Canine Circovirus Suspected in Michigan

Canine Circovirus suspected in SE Michigan

Canine Circovirus also reported in parts of Ohio

Author: Lisa Ray, Managing Editor, ClickOnDetroit.com, lray@wdiv.com

Published On: Oct 02 2013 04:24:11 PM EDT Updated On: Oct 02 2013 11:19:41 PM EDT

DETROIT -
A relatively new canine virus potentially has found its way to southeast Michigan.

The Canine Circovirus was first seen in 2012 in San Diego and a localized outbreak was recently reported in parts of Ohio. The reports on the cases in Ohio stated that people should be concerned about their animal if it has bloody vomit or diarrhea...

http://www.clickondetroit.com/lifes...igan/-/1718840/22240002/-/i5cqxj/-/index.html

Sounds like while some of the dogs tested positive for the circovirus others did not. It has been common in swine for many years but vets are not sure if this alone is causing the illness seen in the dogs.

http://news.vin.com/VINNews.aspx?articleId=28696

This is very scary to me because my last foster puppy that I adopted out last weekend came from Ann Arbor where 6 dogs died of this new illness. The pit pup was dumped out of a car in front of an elementary school in Ann Arbor and was in Royal Oak when I picked him up to foster for a rescue. Many of my foster dogs come from Ohio where several dogs died from the virus/illness and more got sick but survived. One of my current foster dogs came up from Tennessee and the other came from the Detroit area. I've had 20 foster dogs in the past 15 months and have been to many dog adoption events, plus I have 4 large dogs of my own and they go to the dog park. This deadly illness is scaring me. A vet office near Detroit advised us in a mailing not to go to dog parks, pet stores, adoption events, or even walking our dogs in our own neighborhood.
Many of my friends walk the dogs at animal control daily. I just pray that my dogs and fosters all stay safe. My certified therapy dog is going to work in the Detroit area tomorrow but will only be with about 8 other dogs. I'll just hope for the best. We have many big dog events coming up, especially for my therapy dog.

Jan said:

I just pray that my dogs and fosters all stay safe. My certified therapy dog is going to work in the Detroit area tomorrow but will only be with about 8 other dogs.

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Yes it is scary but keep in mind there is way more hype than facts right now! Plus it seems the vast majority of dogs infected DO survive with treatment. Thing is they aren't giving stats on the dogs that are infected which is very relevant.

Since this is intestinal if it is a virus it is probably similar to parvo and transmitted in similar ways. If you insist on taking your service dog to canine events I would be wary of parks or other areas where the ground can be contaminated and also consider using the bleach method (bleaching your shoes and canines feet when coming home).

I have a feeling this whatever it is targets susceptible dogs but they aren't giving an info on the dogs that were infected! Just like the flesh eating bacteria in water panic that the news media loves, they usually forget to mention virtually all victims have an immune deficiency.

Some articles suggest this could even be tick borne, not all dogs that shown these symptoms have even been proven to have the circo virus.

Butera is cautioning her patients to wait until a definitive cause has been established before they panic.

“Until the investigation by the pathologists is complete, we will not know whether or not what we saw is from a virus, bacteria, or toxin, etc., or even if these cases are related to each other,” she said.

http://seattletimes.com/html/pets/2021772165_dogvirusxml.html

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