Dear Listeners, Viewers, and Readers:
I do some online consultation as part of my rather varied career repertoire – as if I don’t have enough to do 🙂 . A couple of days ago, I was absolutely floored by one particular consultation that involved a man and his dog, both suffering from a parasitic disease that comes from raccoons. The likely mode of transmission was his dog having sniffed, ate, or otherwise contacted raccoon feces, then through casual contact with his human owner, passed it along to him. Both are now very sick, and treatment thus far has been frustratingly unsuccessful, which is what prompted him to pursue my online consultation service.
This gentleman’s and his dog’s experience inspired me to dedicate this episode to deadly zoonosis, a branch of infectious disease medicine that includes diseases that can be transmitted from our pets to us and our families. Our children, the elderly, and the immune suppressed (e.g., cancer patients, HIV patients, or otherwise immune compromised people), are especially susceptible to some of these very dangerous diseases, so be sure to tune in and learn to prevent these diseases from affecting not only your pets, but your precious human family as well!
Also, we have one listener e-mail questions to address this evening. We encourage all of our listeners to participate in our program by contributing your questions or comments at comments@web-dvm.net.
Thank you again, for caring about what I have to say!
Sincerely,
Roger Welton, DVM
Dr. Roger Welton is the President and chief veterinarian at Maybeck Animal Hospital in West Melbourne Florida, as well as CEO of the veterinary advice and health management website Web-DVM.net.