Leptospirosis in Southern Ontario

[Kodee]

Ahhh no, it doesn't happen. Even when you have a household full-- getting a new family member will keep you up all night. Butterflies in the stomach etc...

Oh dear, being a breeder you must loose alot of sleep in a year!

[Zippy]

This is what our vet said,

1/ if you keep your dog on leash and in a run while in the yard, you probably don't need the lepto shots.

2/he's only had a couple of dogs get leptospirosis but it has a high fatality rate.

3/about 30% of his patients have had the shots, it's up to the owners.

[Kodee]

This is what our vet said,

1/ if you keep your dog on leash and in a run while in the yard, you probably don't need the lepto shots.

2/he's only had a couple of dogs get leptospirosis but it has a high fatality rate.

3/about 30% of his patients have had the shots, it's up to the owners.

Oh Zippy, thank you for checking on that for me! I appreciates it!

Wow I am really surprised on the 30% of patients having had it - seems very low to me considering how much it has been shoved at me when doing the rounds to meeting new vets. But for me this is good news. Kodee will be only in our backyard for a few mths. When a parks etc she will be leashed - at least I am educated now to not go near water edges, drink from puddles etc.. Then when she is over 10 lbs I can feel better about giving it to her then (with less possibility of a reaction) if I want.

[Karlin]

If it makes you feel any better -- I give lepto to every single rescue and to my own each year. That is something like 40-50 lepto vax now and never had even a single reaction to it. Everyone I know doing breed and general rescue gives them routinely as well, so I can say of hundreds and hundreds of rescue dogs that I know have had this injection, I have never heard of a single one having a reaction to it.

The human risks are very real. I know of two people who nearly died from lepto caught simply by kayaking in a nearby river (members of student kayaking club) so I won't risk it for my dogs or for me. And each year there are dogs that do die from lepto in Ireland as we do have it. All mine run off lead in the park and they regularly swim so I would not even consider not giving lepto shots. It is important to get as much info as you can and then make a decision --though it seems to me if a breeder has a lot of dogs having a reaction to the injection suggests this is something within her lines (not that that is a problem with the dogs, just something to be aware of -- to me it sounds like the reaction seems to be genetically linked). I wouldn't generalise to other dogs that reactions are common, however. She seems to have had a particular problem with a vaccine most dogs receive without any problem at all.

[Kodee]

Oh I realize that Karlin - look how many cav owners that visit this site like yourself that give lepto with no problem. It's just in my case I know it has been a problem in the past. Hence why I am shocked at the 30% figure. I wouldnt be fussing if I didnt think the vaccine was important.