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Since January 21, 2009, Veterinary Public Health has received reports from several veterinary clinics that they were seeing an increasing number of dogs with watery and bloody diarrhea. Thus far, 53 official reports have been received, with an estimated 120 or more cases being seen at four veterinary clinics in the San Fernando Valley since January 1st.
The first 29 case reports were reviewed. The primary symptoms have been diarrhea (96.6 %) and vomiting (75.9%), with about half having bloody stool. Recovery rate has been variable, with about 20% having a waxing and waning of symptoms. The average age was 5 years, with a range of 2 months to 13 years. About half were small breed dogs.
Locally, increases in Canine Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis (HGE) have been report during the winters of 2004, 2005 and 2006. Veterinary Public Health gathered reports and tested many stool samples during previous outbreaks, but was not able to identify a definitive cause. With the clustering of reported cases, it is suspected that a contagious infection or food contamination may be causing these illnesses. Preliminary investigation of these cases, and similar cases from previous years, has not yielded any definitive evidence of bacterial or viral infection. Studies are on-going, but there is no evidence to date that this outbreak is linked to the current Salmonella outbreak in people.
Veterinarians who see potential cases of HGE are requested to complete the attached “Canine Diarrhea and HGE Report Form†and fax it, along with relevant laboratory reports, to our office (fax# 562-401-7112). Please let us know if we can contact the dog owner to obtain additional information if needed. We may contact you about submitting stool specimens, as we attempt to determine the cause of the outbreak.
I would like to thank Dr. George Cuellar of the Southern California Veterinary Hospital and Dr. Nada Khalaf of VCA McClave Animal Hospital for reporting this outbreak. Participation by local veterinarians is essential to make our local animal disease surveillance effective, and such reports are a value to the entire animal health community.
As always, please contact our office at 562-401-7088 if you have any questions.
Karen Ehnert, DVM, MPVM Senior Veterinarian County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health Veterinary Public Health 562-401-7088
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