Posted on 08/30/2015 6:36:36 AM PDT by nuconvert
University of Florida scientists warn against letting your dog swim in warm water bodies after they found several lakes with a pathogen that can make canines sick.
Animals, including dogs and horses, can contract pythiosis from swimming spores, said Erica Goss, a UF/IFAS assistant professor of plant pathology. About 10 cases of humans getting sick from this disease have also been reported in the U.S.
In addition to keeping their animals out of lakes, people should avoid ponds and other standing water that contains grass and aquatic vegetation, particularly in the hot months, Goss said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Pithyosis is one terror of a disease as there is no effective cure for it other than surgical excision. Once it colonizes the gut it has destroyed it before it is diagnosed. I have diagnosed around six cases and no matter what we did, the universities did, or experimental treatments tried, they all failed.
It is mostly found in Florida, or elsewhere?
I’m curious about that myself. I’ve always had a lurking suspicion about the possibility of disease in very warm lakes used for cooling power plants.
I don`t suppose that`s something else the flood of Yeb`s ‘act of love’ crowd brought back to the US?
That’s worse than I realized.
Thanks for your information.
I just looked this up @ wikipedia and saw a pic of it on a dog. My cat developed something similar on the back of his neck, started out about the size of a dime when I first noticed it and the next day about the size of a quarter. I cleansed it with hydrogen peroxide and then treated it with silver sulfadiazine. It stopped the spread and I treated it again for three more days. as the healing started I used neosporin to keep it from drying out and cracking, kitty is well on the way to recovery.
Wow. Good to know. I just made my dog stay out of the stock tank. He loves swimming in it, but the water is low and very warm (August in Texas).
Thanks for the reply.
I’ve known people from TX who call their farm ponds “tanks” but I can’t get accustomed to it. I always think of some sort of metal tank when I hear it.
We still do. :)
Ketoconazole doesn’t work?
Is that because by the time it is diagnosed it has done too much damage, or is it resistant?
Thanks for sharing your expertise, btw.
Additional information at this link:
http://pythiosis.com/description-of-pythiosis/
According to what I am reading, the spores can also attach to grass. We all know how prone dogs are to eat grass on occasion.
Pythiosis is also a fairly new phenomenon in the U.S. Even if you live in a cooler climate, if you let your dog drink out of streams and ponds, there are other things like giardia he can pick up. Make sure your pooch has plenty of clean, fresh water in his bowl, so he’s not as tempted to drink from unsafe sources.
Pythiosis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pythium hyphae
Pythiosis is a rare and deadly tropical disease caused by the fungus-like Pythium insidiosum. Long regarded as being caused by a fungus, the causative agent was not discovered until 1987. It occurs most commonly in horses, dogs and humans, and there have been isolated cases in other large mammals.[1] The disease is contracted after exposure to stagnant freshwater such as swamps, ponds, lakes, and rice paddies. Pythium insidiosum is different from other members of the genus in that human and horse hair, skin, and decaying animal and plant tissue are chemoattractants for its zoospores.[2] Additionally, it is the only member in the genus known to infect mammals, while other members are pathogenic to plants and are responsible for some very well known diseases in plants.
Yikes.
Hope chlorine kills it. Otherwise pools & hot tubs are looking a lot less attractive.
No kidding. What a horrible disease.
Keeping fresh water is a good practice. In theory, it should work...however...
I have yet to have a dog that would not by pass a bowl of fresh water and head for the nearest birdbath, stock tank or other nasty water for a drink.
All I can think of is it must taste better to them.
>All I can think of is it must taste better to them.<
Well, they do enjoy water from the toilet.
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