Hunter pet owners should remain vigilant after a rare and potentially fatal disease has appeared in Lake Macquarie, in what vets claim is the first instance in decades.
A 12-week-old Swiss Shepherd from Speers Point was diagnosed with Leptospirosis after presenting at Cardiff Vet Hospital last week with vomiting and diarrhoea symptoms.
Veterinarian at Brunker Road Veterinary Centre, Dr Paul McCarthy, said Leptospirosis was a bacterial disease causing infection in the kidneys and livers of dogs, humans and other animals.
Dr McCarthy said the disease might have been contracted from exposure to rat contaminated water, food and soil or rat bites.
“We’re assuming the infected dog would have had access to rat urine either by chasing rats or by being in areas where rats would have contaminated the food or water.”
Following the contraction of the bacteria, Dr McCarthy said animals might only have a matter of weeks to live.
“As initial symptoms can be quite vague, such as vomiting, diarrhoea or lethargy, they’re not really jumped on by pet owners very quickly,” he said.
“It’s not until the liver fails or the kidneys start to fail when we get the much more obvious signs, such as jaundice or acute renal failure.
“It sadly is quite an aggressive disease.”
Dr McCarthy has only treated the case once in the Hunter Region in his three decades working as a vet.
“My colleagues and I can remember one case we had at our practice 12 years ago – it’s a particularly uncommon infection in our local area,” he said.
“I treated the dog when it came in, and when I was working in the UK, I treated several cases – disappointingly, none of the cases survived.”
Recently, the disease has appeared in Surry Hills, Darlinghurst, Glebe and Balmain.
“In this country, the cases of rats that carry the bacteria are very low, so we rarely see it,” he said.
“Population density can drive these things as well – hence why there was an outbreak in Surry Hills.
“We don’t see it as often in our local area because we don’t have as high of a rat issue either.”
During the inner-city outbreak in 2020, it was recommended that any animals within a five-kilometre radius be vaccinated to mediate any risk of infection.
Dr McCarthy said that time was of the essence due to the seriousness of the diagnosis, with only some of the diagnosed cases able to get tested.
“The Leptospirosis bacteria has different serovar or subspecies, and the problem with vaccinating this condition is that it’s helpful to identify which serovar you’ve got,” he said.
“The vaccination for dogs is only for the Leptospirosis Copenhageni serovar – fortunately, some of the diagnosed cases in Sydney were of that type, so the vaccine worked very well.
“However, some of the dogs died too quickly to have the testing done, so we’re not sure if they all had the same serovar or not.”
Dr McCarthy said the serovar of Leptospirosis that the Cardiff case contracted is yet to be identified.
However, the pup is undergoing treatment in Sydney’s Small Animal Specialist Hospital.
“We don’t have information about the serovar or where the animal contracted the lepto from,” he said.
“Hopefully, it is the Copenhageni serovar, which will be responsive to the vaccine.”
Despite the rarity of the disease, Dr McCarthy urged pet owners to remain vigilant.
“At this stage, as we only have the single case, residents shouldn’t panic,” he said.
“In the meantime, watch your pets, and if there are any vague signs, have your vet check those and get some blood checked for diagnosis.”
Dr McCarthy also recommended that pet owners, who reside near Speers Point or areas with rat infestations, consider a preventative vaccination that entails an initial course of two injections four weeks apart, followed by a yearly booster.
Maia O’Connor