Has anyone seen leptospirosis?

Re: Has anyone seen leptospirosis?

Deemus — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:46:04 GMT

She's holding her own at the moment, The lab seem to think that she's got an autoimmune problem but haven't as yet put a name to it.

She's currently on an immunosupressant dose of preds, ab's and probiotics. In herself she looks a little brighter and less jaundiced. She's lost a fair amount of weight but this has now plateaued, thankfully.

Her Owners are getting to the poiint where they're running out of money sadly so I think they're going to treat her sympotmatically rather than investigate more.

Re: Has anyone seen leptospirosis?

Saskia Quinn — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:26:25 GMT

[quote user="Deemus"]

We've got a suspected case going on at the moment. Six year old lurcher type, lapsed vaccines, jaundiced, inappetant, pyrexic, depressed/lethargic and generally looks miserable as sin. Not yet dehydrated but on her way.

Bloods taken to be sent tomorrow (no in-house machine). Fingers crossed for her

[/quote]

How did you patient do in the end, Deemus?

Incidentally, I have recently learned from dealing with an in-patient, that a blocked bile duct can also present with clinical signs of leptospirosis

Re: Has anyone seen leptospirosis?

Deemus — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:43:33 GMT

Bloods taken to be sent tomorrow (no in-house machine). Fingers crossed for her

Re: Has anyone seen leptospirosis?

Sal the 1st — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:34:55 GMT

used to see quite a bit of it living in Lincolnshire. never had good results

liver enzymes sky high, late stage kidney values as high as they can get, haemolysis. jaundice, fever, sometimes swollen abdo sometimes not - remember at least a couple of dogs brought in because they were fitting and owners hadnt noticed the jaundice (in one white JRT the skin on the abdomen was so jaundiced it was almost orange). IMO this disease has a very distinctive smell to it (faeces, urine ,vomit and breath) a bit like parvo has a distinctive smell and kidney cases sometimes smell uraemic

Re: Has anyone seen leptospirosis?

Cat Woman — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:12:32 GMT

Many many years ago, we tried to treat a 3 year old dog (gorgeous little thing), who had his pup vaccs, but no boosters. He was confirmed as having both L. canicola & L.icterohaemaorrhagia. Horrible horrible case. Can't remember in detail.He was basically haemorrhaging his insides out. He was PTS in the end. RIP little guy - for some reason you stick in my mind.

Re: Has anyone seen leptospirosis?

Mac Feather — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:26:39 GMT

Think Ive only seen one case- a j.r.t that was used as a ratter and yup you guessed it the vaccinations had lapsed long ago.

Re: Has anyone seen leptospirosis?

Saskia Quinn — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:10:03 GMT

I have only ever treated one case of confirmed leptospirosis.

He was a male labrador, middle aged - unvaccinated. Liver enzymes were off the scale, urine very yellow and severe jaundice, inappetant, no obvious pain though. Unfortunately, he was euthanased on humane grounds as it was terrible to watch him deteriorate so rapidly.

Re: Has anyone seen leptospirosis?

Maisy — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:03:06 GMT

It tends to be L.Icterohaemorrhagiae (sp?) that tends to be passed on from rats/sewer water. L. Canicola affects the renal function more I believe.

Only seen one dog with Lepto, it was an unvacc Greyhound. Again, severe abdominal discomfort, slight jaundice of mucous membranes and lethargic. The vet thought this was quite an advanced case though as the liver enzymes were significantly raised and the dog died soon afterwards.

Re: Has anyone seen leptospirosis?

Donna France — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:01:53 GMT

Just looked its leptospira icterohaemorrhagia (spread through rats and dirty water) and leptospira canicola

Re: Has anyone seen leptospirosis?

Donna France — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:54:48 GMT

Hi, We had a lab admitted when I was on nights last week, It wasnt confirmed as the owners decided on PTS but the vet was confident it was lepto.

He was admitted after the owner reported lethargy and inappetant.

On the vets clinical exam he was Severely jaundiced, dehydrated, abdominal pain especially caudally and a high temp, he was not vaccinated.

He deteriorated through the night with the abdominal discomfort getting worse and he wouldnt urinate even though on agressive fluid therapy, so presume his kidneys were failing, the vet started on frusemide but he still wouldnt urinate.

he was also on augmentin and vetergesic.

I was chatting to the vet about it and there are 2 forms of lepto but the names escape me, this was the one picked up from rats and dirty water.

A truly horrible illness that can be prevented :(

Donna xx