Information about Alabama Rot - please read, you may be able to help

Re: Information about Alabama Rot - please read, you may be able to help

I've said it before,stay safe everyone x

 

Re: Information about Alabama Rot - please read, you may be able to help

Julie has described the case I heard of from Facebook. I believe the dog originally came from the Winchester area but had been in Cornwall three weeks. The vets Julie linked to are in the Winchester area and have been coordinating looking into Alabama rot.

I can't find any information about incubation periods so I'm sure it's hard to pin down where any of the dogs affected may have got it from with the exception of the clusters of cases such as one of the early ones from the New Forest.

It is still a tiny proportion of the dogs walked that are affected but heartbreaking nonetheless

 

Not sure if other members have seen reports of these as yet unconfirmed cases od Alabama Rot in Wiltshire. Information from Drove Vets.


"We just wanted to let you all know that there have been three unconfirmed cases of the canine disease Alabama Rot in the area. The dogs had recently been walke...d in West Woods in Marborough. This disease is potentially fatal and can initially present with skin leisions that progress to kidney failure.
One of our patients is now receiving very specialised treatment at the Royal Veterinary College in London and we wish them all the best.
This is a very rare disease and has only recently emerged in the UK. It has previously been mainly restricted to the New Forest area hence being also known as New Forest Disease or CRGV.
Check out the fact sheet below and any concerns, contact your vet."


Information on Alabama Rot also available at

http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http:...tMGf48_5WKuXWd6AoG6i2wIoruFNNzn794xxZaUx3&s=1

 

Yes I have just heard the same from my neighbour Rosemary, Marlborough is only about 25 miles from us. This is very worrying

Thank you for posting, I was just about to as this is vital information. xx

 

That must be quite worrying for you Helen, 25 miles isn't very far at all. At least we are aware of the potential risk so keep a close eye on our dogs but thoughts for all in the area and best wishes that all our dogs stay safe. Xxx

 

I keep telling myself approximately 100 dogs nationwide have contracted it which is just so sad for these lovely dogs and their distraught owners. I am not going to worry too much. All the same I will be keeping a close eye on Hattie & Charlie. It's such an awful condition it really is. xx

 

Alabama Rot case now in North East England. This is the first one local to me, and occurred in a 4yo working Cocker spaniel who started with licking at a small lesion in his armpit and was dead within 5 days. I used to see this dog daily, he lived about 200m from me. We are not sure exactly where he picked it up as he was walked in a number of the woods and forests around here but it is very scary. I've kept my two girls out of the woods today much to their disgust. Any members in the North East should be aware of this incident and take your dog to the vets if you see any skin lesion develop no matter how small particularly on the muzzle, limbs, armpit and groin. And if you have a case where a skin lesion develops and your dog is unwell too, this is an emergency and should not wait. We would much rather you popped in and showed us a skin lesion if you are at all worried - please don't feel you are "bothering" your vet as this is a horrible disease. Stay safe everyone.

 

Oh no, how awful that's this horrible disease is so close to you , so sorry about the spaniel , the owners must be devastated

 

That doesn't sound good.
So sorry to hear this.
Has there been any advance in finding out what is causing this @Lochan ?

 

Not really, there has been a lot of research but it only confirms it is a glomerular vasculopathy presenting as an acute kidney injury. Some of the cases have acute kidney injury and no skin lesions, some have skin lesions and although the glomerular filtration rate may reduce they do not progress to clinical signs of acute kidney injury. Most cases have skin lesions, some have oral lesions, some have a thrombocytopenia, most get signs of an acute kidney injury. No causal agent has been identified which links all the cases as far as I know - the last update I read was in The Veterinary Record a few months ago. I believe a very small number of dogs with confirmed disease have gone on renal dialysis for a few weeks, and this can keep them alive long enough for the kidney injury to resolve and renal function recover.

I find myself peering at the girls today whenever they groom themselves - paranoid owner!

 

Very worrying. As the disease seems to be specific to winter and walking in wood, all manner of 'things that grow' in that time frame, plus samples from the earth, insects that emerge, could be investigated and it may reveal a pattern?

 

Yes there has been a lot of work looking for fungi, parasites (Trombicula caused a bit of a stir for a while), odd bacteria insoil or ponds in woods, etc but nothing seems to be a consistent factor. Surveys of owners walking dogs which have been affected in a particular area and those walking without problems in the same area at the same time have not revealed any significant differences in dog or owner behaviour or exposure to different things as far as I know. The disease seems to have slurred its incidence from winter to cases reported all year round but most between November and June.

 

Maybe we are looking in the wrong direction! Could it be from bark, from the air, from the food the dog is fed with, combined with a trigger?

 

In the way that Type 1 diabetes is thought to be mostly genetic but you need an environmental "trigger" to fire it off?
Hmm.
Its a jigsaw this kind of thing, with too many blank pieces.

 

You are both so right @Stacia and @drjs@5, I think it is an epidemiologists nightmare to try and sort it out. Most of these diseases where, despite extensive research, no one cause is found do tend to end up clumped under the "multifactorial causes" group. As far as a genetic trigger is concerned there does not appear to be a breed predisposition - doesn't rule out a genetic factor of course but again just complicates the picture. I think if I had to guess I would imagine there might be some weird toxin involved, one only produced under certain environmental conditions and which affected dogs happen to come into contact with and may be predisposed to develop a problem with. How woolly is that for a guess?

 

Any views on the leg washing theory Julie?

 

I wash mine down as soon as I get them home. They go in coats when I get back to the car to stop them grooming each other before I get home. There is no evidence either for or against leg washing to prevent disease but as it certainly does no harm and might just wash the putative toxin off I do it anyway. And it gets the mud off too....I might just start taking a clean weed spray canister full of water with me to hose them down before getting in the car now. #reallyquiteparanoidtoday!

 

I like the spray canister idea !

 

Have you seen the Hozelock portable shower? Basically just a spray canister, fill it with water, pressurise it then it has a shower head attachment to use. I reckon if I fill it with hot water and chuck it in the car it'll cool down over the next couple of hours and be just about right when the walk is over. Might be just the ticket for those fox poo incidents too. Just ordered one and I'll let you know if it's any good.

 

Oooh I'll be very interested to see how you get on with the portable shower as I had been looking at them too!