|
|
Leptospirosis can be a serious infection for your dog. It can also pose a threat to you and your family.
Leptospirosis is a contagious disease which can infect many species, including dogs and people. Recognizing whether your dog is at risk for exposure to this disease can help you make the right decisions to protect both your dog and your family.
Leptospirosis is caused by a bacteria known as Leptospira interrogans. The bacteria is sometimes referred to as a spirochete because of its spiral shape. There are many different serovars, or strains, of Leptospira interrogans which can infect animals. In dogs, the most common are L. canicola, L. icterohaemorrhagiae, L. gryppotyphosa and L. pomona.
How Can a Dog Become Infected with Leptospirosis?
The leptospire organism is most often spread to a dog when a skin wound comes in contact with infected urine or water contaminated with infected urine. Rodents are frequent carriers of leptospirosis and their urine can easily cause exposure for your dog. Dogs living in areas where rats and other rodents are present may be at increased risk for exposure to leptospirosis.
In addition, contact with infected reproductive organs or secretions can pass leptospirosis to your dog. Eating infected tissues is another source of infection. Besides dogs, people and rodents, other species which can be infected with leptospirosis include cattle, swine, horses, raccoons, skunks, opposums and others.
What Are the Symptoms of Canine Leptospirosis?
Symptoms for dogs infected with leptospirosis include:
- fever
- depression
- lack of appetite
- joint pain
- nausea
- vomiting
- diarrhea
- excessive drinking
- excessive urination
- icterus (yellow coloration in skin and mucous membranes indicative of liver disease)
- excess bleeding
Leptospirosis can cause kidney failure and/or liver failure in the infected dog and most of the symptoms seen are related to failure of these organs. Affected dogs may suffer failure of either the kidneys or the liver, or of both organs simulataneously, depending on the individual dog and the strain of the infection.
Treatment of Leptospirosis in Dogs
Leptospirosis is a serious disease that can be fatal, especially if left untreated. Initial treatment usually relies on an antibiotic within the penicillin family. Examples include penicillin, amoxicillin and ampicillin. These antibiotics stop the leptospire organism from reproducing.
After administration of penicillin, treatment with an antibiotic in the tetracycline class is often used as a follow-up to kill the leptospires and clear the infection from the kidneys. Commonly used antibiotics include tetracycline and doxycycline.
In addition, supportive treatment may be necessary. This treatment may include fluid therapy, blood transfusions, medication to control vomiting and nausea, and potentially even hemodialysis (filtering the blood to remove toxins and contaminants.)
Preventing Leptospirosis in Dogs
Keeping dogs away from potential sources of infection is an effective means of prevention but may not always be practical. Controlling rodent populations and removing standing bodies of water, where possible, can help prevent spread of the disease.
Vaccination against leptospirosis is also available. However, there are several considerations that need to be taken into account when considering whether vaccination is advisable. Vaccines can only protect against the four most common serovars (strains) of leptospirosis. Some vaccines only provide protection against two of them. No vaccine can provide protection against all potential infecting serovars. For this reason, efficacy of vaccination may not be 100%. In addition, the leptospirosis vaccine can cause adverse vaccine reactions for some dogs.
Nevertheless, in some areas where leptospirosis is common and risk of exposure is high, vaccination may be recommended for your dog. Discuss the pros and cons of vaccination with your veterinarian.
Leptospirosis and People
Another major consideration with leptospirosis is the fact that leptospirosis is contagious to people as well. In other words, you and your other family members can get leptospirosis from your dog if he becomes infected.
For more information about protecting yourself and your family from leptospirosis, see the Center for Disease Control’s website.
Photo Courtesy of Aim low, play bass/Flickr.com
About Lorie Huston, DVM
Lorie Huston is a veterinarian, pet health and pet care expert, professional writer, blogger, social media and blogging consultant, and SEO strategist.
If you enjoyed this article, we encourage you to grab our RSS feed or subscribe by email to receive notifications when new content is added.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Fortunately we vaccinate our guys for this. I’m particularly glad because we came home to mouse visitors
Ooh, yeah. That makes the vaccine pretty important. I had mouse visitors in my house not too long ago too, even with six cats…LOL. They’re sneaky little critters
Thu Dehoyos says
Interesting blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere? A design like yours with a few simple adjustements would really make my blog jump out. Please let me know where you got your design. Cheers
for how many days doxycycline prophylaxis has to be given to an exposed dog?
Usually around 2 weeks, Tijil. But it can vary depending on the circumstances, so check with your veterinarian to be sure.