[PyrNet-L] HEALTH:Cross-species transmission

[PyrLove214 <PyrLove214@aol.com>]

In a message dated 98-04-28 17:06:07 EDT, you write:

<< 
 Hi,
     I copied the following article for you all to read and possibly save
 yourselves the heartache Kay has had.  I left her e-mail address incase you
 wish to contact her personally.  I got her permission to send this to the
 other lists I was on.
 Pam
 http://www.flockguard.org/rescue_pyr_texas.htm
 In a message dated 98-04-26 21:33:45 EDT, you write:
 
 << Subj:         Cross-species transmission
  Date:  98-04-26 21:33:45 EDT
  From:  windoes@onramp.net (Emily K. Giesecke)
  Sender:        owner-goats@listproc.wsu.edu
  To:    goats@listproc.wsu.edu (goats list), meatgoats@mylist.net (meat
goats)
 
  Hi to all,
  It's been a tough 7 weeks here. I hope I can prevent any of
  this happening to ya'll. I apologize to those of you who
  will get more than one copy, but this is important.
  We brought a new puppy in the first weekend in Mar. On her
  first vet visit 10 days later, my vet noticed a slight case
  of bronchitis. (The puppy had been eating well and I had not
  ever heard her cough, so this was a very mild case.) She
  vaccinated her for Bordatella (the only bacterial cause of
  kennel cough) and put her on 21 days of Tribrissen.
  This is one of the most common treatments.
 
  The next day a 5-week-old kid was sick with a temp of 107. I
  started my vet's recommended treatment for pneumonia:
  antibiotics, Banamine, b-complex and probiotics. He
  continued to nurse, but refused feed for almost 3 weeks.
  Several days later, I noticed that he was walking very
  stiffly. I attributed it to all the injections, but it got
  worse. He's recovering, even though he ate no grain for 3
  weeks.
  Then I had 2 doelings come down ill. One on a bottle, one
  nursing. Both recovered in 3 days with no joint pain.
 
  The fourth one I took to my vet, with a temp of 108. She did
  not find any unusal amount of bacteria in the stool. She
  said she believed it was a virus, being followed by a
  bacterial infection, causing bacteremia. She asked if I had
  brought in any new animals. Only the puppy.
 
  Over the course of a few days, the joint pain got so bad
  that, except for nursing, he rarely moved. He's recovering,
  but will be stunted.
  The next 2 (twin bucks - 2-/2 weeks old) were the very
  sickest, with the joints actually being hot to the touch.
  There was no response to 10 days of treatment. One was put
  down and sent to TAMU and the other was just put down. Dam
  went in the freezer. At the same time we sent in a blood
  sample from an ill, but untreated kid. It had been 12 days
  since the last 2. He was different, in that he had the
  pneumonia and the joint pain from the beginning. He seemed
  to respond to the Naxcel, but once the joints really got
  inflamed, there was no further improvement. He got
  infections in both hips and both shoulders, but he continued
  to nurse and to eat and is recovering, but will be stunted.
  Dexamethasone and bute seem to have little effect on the
  pain.
 
  I got the test results back last week. Respiratory Syncytial
  Virus.
  Minor amounts of strep. Bordatella. I'll ignore the strep,
  since it is just an opportunist, moving in whenever it gets
  a chance.
 
  Bordatella was found in both the blood sample and the joint
  fluid.
 
  This is the scenario described to me. The puppy brought the
  Bordatella in with her. (It's posssible that she also
  carried the virus in on her skin. RSV atacks only the very
  young, old and immune-suppressed. Illness occurs in about
  30%. The majority of the kids were 5-6 weeks, just losing
  their maternal antibodies.) The kids got the pneumonia with
  damage to the mucous membranes allowing the entry of the
  Bordatella bacteria. Since, it is not a true goat illness,
  it did not find their respiratory tracts very inviting. It
  moved on the the joints, causing gross inflamation in some
  of them.
 
  TAMU told my vet that they do see cross-species
  transmission, but rarely, and had never seen this one. My
  vet had never seen one.
 
  This has been a very expensive lesson for me. The subject of
  quarantining came up just recently, but now I know that any
  new animal (no matter what species) has got to be
  quarantined. My hope is that by telling this story, it can
  save someone else from this particular heartache.
 
  Kay
 
  >>