Leptospirosis - Page 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptospirosis

Symptoms
In humans, leptospiral infection causes a wide range of symptoms, and some infected persons may have no symptoms at all. Leptospirosis is a biphasic disease that begins with flu-like symptoms (fever, chills, myalgias, intense headache). The first phase resolves, and the patient is briefly asymptomatic until the second phase begins. This is characterized by meningitis, liver damage (causing jaundice), and renal failure; because of the wide range of symptoms the infection is often wrongly diagnosed. This leads to a lower registered number of cases than there really are. Symptoms of leptospirosis include high fever, severe headache, chills, muscle aches, and vomiting, and may include jaundice, red eyes, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and/or a rash. The symptoms in humans appear after a 4–14 day incubation period.

In animals, the incubation period (time of exposure to first symptoms) is anywhere from 2 to 20 days. In dogs, the liver and kidney are most commonly damaged by leptospirosis. Vasculitis can occur, causing edema and potentially disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). Myocarditis, pericarditis, meningitis, and uveitis are also possible sequelae. [3] One should strongly suspect leptospirosis and include it as part of a differential diagnosis if the sclerae of the dog's eyes appear jaundiced (even slightly yellow), though the absence of jaundice does not eliminate the possibility of leptospirosis, and its presence could indicate hepatitis or other liver pathology rather than leptospirosis. Vomiting, fever, failure to eat, reduced urine output, unusually dark or brown urine, and lethargy are also indications of the disease.

I've been told to avoid the vaccine for Leptospirosis for GSD puppies. Do expereienced GSD owners also avoid it for adults?

Why is that Sitasmom? 
I am not a vaccine fan at all, for me or my dogs, however, Lepto and rabies are the only two I do get, under the recommendation of my vet as we live in country with lots of coons and possums around.

One of my two dogs gets lepto. He is a cadaver dog and is often in areas where wild animals, including rodents and wild pigs may be.  If my dog were a pet dog and did not have exposure probability I would not consider it. I would never buy lepto online because the doses are blended based on which of the many servovars are active in your region. Even so, it is one of the least effective vaccines with the most potential for bad side effects.

 The reason to CONSIDER not vaccinating a dog for leptospirosis are, as Nancy mentions, because there are various serovars that may or may not be active in the area you live in. IF leptospirosis is around, I want to know the serovars and yes, I would vaccinate my dogs because it is a very, very serious disease and can easily kill or permanently disable the dog. However, unlike most vaccines, it is a vaccine where a slightly higher incidence of adverse effect is seen. So, like in every situation, one must balance risk versus benefit when considering whether to vaccinate for leptospirosis. I have a client who called me in a panic one night with a very ill dog. Had she not taken the dog immediately to an emergency clinic, he likely would have been dead by the next morning. He had leptospirosis and it took months of antibiotic therapy and other therapy to bring him back to health.

Very  well said Hodie and Nancy. The clinic I work at offers Lepto vax, but only if the owners elect it. It is not in our regular protocol. As you stated, it is a very serious disease and commonly shows no symptoms until the later stages. I am in Maryland and we have seen a major increase in the disease. I am not a fan of the vax, but after the multiple cases we have seen, I did vax my personal dogs, luckliy with no adverse reactions.

There has also been an increase in the number of leptospirosis cases here, as well as rabies. Again, it comes down to risk, versus benefit. And, when one really looks at the statistics, the adverse effect ratio is so small as to not really be a huge concern if the chance is I am going to have a dead dog, or one whose kidneys are fried because I did not vaccinate.

Most of the cases we have seen were in areas with alot of fox, and people who have livestock and have rats and mice in their barn. It can easily be spread from their urine.

I think foxes, and raccoons and skunks here are our main reservoir, although the person I mentioned above had mice up the kazoo and had mice droppings in food she brought to me (and which I immediately discarded).