worrying new dog illness

[ELLE 7]

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  Mystery Dog Illness
   
  Tom Heap is in Norfolk investigating a mysterious condition that’s making dogs seriously ill and, in the worst cases, killing them. Seasonal Canine Illness has only appeared in the last few years and appears to affect dogs that have been walked in certain areas of woodland in the autumn. The main symptoms are lethargy, sickness and diarrhea and the cases so far have all come from the East Midlands and East Anglia – including the Royal estate at Sandringham. Although the illness has only affected a few hundred of the nation’s ten million dogs, the Animal Health Trust would like the public’s help in finding the cause and to see if it is appearing in any other parts of the UK. If you think your dog may have been affected or have walked your dog in woodland in East Anglia or the East Midlands, please find out more – and help with the research - by clicking on the link below.
   
  Find out more about Seasonal Canine Illness
  Contact Countryfile
  You can contact Countryfile via our email address, countryfile@bbc.co.uk. We would like to hear your thoughts on rural issues and the programme itself, as well as any ideas for stories you might have. Countryfile does get a large number of emails every week, so we are not able to reply to all of them. However we do read them all and really appreciate the time you have taken to write them.
  If you have concerns or information about Seasonal Canine Illness, please ensure that you have read the advice from the Animal Health Trust (using the link above). Remember the symptoms of SCI can be linked to a whole host of other conditions, and so far the illness has only been found in a relatively small number of animals. However, if you are really concerned about your dog, you should contact your vet. We will pass on any emails about SCI that you send us to the Animal Health Trust to help in their research.
  Tom's Blog: Seasonal Canine Illness
   
  For this week’s investigation I’ve unleashed my inner private eye as we’re on the trail of a killer. Something which lurks in the trees and preys on the innocent. Aside from at least 14 corpses, it leaves little trace, though its victim is man’s best friend.
   
  Over the last three years in East Anglia and the East Midlands, around 150 healthy dogs have fallen seriously ill and a number have died from a mysterious disease. The immediate cause of death appears to be multiple organ failure following earlier symptoms of sickness and lethargy. The only clue left by the serial killer is a pattern of time and place – it strikes in the autumn after a walk in the woods. It now has a name ‘Seasonal Canine Illness”.
   
  We interviewed a vet nurse from a village in Norfolk who was one of the first to raise the alarm. In her experience, unexplained deaths of healthy animals are thankfully rare but particularly difficult for owners to stomach. She enlisted the help of the Animal Health Trust who have a wider research brief into canine diseases. There we met a doctor doing his best CSI. His lab may have lacked the moody purple lighting, a soundtrack from The Who and translucent pin boards but the key ingredients were still there: maps of the attacks, post-mortem results and a picture of the prime suspect.
   
  First for a scientific shakedown were toxic fungi implicated by the forest crime scene and the season, then blue green algae then invasive plants. But all had an alibi. They couldn’t be seen at the scene and also the organ trauma was not consistent with poisoning – the culprit wasn’t eaten.
   
  As news of the puzzle spread a plant and fungus expert joined the search. His forensic knowledge is frequently tapped by the police to shed light on the relationship between corpses and undergrowth. In the best tradition of tireless investigators, this expert was re-treading the route of most frequent attacks only for him to become the latest victim. His legs became swollen, scabby, and extensively bitten. Something, well, many things, had been feeding on his skin.
  He survived and tomorrow we’re going back to round up the prime suspect. See if the mystery is solved on the 21st October.
  

[poetryinmotion 6]

was reading about this recently certianly is worrying

[paulus 26]

i thought there was a link to harvest mites and certain dogs reacting to there bites and going into anaphylactic shock

[Flynn 314]

It was about the harvest Mite, they have been nibbling on horses for years, and to my knowledge none have died.

So i doubt that is the prime suspect!

[16 bore 1]

Fairly sure that my spaniel had this a couple of years ago, We went on a family holday and left the dogs with my parents (as is the usual, they have always had dogs) I rang home Wednesday evening to let them know how we were getting on and asked if the dogs were behaving and my mum said yes, but the spaniel has just been a bit sick. I didn't think much more of it as dogs throw up every now and again don't they !!!

 

Well Dad rang me on the Friday and said I think you had better come home. The dog had been very sick as well as having an explosive dose of the trots on the Wednesday night so they took her to the vets who couldn't really find anything wrong with her other than the obvious. They gave her vit K in case it was poision, antibiotics and kept her in on fluids, just treating the symptoms the best they could. The sickness et al, stopped on the Thursday but the dog was, for want of a better description, depressed, really under the weather. She refused to eat for nearly two weeks and only drunk really small amount. It got to the point where I actually had to carry her out into the garden for her to pee.

 

Having tried to feed everything and anything to her she finally took a small amount of sponge cake from me !!! it was slow progress from there onwards but I really thought we were going to lose her prior to that.