Seasonal Cannine Illness

[Andy W.]

Has anyone heard of this? Seems to be spreading out from Norfolk and to be concerning as it is fatal in about 1 in 5 cases.

http://www.aht.org.uk/seasonal_illness.html

[baileyhilldog]

Andy see my post 29 September 2010 entitled "DOGS TAKEN ILL/DIE FOLLOWING FOREST WALKS" under General Discussion.

Linda

[Andy W.]

Thanks Linda I'd missed your post, however even since your post in September it seems to have been spreading quickly toward London and the Chilterns. Whatever it is.

[baileyhilldog]

Andy I received the following email earlier in the week with an update on this and a link to the AHT website, who are researching it:- (sorry I don't know how to copy text into quote format!!)

"Seasonal Canine Illness
Email Alert
February 2011

Sign up to receive free email alerts about mystery dog killer!


You may recently have read or heard about a mystery illness which causes dogs to become very ill and, in some cases, die. The illness which has been named Seasonal Canine Illness (SCI) has been affecting dogs which have been walked in woodlands.
We were alerted to SCI in September and shortly after we launched an investigation to identify the cause. We created a questionnaire which we asked dog owners to complete. We asked for information from people whose dogs had been taken ill and those whose dogs hadn't been taken ill.
We've had more than 400 questionnaires returned to us. We're now starting to build a picture of what could be causing this mystery illness.
We're reasonably confident that this illness is seasonal. We haven't had a case reported to us since mid-November last year but as always it's wise to remain vigilant. Please seek immediate advice from your vet if you have concerns about your pet's health.
Our investigation has focused on four sites – two in Norfolk and two in Nottinghamshire. At these sites 53 cases were reported to us. Of these almost 20%, that's 10 dogs, died or had to be put to sleep.
Whilst our investigation continues we know it is imperative that we keep dog owners as informed as possible with what we're finding out. We plan to do this through our website and email alerts.
We're regularly updating the SCI mini-site on our website – http://www.aht.org.uk– giving details of affected areas, possible causes and latest news (including the BBC News story which broke this month). This will be the place where we feature all the latest information as it comes to light. We're busily analysing all the data, trying to pull together all the pieces of this puzzle and as soon as we know anything we will put the latest updates on our website.

Sign up for SCI email alerts!


We're also launching an SCI email alert system. If you would like to receive email alerts as soon as we have new information then you can sign up to these completely free here. We promise to keep you up-to-date with any new findings, cases or information that will be valuable to you as a dog owner.
There is a strong possibility that cases of SCI will reappear towards late summer / autumn. If this does happen we want to be in a position where we can pre-warn dogs owners about the risks and alert people as soon as possible if cases start reoccurring enabling you to best protect your pet.

Tell your friends and family!


Please also forward this email to your friends and family – anyone who owns a dog and needs to be kept informed – so they can also sign up for free email alerts.

Our aim is to eradicate SCI – whilst we do this we want as many people as possible to know about it so we can minimise the number of dogs dying
from this mystery illness. The best way we can do this is by creating a network of information so as soon as cases reoccur everyone can know
about it. We want to keep the profile of SCI high in people's minds so people act quickly and dogs don't have to suffer.

Rest assured – if you sign up for email alerts here as soon as we know anything new, we'll let you know.
Thanks for your help and support in advance,

Dr Peter Webbon
Chief Executive
Animal Health Trust"

[melindaregner]

I din't know that K9s were very prone to these kind of illnesses. Though i know some of them, thanks for posting some info(s).
Really beneficial.