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Leptospirosis

Leptospirosis

It is with heavy hearts that we had to say goodbye to one of our patients to a disease called Leptospirosis. This potentially deadly zoonotic disease (meaning that it can be transmitted to people) poses a risk to our canine patients regardless of breed right here in our own back yards. Our patient who passed away lived about 2 minutes from our hospital in a neighboring community. Leptospirosis has always been recommended as part of the annual vaccines for your dog and we will continue to recommend it in the future. Leptospirosis is spread through the urine of wildlife and lives well in wet environments including puddles, streams, etc. 

 Your pet can sniff or lick a wet area and get exposed to it, then as they shed Leptospirosis through their urine, humans can pick it up as well. We get more flu like symptoms, while your dogs can suffer from sudden liver/kidney failure or in worst cases, death. Our Leptospirosis vaccines has a 92-94% efficacy. Please read this information fact sheet (2 short pages) to learn more about Leptospirosis and call us with any questions that you might have or if you are unsure if you pets have been vaccinated against it. We are very sad to see our patient leave us this way and we hope to help prevent this in the future. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

 For more very helpful information, please read this Frequently Asked Questions Handout on Leptospirosis and remember to contact us if you have any concerns. 317-846-8710

written by Danielle Fuller ~ RVT

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