Keeping your pets healthy this spring

Spring is again upon us, and it is time to begin enjoying the great outdoors with our pets. Though spring outings with our pets are some of the best of the year, there are a few things to consider that will help keep us and our pets healthy.

With a mild winter and warmer than normal spring, tick numbers are extraordinarily high. Though we don't have as many Rickettsial diseases as other parts of the country (Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever) they remain a risk.

For the pet, ticks can cause a painful local reaction where they implant and then have to be removed. In dogs, a specific condition known as tick paralysis is possible. It is a reaction to a toxin in the tick's saliva that leads to an ascending (from the back forward) paralysis of the body.

While, in most cases, once the tick is removed the patient will make a full recovery, it can require expensive supportive care and diagnostics to arrive at the diagnosis, especially if the tick is hidden and not found right away (which on our hairy little friends is certainly possible!). If you plan on doing much in the way of camping, hiking or playing in our beautiful forested areas locally, it may well be worth the $10-$20 monthly for a quality flea and tick preventative. The products available now are safe, effective, and easy to apply.

Another of the potential risks to humans are intestinal parasites, passed in the stool of dogs, that can affect humans. Particularly at risk are the small humans in our lives, as they are not as thoughtful about hygiene.

When the grass is green and the weather warm, play seems to take over. Though we are fairly lucky in this region to have minimal numbers of intestinal parasites in dogs, basic roundworms that are common in our pets can wreak havoc in our own bodies, a condition called visceral larva migrans, caused by contact with feces of dogs that have larva of the parasites in it.

Your veterinarian can help to both identify, treat, and prevent this common parasite. The other significant contribution that you can make in prevention of parasites is to pick up stool often in your yard, as the larva in the stools in most cases are not infectious to people until they hatch or larvate in the stool at approximately 24 hours.

Finally, a contagious bacterial pathogen that is passed in the urine of wildlife and rodents (deer, elk, moose, squirrels, mice, rats, etc.) called Leptospirosis can affect both dogs and humans. This bacteria causes primarily kidney failure and urinary issues in dogs, and can be passed to humans causing illness via contact with the urine of an infected dog. While the risk is honestly at a minimum, the severity of the condition warrants at least a discussion with your veterinarian about potential risk. Leptospirosis is considered an emerging disease, as though it has been present for a very long time, a trend developed several years ago to stop vaccination for the bacteria, and now the disease is being seen with more frequency.

Certainly not every dog should be vaccinated for Lepto, as only those with significant risk should be. My personal Labrador is vaccinated for lepto, as we spend many hours and miles hiking in the spring woods locally. Again, discussion with your veterinarian should help to make a decision if there is significant risk or not.