MRSA..thoughts?

Re: MRSA..thoughts?

lorena hall — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 23:53:44 GMT

Thankyou everyone. It is encouraging not to read of any reports of being scared of treating/nursing MRSA infection.. shows awareness is rising and doing what it should.

I think the stigma like anything will always be there but its up to us in the know to reassure and explain to such as frightened pet owners (as I know you will all do so well ;)) Certainly in the human world MRSA is associated with dirty hospitals (thanks to our "wonderful" media)... just such a shame its true evolution isnt widely understood then antibiotic prescriptions may be used more conservely and more superbugs will not plague us humans and our animals... scary stuff of what is possible in the future I guess!

Re: MRSA..thoughts?

Katy — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:57:14 GMT

We look after a Flat Coated Retriever who had MRSA and nearly lost his tail!

He now has a teeny tail but is still alive, thank God.

He was in so much pain that he had to have a morphine implant(?) for a few weeks, and repeated surgery on his tail.

At the hospital where I work (NHS) the standard treatment for MRSA is hibiscrub and Bactroban ointment (mupiricin). Honestly!

Re: MRSA..thoughts?

Steph Worsley — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:49:54 GMT

we deal with a few MRSA cases so we are very familiar with the barrier nursing side of things, as long as you are sensible there is nothing to worry about.

My ex was a human microbiologist when the whole MRSA scandel broke and he was saying that there is no difference to a lot of other infections just that it is resistant to our standard protocol of AB cover. Plus the fact is we actually carry MRSA around on us a lot of the time!!!

So make sure there is culture and sens done on the wound to ensure correct treatment is being given, gloves/gown/wash hands before and after and ensure has no contact with any other animals/humans with wounds.

It will take a long time for MRSA infected wounds to heal but they do heal!!!

Re: MRSA..thoughts?

Kim Buckley — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:27:08 GMT

We had a dog contract MRSA after being attacked by another dog. His wounds were horrific and were failing to heal so we took a swab and it came back positive. He was in the hospital for a month and we were just very very careful and took barrier nursing very seriously. He eventually came back clear and went home all fixed.

Re: MRSA..thoughts?

Maisy — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:12:55 GMT

When I was a student we had two cases of MRSA at the same time. The practice was swabbed initially and this was going to be the starting point. Everybody took precautions when handling the patients but a lot of this was common sense, i.e don't be kissing the dog for instance! Wear PPE, clean properly after patients are handled and ideally restrict their treatments to a particular quiet clinical area. My practice didn't have great facilities at the time so we had to be extra scrupulous about this.

I think there is a stigma to the condition, whether this is justified I don't know as haven't seen many cases or indeed heard of cases where vet staff have become infected. The patients weren't hospitalised and the owners were advised on what to do and they were also swabbed by their doctors which came back clear.

Would be interested to hear others views on this subject as find it interesting