More about Common Diseases
Ensuring your dog is healthy and not just
making the best of it!
This page has information about common diseases and
how to recognise and deal with them with links to external
veterinary resources with clinical information and advice.
Health and Welfare advice and
information
Inoculations are the most effective way of ensuring immunity
against the main diseases your dog may catch.
These are - Distemper,
Parvo Virus, Hepatitis and Leptospirosis.
Initial
puppy vaccinations and annual boosters thereafter is the most
common practice.
Parvo virus, Hepatitis and Distemper are highly infections diseases that
are frequently fatal, particularly if not recognised early and
quickly dealt with. Young dogs are less likely to survive
infections than older dogs.
On farmland Leptospirosis is an ever present bacteria found in
stagnant water and transmissible by rats and other farm animals who's urine can be
contaminated. In open countryside or moorland that is grazed by
cattle with standing stagnant water
there is also a chance of picking up Leptospirosis. The same
applies to wetlands, even woodlands.
Ingesting infected water transmits the disease. It can also be
caught by contact with infected animals.
Hepatitis is a virulent virus infection that
can be picked up from infected faeces, urine, saliva, blood or
by directs contact with the nose, anus or reproductive organs of
an infected dog. It can also be contracted by contact with an
item an infected dog has used - bowls, toys, etc.
Parvo Virus is another very infectious viral
disease. It can be contracted by contact with an infected dog,
from infected faeces or vomit or other bodily fluids. It can
also be contracted from items that have come into contact with
an infected dog and is easily spread around by shoes treading in
infected faeces or urine. It does not take a lot to infect a dog
and it spreads quickly.
Distemper is primarily an airborne virus and
infection occurs by inhalation of fine droplets in the breath or
eye fluids of an infected dog when an uninfected dog comes into
close proximity. It is also present in a dogs urine. It can be
contracted by contact with wildlife and transmitted in clothing
or materials. Outside of a host the virus does not survive for
long and can be killed by most household disinfectants.
These diseases are terrible. At best a dog
contracting one will suffer greatly and they may well die. Dying
from any of these diseases is painful. You would not want to see
your dog suffering so take preventative measures.
There is a lot of controversy surrounding vaccination.
Some
argue that it need not be done annually and some argue that
regular annual vaccinations actually have an adverse effect on a
dogs health and longevity. It is correct that some dog do have
an adverse reaction to vaccination and on some occasions it can
be fatal but in view of the numbers of dogs vaccinated, the
incidence of side effects of any sort is rare.
One thing that is certain, a regular program of vaccinations has
made sure that there are not mass outbreaks or epidemics of
these canine diseases.
Follow your vets advice on these matters - vets train for five
or six years so they probably know a little bit more than that
bloke who blogs about animal health on the internet or a self
opinionated member of a forum or chat room.
You may argue that your dog/s
never go off your property or seldom come into contact with
other dogs or you only walk it on the lead. You may stick to the
countryside, exercising your dog on moors or farmland but so do
a lot of other people, particularly on public footpaths.
Vaccinated dogs may not be susceptible to the diseases they are
immunised against but are still capable of carrying infections
and passing them on to unvaccinated dogs indirectly.
If you are interested in adopting a Border Collie from us, please phone 0845 604 4941 during office hours.
(2 pm to 5 pm Tuesdays to Thursdays)
Please do not write to us or email us about adoption - we want to speak to you before we start the process.