarely go outside. These are called life style vaccines.

Although I know the importance of all vaccines through my work as a Technician at Bowmanville Veterinary Clinic, one disease in particular worries me... Even as a very young puppy I wanted to start Kenzie's protection against Leptospirosis ASAP. This vaccine can be given in combination with your dogs Distemper virus/Parvovirus/Adenovirus vaccine. It is administered twice in the puppy series and yearly thereafter.

Leptospirosis sp. are bacteria that are most commonly spread through the urine of wildlife or unvaccinated dogs. This is why pee or urine scares me. The transmission of this disease is as simple as a squirrel urinating near a puddle of water, Kenzie walking in it and then licking her feet when she gets home. This past winter with the amount of snow we had I was able to see very clearly how many times dogs or other wildlife urinated along the paths I walked. Recently I thought I would count urine for the heck of it and saw 150 different spots over a 3 KM path at the local conservation area. Winter is not the time of year when Lepto is usually transmitted but it reiterates how much urine is out there, and not being able to see these areas in the summer and fall when Leptospirosis is more prevalent makes protection even more important.

At Bowmanville Veterinary Clinic we see several cases of Leptospirosis each year. The dogs that come in are usually very sick. Signs and symptoms can resemble many other diseases. For us this is of importance because the other reason pee scares me is that this disease can be transmitted to humans. The medical term for this is zoonosis. There have been many cases of death in humans from Leptospirosis. The one incident that sticks in my mind was of a 16 year old kennel student in the United States who contracted and then died from Leptospirosis after spraying down a run that had housed a Leptospirosis-infected dog.

The number of cases of Leptospirosis is on the rise in Southern Ontario. At Bowmanville Veterinary Clinic we recommend protecting your dog against this potentially life threatening disease if they go outside at all.

There is a wealth of information regarding Leptospirosis but I have included a really great website for you to learn more about this serious disease: Boehringer's Canine Leptospirosis Page: http://www.leptoinfo.ca/

Diane McGill  RVT
Bowmanville Veterinary Clinic