Why pet owners and veterinarians really need to kill fleas and are black cats being rejected because they don't look good in selfies?

Fleas found on one dog (Phil) in one comb once. Its so important to keep the flea control going year-round (as a pet owner I can confirm that skipping a dose makes a massive difference, ie the fleas will return).

One of the highlights of the Zoonoses meeting was learning more about Bartonella species, a stealthy bacteria responsible for some really serious infections in both humans and animals.

Professor Ed Breitschwerdt, a world-renowned Bartonella expert based at the Centre for Comparative Medicine and Translational Research at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine (try saying that without taking a breath), discussed the ins and outs of Bartonella and related disease (bartonellosis) – and it’s disturbing implications.

• It’s hard to diagnose. The presence of the pathogen doesn’t imply causality – and isolating this stealthy intracellular parasite is challenging in the first place. Coinfection is common so it can be hard to determine which strain(s) are causing the problem. And it can take months from inoculation of a growth medium until isolation.
• Absence of the pathogen doesn’t prove clearance or treatment success.
• It is associated with a spectrum of disease ranging from the not so serious to the very life threatening/deadly variety. It is also a possible cause of immunosuppression.
• It can be transmitted by loads of vectors from fleas to ticks to sand-flies and spiders, as well as bites and scratches from animals (e.g. the notorious cat scratch disease).
• It occurs in just about every species anyone looks for it in – companion animals, wildlife, farm animals and humans.

For me, as a companion animal veterinarian, the key messages were these.

1. Bartonella carriage is yet another reason we need to ensure that we control fleas as much as possible in companion animals. Fleas can spread disease, including bartonellosis.
2. As veterinarians we need to protect ourselves. We are fortunate in that many pathogens we deal with aren’t transmitted by needle-stick but Bartonella species (eg vinsonii) can be. But there are so many ways we could catch it at work – including being bitten or scratched by a patient, or indeed that patient’s parasites.

Professor Breitschwerdt wrote a fascinating and very moving paper about his own dad suffering from bartonellosis. Because of his career interest and experience in isolating these tricky bugs, doctors allowed Professor Breitschwerdt to try to isolate the organism when they could not. He managed to isolated several Bartonella species, including an as yet undescribed sequence. Unfortunately Mr Breitschwerdt senior succumbed. But this paper provides a very accessible introduction to Bartonella spp and gives a sense of just how complex it can be. If you want to read more check the reference below. One thing that is concerning is that the more scientists look for pathogens in fleas and ticks, the more they found. So rich an area is this for mining that at least three prominent scholars called for fleas and ticks during their presentations at the zoonoses meeting. When infectious diseases physicians start requesting parasites, you know you want to avoid those parasites!

Are black kittens being discriminated in photos because they don't look good in selfies? What is wrong with the world!!!

Meanwhile from the jungle that is the internet came this shocking article claiming that one reason for black cats not being rehomed is their lack of photogenicity in selfies. One the one hand this sounds trivial and kind of funny. But it would be disappointing and horrifying if this really is true, and it is one of those arguments that is disturbingly plausible enough. The crux of the story is that human whims can mean life of death with animals – which very sadly is the case. We need some sort of whim control – reflection on our own decision making and judgement – to overcome these kinds of situations.

Not that hard to photograph!

Of course if you have a black cat there are plenty of ways to take a nice photo, including overexposing just a little (is it time for an animal-friendly camera company to include an app/setting on cameras for all black pets?).

Check out our previous posts on the war on fleas - http://www.smallanimaltalk.com/2014/04/three-things-i-learned-rethinking-flea.html and http://www.smallanimaltalk.com/2014/01/fleas-are-more-than-nuisance.html

Reference

Breitschwerdt EB, Maggi RG, Belen Cadenas M and de Pavia Diniz PPV (2009) A groundhog, a novel Bartonella sequence, and my father’s death. Emerging Infectious Diseases 15(12):2080-2086.

Great news for cats: Bob Martin permethrin-containing flea products to be removed from UK supermarket shelves

A victory for cats: Bob Martin gets behind call for reclassification of permethrin-containing products, which are potentially toxic to cats.

We’re taking a brief break from this week’s zoonoses and infectious disease them to share the big news that petcare brand Bob Martin has announced it will remove permethrin-containing flea products from supermarket shelves.

The reason for doing so – and this decision wasn’t made without the benefit of some long-term, large-scale lobbying – is to reduce misuse (i.e. application of the dog flea product to cats which can result in death of cats).

Permethrin toxicity remains one of the most COMMON feline toxicities worldwide.

This change has taken many, many years to come about – thanks to campaigns from around the world including the latest by International Cat Care to get products in the UK reclassified so that pet owners have to receive verbal advice at the point of sale about use ofthe products.

According to this report, Georgina Martin said:

"We have decided to reclassify our permethrin-containing on-animal flea treatments to pharmacy-only and call for a change in licensing by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate so that they may only be purchased if advice is given about their correct use," she said. "This is the next step in our journey as a responsible business, having already voluntarily withdrawn permethrin dog spot-ons a few years ago, which we replaced with fipronil – the same active as used in leading spot-on treatments from the vet."

As many SAT readers will know, we've been lobbying downunder for change as well, meeting with supermarkets, manufacturers of products, and regulating bodies. But there is much resistance to change - even when it may save lives. You can find out more in our previous post here. And if you're in any doubt that permethrin is responsible for feline morbidity and mortality, you might want to read this paper. Restricted access, really, is a no-brainer - particularly when they are plenty of alternatives available, not just fipronil.

Malik R, Ward MP, Seavers A, Fawcett A, Bell E, Govendir M and Page S (2010) Permethrin spot-on intoxication of cats – literature review and survey of veterinary practitioners in Australia. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery 12(1):5-14.

If you’re interested in animal welfare you might want to enrol in Pauleen Bennett’s course through the Centre for Veterinary Education. It’s all online, so you can do it from anywhere in the world. Click here for more information.

And if you’d like to read more about Pauleen Bennett, check out this post on anthrozoology here.

Thank you, keen readers, for the ongoing stream of small animal links. Rachel, again, gets a nod for this footage of an armadillo playing with a toy pig. This is the kind of video that justifies the entire existence of the internet (aside from SAT of course!!!).

And then Deb chipped in with this tear-jerker compilation of good news compiled by Animals Australia.

If you need even more distracting, you can always follow this link on dogs sitting in unusual places. 

Brucellosis in dogs and people

Hunting dogs on the back of a ute.

Today’s blog continues SAT’s focus on zoonotic diseases (i.e. pathogens that humans and animals can share), and the topic is brucellosis. I was fortunate enough to graduate after Brucellus bovis was successfully eradicated from Australia (officially in July 1989), thanks to a massive,multi-decade vaccination program.

Lots of the older vets, however, did contract brucellosis and it was a nasty, relapsing disease that caused all kinds of awful signs. But Dr Jenny Robson, Microbiologist and Infectious Diseases Physician with Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology in Queensland, told the conference that we haven’t seen the last of brucellosis yet.

There have been recent cases of Brucellus suis in humans and dogs, with exposure to feral pigs the common link. That is, usually the dogs and humans go pig hunting, and are exposed that way. Domestic (i.e. pet and farmed) pigs in Australia have so far been spared, with one exception being a free range piggery in Queensland where a spillover infection occurred.

A wild pig and pet dog inspect the trash together.

Dr Robson quoted sources estimating the number of feral pigs in Australia to sit at around 23 million, which works out at almost one for every person in Australia. Walk down the street in Sydney on a busy day and that’s a lot.

Humans are most likely infected when B suis enters cuts and abrasions in the skin, or during the process of butchering. Dogs may be infected the same way or through inhalation of aerosolised pathogen or eating meat from infected pigs.

So what has this got to do with you if you aren’t a pig hunter? Well, potentially a bit. Let’s say you adopt a dog from a shelter who happens, in a former life, to have been taken pig hunting. That dog may have relapsing signs. Dr Robson spoke about a dog who developed orchitis (I used to think this had something to do with orchards but it’s actually – I am told by sources who know these things – excruciatingly painful inflammation of the testicles [our physiology lecturer, who had happened to have a bout of orchitis, claimed it was "worse than childbirth"]) due to brucellosis, long after humans had stopped taking the dog hunting.

B suis can also cause infection in other parts of the body including bones (osteomyelitis), fever, pain, abscesses on organs, endocarditis, meningitis etc. etc. Certainly not a benign disease you just get over by having a couple of days off and keeping up the fluids.

There is a question about whether sufferers can ever be truly cured, as relapses are not uncommon even with “successful” treatment. There is a risk that infected dogs can infect other dogs, pigs and people.

It would certainly be useful, as Dr Robson pointed out, to know more about the distribution of this pathogen around Australia and to have a better treatment for affected dogs (and people of course!).

One thing that is KNOWN to contribute to spread of the pathogen is illegal relocation of pigs by those who hunt them. There are a million reasons why this practice should be stopped, and the spread of a nasty disease like brucellosis is one of them.

Thank you, keen readers, for the ongoing stream of small animal likes. Rachel, again, gets a nod for this footage of an Armadillo playing with a toy pig. This is the kind of video that justifies the entire existence of the internet (aside from SAT of course!!!)

And then Deb chipped in with this tear-jerker compilation of good news compiled by Animals Australia.

Meanwhile if you want to read a bit more about the occupational exposure of vets to zoonoses, check our previous post here - which includes some links to very helpful guidelines about preventing infection with a range of hideous pathogens. 

Why pet food and water bowls should be washed regularly

Tawny frogmouths. They're cute, but they're increasingly seen with rat lungworm -
a parasite that can infect companion animals and people too. (NB people don't catch it
FROM tawnys...read on).

SAT had a brief hiatus yesterday as we were recovering from a three-day continuing education adventure (two days with medicos at the Zoonoses conference backed up with a day of oncology with Dr Sandra Nguyen at the Animal Referral Hospital). It was one of those weekends where one might be moved to utter the phrases “this is awesome” and “my brain hurts” in the same conversation (probably with oneself after three days of lectures).

Over the next weeks I will be sharing some things I learned, in no particular order, as one thing emphasised in the Zoonoses conference is the need to share information.

(And for anyone who might not know, “zoonoses” are diseases that can be shared between humans and animals. Rabies would be a good example, but so would Q-fever). By the way, the sharing can go in both directions.

Dr Derek Spielman, a lecturer in pathology at the University of Sydney and also a wildlife vet, talked about angiostrongylosis, a condition caused by the nematode parasite Angiostrongylus cantonensis (known as the rat lungworm).

This causes very nasty, horrible disease in humans, wildlife and companion animals. You may remember some years ago a young gentleman was hospitalised with a bizarre parasite after being dared to eat a slug (well, it wasn’t the daring that caused his predicament – it was acting on the dare)(read the story here).

(To me the most interesting thing about this case is that it wasn’t the FIRST TIME someone had contracted the disease from a dare – which makes me think that the Department of Health should be looking into the epidemiology of dares as I imagine they’re also a risk factor for other conditions like trauma as well – but I digress).

The definitive host for the rat lungworm is, as you might guess, the lung of the rat.

They sit in the rat lungs, lay their eggs in the blood, and then these eggs (L1) pop off into the airways, up the trachea (windpipe) and get swallowed where they are digested and escape into faeces. The ova in faeces are very active and as soon as a snail or slug comes along they are able by various mechanisms I won’t discuss here to penetrate the foot of the snail. Within the snail they moult a couple of times, first into L2 and then into L3 stages, and then these are meant to be ingested again by rats.

Once ingested the L3 larvae penetrate the intestinal wall of the host, spreading via the blood and lymphatic system to the brain and spinal cord where they mature into L4 and L5s before heading back into the venous system and into the pulmonary vessels. But in people and other accidental hosts, the combined effects of movement (basically the larvae munch along their path) and inflammation leads to neurological signs, characterised by marked pain and meningitis in humans and animals if they’re unfortunate enough to become “aberrant hosts”.

In Australia, most non-dare related infections are associated with either babies or toddlers that pick up slugs and snails and eat them, or eating unwashed salad vegetables (be particularly careful with back garden and organically grown fruit and vegies where molluscicides aren’t used). 

Sanchez enjoys a salad. Never mind the pirate hat.

[A note for the cavy enthusiasts: guinea pigs aren't particularly susceptible to clinical disease, but as hell-bent salad eaters this might be something they've had to evolve? (As an aside within an aside, I learned that the oncology drug l'asparaginase was first isolated from guinea pig serum, and later from E. coli carried by guinea pigs). I prefer to wash their vegies regardless.]

There is also a potential to ingest the parasite in poorly cooked prawns from South-east Asia (another reason we should be doing all we can to promote biosecurity not only here but overseas – the incursion of an exotic slug in one country can have health implications internationally).

But Dr Spielman also added that pet owners should be very careful when feeding pets outside, as slugs and snails are attracted to pet food.

Dog and cat food bowls should NEVER be left out where they can be exposed to snails or slugs – dogs and cats will often ingest slugs with the food, but as veterinarian and rat lungworm expert Ken Mason added, they will often also just eat slugs and snails that happen to be in the vicinity. Rather like you and I might eat an olive if we see one.

Possums are attracted to pet food left outside. If that pet food is attracting slugs or snails, there is potential for transmission of rat lungworm.

Dog and cat food is also a temptation for local wildlife so should not be left out overnight, as possums and birds are also susceptible. In fact, there is an increasing number of cases in wildlife which may indicate greater spread of the disease. Wildlife infections are a concern in their own right, but Dr Spielman also argues that wildlife are important sentinels of zoonotic disease (you can read more here).

It has not been proven but there is speculation that some infective larvae might be present in slug and snail trails. Pet food and water bowls should be cleaned daily to minimise the risk.

In other news…

Mick sent us this link on organising care for your pets in the event of your death. It might seem like a bit of a downer to talk about but I’d much rather be prepared than not – just in case. (It would be nice to have $12 million to leave them, like Trouble’s owner – but that certainly upset a few human relatives left behind).

Rachel sent in this link about a chihuahua, born without forelimbs, who is getting around using a set of custom-made wheels. Most dog wheelchairs are made for larger dogs, so the vets have had to use toys to improvise. Surely there’s an engineering student out there willing to have a crack at it?