Abstract
In spite of yearly vaccination, outbreaks of canine infectious respiratory disease are periodically seen amongst domestic dogs. These infections compromise host defense mechanisms, and, when combined with other stressful events, allow opportunistic pathogens like Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus to create serious disease. Early recognition and treatment are tremendously important for a successful outcome in these cases. A polyvalent vaccine was given to 22 racing dogs three days after a competition, followed by two days of rest, and then the dogs were returned to regular training. Coughing was noticed among the dogs four days after immunisation. Three days after this outbreak one of the dogs was unusually silent and was found dead the next morning. Simultaneously two other dogs developed haemorrhagic expectorate, depression and dyspnea and were brought in to the veterinary hospital. Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus was isolated in pure culture from all three cases. They were treated and rehabilitated successfully, and won a sledge race three months later. This paper discusses the necropsy results, treatment regime, rehabilitation and the chronology of vaccination, stressful events and disease.
Highlights
Contagious upper airway infections in dogs occur regularly and are most commonly caused by canine parainfluenza virus (CPIV) or Bordetella bronchiseptica, amongst other agents [1]
They demonstrated that the absolute lymphocyte count in blood was suppressed on day five and seven following immunisation and that one group of dogs immunised with containing attenuated distemper virus (CDV) and canine adenovirus type 2 (CAV-2) had decreased lymphocyte count on day three post vaccination
The immunisation with polyvalent vaccines significantly suppressed the lymphocyte response to phytohaemagglutinin, a mitogen that induce proliferation in Tlymphocytes in vitro on day 5, 7 and 11 post inoculation, but returned to normal response level by day 14 following immunisation
Summary
Contagious upper airway infections in dogs occur regularly and are most commonly caused by canine parainfluenza virus (CPIV) or Bordetella bronchiseptica, amongst other agents [1]. On the second day of hospitalisation the dog showed substantial clinical improvement and was normothermic (38.1°C), less dyspneic, less tachypneic (respiration rate (RR) = 44/min), and had reduced salivation and coughing. The radiographs taken during recovery revealed a very mild interstitial attenuation of the lung lobes that had been most severely affected and mild to faint visualisation of fissure lines which was interpreted as either mild amount of free fluid or mild fibrosis. These minor findings were gradually reduced, but faint fissure lines could still be seen after five weeks for Case 3 and after eight weeks for Case 2 (Figures 6 and 7)
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