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Post by Nick on Jul 17, 2015 19:47:22 GMT 10
G'day Tom, we recently had our first litter of pups and have had the worst of luck, it was a big litter of 13 and unfortunately 3 were stillborn and we were unable to revive them. Everything seemed fine With the remaining 10 until about the where the first one basically lost then use of its back legs and was having repetitive seizures, we managed to get him right and all seemed well for a couple weeks when another one showed the same symptoms and was put down after he was fitting uncontrollably. Then a week or so later another one had the seizures but didn't lose his back legs, he was so bad he also got put down, he went from 100% to finished in the space of 18 hours.. Then the one that first was sick also succumbed to the same problems.. All seemed to have passed and things were looking up and 2 weeks of nothing and another one went down in the space of 12 hours, possibly even quicker..
We have had numerous visits to the vet, blood tests, even autopsy on 3 of the 4 that we lost, we basically have no answers. The vet suggested neospora but the test for that came back negative.
Have you ever heard of or seen this in pups or dogs in general?
We are at a brick wall as to what may be the problem. Any advice you could offer would be appreciated, I know that it would be hard for you to diagnose anything without seeing any of them or any of the results from vets but any direction you may have would be amazing.
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Jason (the other Jason)
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Post by Jason (the other Jason) on Jul 18, 2015 1:25:53 GMT 10
Lead poisoning will do this. Many things will, but just one thing to check for. Especially if you have lead based paint, an old place they are housed in or any other possible contaminant sources.
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Post by Tom Meulman on Jul 18, 2015 21:34:21 GMT 10
Hi Nick,
Mate I'm so sorry that this has happened to your pups, it's certainly an unusual occurance, and I guess that is why your vet has had problems pinning down the cause.
While it is difficult for me to be able to say with any certainty what could be causing this to happen, the symptoms certainly sound like bacterial meningitis.
It could also be toxoplasmosis which is caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii from contaminated raw meat, and it causes symptoms that are very similar to Neospora. The third possibllity being poisoning by blue green algae, but there the symptoms generally include vomiting and diarrhea prior to developing paralysis and seizures.
Bacterial meningitis is certainly the most likely going by the symptoms, and if this is the case it is essential that any remaining pups be placed on an antibiotic cover ASAP. It will also be necessary to thoroughly disinfect the kennels yards and bedding, and if possible and if a warm area is available, for all those pups including the brood bitch if she is still in contact with her pups be bathed.
Whenever something starts to affect one or two pups in a litter it has to be assumed that all the pups will eventually be affected, therefore fast and aggressive action must be taken immediately, and this starts by placing all of the pups and the brood bitch on a broad spectrum antibiotic, generally for 14 days.
It is then also essential to try and remove any possible sources of the causative agent be it bacterial or viral, and that requires moving the whole litter to a different kennel and yard that has been thoroughly disinfected.
And to make sure that any other possible sources of the cause are removed by ensuring the water supply is fresh and clean, and that all meat in the diet is cooked for at least the next six weeks.
Nick as I have said, mate I feel for you, as it is heart breaking to go through a devastating experience such as this, I can only hope that any remaining pups stay healthy and that at least a couple turn out very very quick dogs.
Cheers,
Tom
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Post by Nick on Jul 19, 2015 20:10:22 GMT 10
Thanks for your opinions tom, that will give us something to bring up with the vet tomorrow.. We spoke with Paul wheeler today about it and he said he has had some similar problems for a while and that after a year of back and forth has put it down to too much preservatives in the meat he was being supplied, this was counteracted by a B group injection which he said helped.. so that also gives us another avenue..
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