GTA dog owners on alert for raccoons, skunks carrying dangerous diseases

Big-city Canadians are learning to co-exist with urban wildlife such as raccoons and skunks, but dog owners have reason to be concerned.

Both animals carry diseases that can seriously harm or even kill dogs, and they don’t need direct contact to get them.

The Toronto Sun this week reported a woman in Orangeville, Ont., spent $20,000 in a vain attempt to save Roly Poly, her little Chinese Crested Puffball, after it contracted leptospirosis.

The corkscrew-shaped bacterial infection, carried in the urine of skunks and raccoons, penetrates the skin and once in the bloodstream spreads to major organs and the nervous system.

“It is quite temperature dependent, so the spikes tend to be in the spring and fall,” Dr. Ian Sandler of the Rosedale Animal Hospital in Toronto told Yahoo Canada. “The heavy-duty heat in the summer tends to kill it and the cold also affects the growth of the spirochetes.”

While many dogs can fight off the infection, others like Roly Poly, can sustain fatal damage. The dog’s owner, Dolly Bosnar, told the Sun she took Roly Poly to the veterinarian after he became lethargic and started vomiting. Eventually his kidneys began failing and he was put on dialysis but died Oct. 19.

Bosnar said other Toronto vets she spoke with said they’ve seen dogs come in with leptospirosis despite spending little time in green spaces.

Humans and other pets are also vulnerable to leptospirosis if they come in contact with infected urine, including pets that have had the disease but recovered because bacteria can remain and reproduce in the kidneys, according to petmd.com. Most contract it from contaminated water or dirt or direct contact with infected urine. Dogs that stay in kennels are at increased risk.

Sandler said cities with large green spaces, where raccoons and skunks can thrive in large numbers (such as Toronto’s two river valleys), increase the chances dogs will encounter the bacteria on their jaunts outside.

Sandler said he sees only one or two cases a year but suspects 24-hour animal emergency clinics see more.

Antibiotics are used to combat the infection but in acute cases dogs should be hospitalized and given fluids to fight dehydration.

A vaccine is available for leptospirosis but apparently not everywhere, so pet owners should check with their vets.

Toronto is also experiencing an autumn spike in cases of canine distemper virus (CDV) among the city’s raccoon population, according to a CBC News report.

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City officials say that while the disease is not transmissible to humans, dogs that have not been vaccinated against CDV are at risk. They warned residents to report raccoons they see looking disoriented or lethargic or behaving aggressively.

Canine distemper highly contagious, incurable

According to Cornell University’s Baker Institute for Animal Health, CDV is highly contagious and largely incurable. Puppies and unvaccinated dogs are highly susceptible to the virus, which can be contracted from the environment by breathing in particles.

Symptoms take 10 to 14 days to show up as the disease spreads, attacking the dogs respiratory, digestive and central nervous systems. It’s reportedly fatal in half of all cases involving adult dogs and 80 per cent among puppies.

There’s no active treatment to cure the disease, only supportive measures to counter things like vomiting, diarrhea and dehydration. Dogs that survive could still suffer long-term effects to their health, the Baker Institute says.

The vaccine for canine distemper is one of the core vaccines recommended by the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, along with shots for such threats as rabies and parvovirus.

Leptospirosis bacterium shows up in several variations. Vaccines are not available for every variation but they do protect against the most commonly diagnosed variants, the association says. Because the disease is not found everywhere in Canada, it recommends vaccinating only dogs at risk of exposure.

“There’s a four-way vaccine, which is quite safe and effective if you get that [strain],” Sandler said.

Sandler also warns about another potential threat to dog’s health sourced from the wild – Lyme Disease. Warm average temperatures and a healthy population of deer, which harbour the disease-carrying ticks – have allowed it to flourish, he said.

While awareness is rising about the serious long-term effects of Lyme disease on people if left untreated, many aren’t aware that dogs can get it, too.

“Within a week to three to four weeks they will experience fever, pain in the joints, lameness, poor appetite, non-specific signs of just lethargy and fever,” he said.

The disease is spreading in British Columbia and endemic in the Kingston, Ont., area, and Toronto vets are seeing it in their clinics as well. Vaccination is available.

Sandler advised dog owners to keep up with their pets’ regular inoculation regimen.

“As with human medicine, you’re seeing a lot of anti-vaccine promoters on the Internet,” he said. “There’s a number of very vocal veterinarians that are anti-vaccine.”

The consequences of widespread non-vaccination are the same as for people.

“The minute you stop vaccinating a number of dogs, you are going to have outbreaks,” said Sandler. “These diseases are endemic, meaning they’re in the area.”