http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no06/06-0115.htm
o: MauryCountyKennelClub <HYPERLINK
"mailto:MauryCountyKennelClub@yahoogroups.com"MauryCountyKennelClub@yaho
ogroups.com>
Or to anyone taking a dog to visit family in a nursing home-
Crossposted with permission ...
From: Jean McIntosh jeannie1025@... (@HYPERLINK
"http://yahoo.com"yahoo.com)
To all you cross-posting queens out there, if you cross-post
anything today,
please cross-post this to everyone you know that either has a
therapy dog, or
takes their pets to visit a family member in a nursing home. For
once it will
be something worthwhile.
I am a moderator here on Valley Dog Rescue, and I have just had a
prize
Australian Shepherd pass away in the past month. This was a dog
that was given to
me as a gift from a breeder who had the #2 ASCA bitch and #8 ASCA
male in the
US in 2000, and the #1 male ASCA Aussie in Australia. Needless to
say, this
breeder's pet quality dogs were other kennel's to die for show
quality!
This dog's death was a mystery until today. I've always prided
myself in not
only talking the talk but walking the walk as well. There wasn't a
moment of
this dog's life that wasn't closely supervised.
Tip's death was very sudden, he was healthy on the Friday before
his death, a
normal Aussie, all wiggle-butts. By Saturday he was having dry
heaves every
so often, nothing to really alarm. Sunday he was having bloody
diahhrhea.
Monday he was vomiting when I took him to the vet (there isn't an
emergency vet
here where I live). Tuesday he was dead from a pulmonary embolism
before the
vet could do any real testing on him. In Tip's case, it is
possible that the
Clostridium Difficile had perforated his bowel which would have
caused the
embolism.
The clue here is that my 90 year old mother had contracted a
disease called
Clostridium Difficile (C-Diff for short) during this same time that
Tip died
while she was in the hospital for a heart attack and a Gall Bladder
attack, and
was taking antibiotics that allowed the C-Diff to flourish.
In researching this disease, I found the following article how this
disease
was contagious to therapy dogs:
HYPERLINK
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no06/06-0115.htm
They have found that this bacteria can live on solid dry surfaces
for up to
70 days, and have even found the bacteria on doctors' stethoscopes!