Warning for anyone living in Dublin!!

Hi all concerned, I have checked with Karlin to make sure it's ok to post this message.

A good friend told me that my vet ( who is very good) was on TV last week warning people not to walk their dogs in Saint Anns park, Raheny, near where I live.

It is over run with rats and he has had lots of very, very sick dogs in who had been walked there recently ,apparently some were so bad it was nearly fatal!!

I missed him on the TV ,think it was the news but not sure.

I will be calling him in the morning to confirm but just wanted to let anyone concerned be aware.

I will update tomorrow.

Most parks are full of rats, so long as you keep your dogs away from the ponds/pools i wouldn't think you'd need to avoid St Annes completely. The illness referred to is Lepto, the major strains of which will already have been vacc'd against.

:shock: Please can you make sure to update us tomorrow. We walked our next door neighbours dog there last week and lots of people we know go there. Surely once they're vaccinated against Lepto then they're safe?????
Is it something to do with the Squirrels???

This is really scary. Please post ASAP.
Thanks

Vaccinated dogs, like people are not guaranteed not to catch a particular disease, but they usually get a milder form or are able to fight it off because they have the antibodies caused by the vaccine.

I'm fairly certain there are different strains of Lepto. I wouldn't go near there!!

:updte:


I have spoken to the vet this morning and he said the following;

"A lot of dogs in the area who have not been vaccinated or are not up to date with their boosters have contracted Leptospirosis from rats urine as there are a lot of rats in Saint Ann's at the moment.
IT IS NOT CONFINED TO PONDS!"

His warning was to urge people to keep away from there if their dogs are not fully up to date with boosters.

If dogs are fully up to date then there should not be a problem.

I wouldn't go there anyway as I wouldn't want to take any risks, even though both Pippin and Gus have been vaccinated and had boosters every year.

Hope this has been helpful.

Has the Vet contacted the park warden? Surely there should be notices put up warning people. Can you imagine all the elderly people who take their dogs there, how devastated they would be to lose their companions .
God! that's dreadful! Can you pm me the Vets contact details please.

I'll put up notices myself if I have to...
Thanks

No problem Claire have pm'd you. let us know how you get on.

:updte: I have spoken with the Vet (he was Rudee's vet also) and he said that he has had maybe six cases to date and all dogs should have the Lepto Vacc every year and there shouldn't be a problem with them going to the park/ beach etc.

He has also notified Dublin City Council and they will be putting up notices in and around the park.

He did say that you should never let your dog play in or drink from stagnant water but IMHO you would have to be NUTS to do that anyway. :flwr:

Thanks for that claire, He is a really caring man.

Imagine us both having the same vet, small world.