There is a terrible situation emanating from the Miami-Dade Animal Control shelter. A fatal disease, which has killed at least 10 rescue dogs that I personally know of (and now many more that I have learned of from emails sent to Magi or me in the past few days), develops about a week to 10 days after the dog leaves the shelter. These dogs have been taken into rescue homes or veterinary care in far-flung corners of the State of Florida- Port Charlotte, Daytona Beach, Palm Beach, Mims, the panhandle. There are now reliable reports of a similar illness having reached Georgia as well.
The dogs become lethargic, start with a clear discharge from the nose which turns to a green mucous gunk (such a scientific description), develop massive congestion of the lungs (on x-ray), start twitching and grinding their teeth, may develop PAINFUL seizures, and die (or are PTS at this point). Hemorrhage in the lungs, which may be microscopic or gross, also occurs at the end-stage of this disease. Tests for parvo and distemper are negative. Since the dogs that I know of were rescue dogs, no autopsies have been done for cost reasons. The rescues have already run up huge bills for treating these dogs and I have heard that several have been forced out of the rescue business.
Interestingly, the Newcastle vaccine (serum), given early enough, may have saved at least one group of pups that I know of, although under special circumstances: they were cared for in a home, with round-the-clock human attention. These pups never developed seizures. The vaccine evidently has to be administered intravenously and early in the illness to do any good.
When Cleo, the mama dog who Carrie Bruffey took in from MAC got sick, and then one puppy after the other came down with the disease (all were born at Carrie’s place AFTER Cleo left the shelter), and I read about their suffering before they either died or were PTS, I cried. When Marble, who Aussie Rescue took from MAC, got sick and died the same way, I cried as well. When tiny 12-week-old Tammy, who Magi took from MAC, came down with it, I cried again. I was on the internet many times each day and night, holding Magi’s hand in a “cyber” fashion. I heard all the awful details, down to Tammy’s horrendous death, hemorrhaging from her lungs, then lying dead in a pool of blood. No folks, this is no scam.
When Tammy died, I was madder than I was sad. So I decided that I was going to DO something. After doing some research about the way Florida does things (I am a New Yorker), I contacted the Department of Agriculture. After getting the go-around from a few people, I finally found someone who at least would listen to me. After I explained the situation, she told me that the Department of Agriculture could do nothing about Miami Animal Control because Miami Animal Control was under the rule of City and County commissioners. Florida, as a State, does not even license MAC. Well, I knew that Miami officials and MAC knew full well about this problem and were doing nothing about it because (1) they wanted to have their dogs adopted and (2) they were afraid that to solve the problem, and save the lives of future dogs, they would have to have the current dogs PTS, in order to clean up the place, and they were afraid of a public uproar if they did this.
The Department of Agriculture did say that if the disease turned out to be something that could be transmitted to HUMANS, they would intervene. Well, knowing that Newcastle serum had helped some dogs, an that Newcastle disease had been transmitted to humans from birds, and it was related to Avian flu, I decided to go down that path and try to find someone who could test a sick dog’s blood for the presence of either of those viruses. It turned out to be much of a dead end. Incidentally, the benefit of the Newcastle serum could have been to boost the pups immune response by providing a foreign protein, and not necessarily a specific anti-Newcastle virus response.
The Department of Agriculture also suggested I call the Florida Veterinary Medicine Association to see what help they could offer. So I did. I spoke to several people and was finally referred to a Dr. Rubin, an elderly gentleman who was the veterinarian “in residence” at the FVMA office. His first response was “What do you expect ME to do with the limited resources the FVMA has?” Well, I had done some research on this guy and knew he had written an article recently on the history of the FVMA (his picture was annexed to the article, which is why I knew he was elderly and probably a sourpus before I even called), so I told him I understood, but before I hung up, I did want to tell him that in my research about people to call, I had found his article, read it, and found it very interesting and well written. OK, I was buttering him up, but it was true. Miracle. His ego boostered, he offered a tiny tidbit of help. He gave me the name and number of a friend of his, a veterinarian virologist at the state vet school, told me he did epidemiologic studies and might be able to help me, and said I should use his name.
I called this veterinarian virologist…and at last…someone who listened seriously. He was particularly interested because last summer, a VERY SIMILAR illness had been seen in Florida greyhounds, and wiped out large numbers of dogs at a number of Florida tracks. The causative agent was not identified, however, until the fall when, through the efforts of the Univ. of Fla Veterinary School and Cornell University, it was shown to be equine (horse) influenza.
http://www.vetscite.org/publish/items/001864
http://discuss.agonist.org/yabbse/in...threadid=20371
http://www.vetmed.ufl.edu/pr/nw_story/greyhds.htm
Because Tammy’s illness was so similar to the Greyhound illness, and because the Greyhound illness had been thought to be limited to the racing Greyhounds, only, Dr. Gaskin agreed to have the Vet School do an autopsy on Tammy’s body and test tissue and blood samples to see if this was the case. Unfortunately, we could not get Tammy’s body to Gainesville in time (autopsy had to be done within 48 hours of death according to Dr. Gaskin). Magi tried Fed Ex, but that’s another story for another day. Now, as gruesome as it sounds, we need another “body” for that autopsy.
We are also looking for dogs who have survived the illness to provide blood samples for testing. It takes several weeks for a dog to develop enough antibodies to a virus so that it is detectable by the tests that are available. Unfortunately, most dogs with the illness don’t live long enough to have a positive antibody test. Dogs who recover will have antibodies in their blood long after they recover.
I do not know of any dog-to-dog transmission once a dog has been taken out of MAC. I do not count dogs of the same litter (I think Cleo's pups had to be infected in utero or through her milk, although I obviously don't know for sure). We should find out if anyone knows of dog to dog transmission -- another pet in the house coming down with this within 3 weeks of a rescue dog getting sick.
Why has all this been going on without an uproar? Because it has been happening to one dog at a time…in different parts of the state…to rescues that do not necessarily communicate that type of information to each other. No one connected the dots.
Well, that’s what I know about this whole sad situation. If anyone has any questions I haven’t answered, or the links above haven’t answered, please feel free to email me at
[email protected] and I will try to answer them. Kim Kleppel
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