MRSA in pets

[howard67]

Please read this harrowing story about an actress who lost her Samoyed to MRSA superbug
http://www.petownersonline.com/fulladview.php?id=190&section=2

Sounds awful. Wouldn't want my dog to suffer in this way. She has started a campaign to raise awareness amongst vets and dog owners. She says we should closely monitor our pets after surgery and if a wound is not healing, quickly ask the vet to swab for MRSA

[Riosmommy]

MRSA is horrible. I have been a nurse for over twenty years and it is an on going problem in Hospitals and Nursing homes. Now I worry since my Nicholas the Cockerspaniel from Las Vegas is getting Fixed tomorrow and also having dental work. I will have to watch him more closely. Thanks for the post.
Riosmommy

[DachshundDuo]

I also have worked as a nurse for over ten years and have seen the devestating effects that MRSA can take on the body. It is a terrible suffering that the victims of MRSA suffer.

When Bubby first became sick a few years ago, I worried that I had carried home MRSA to him, because he had been put on multiple antibiotics without resolution of the illness. I asked the vet if I could have carried MRSA home on a shoe or a uniform, but he assured me that MRSA was a human illness and couldn't be transmitted to pets. Now, after reading this post, I'm not so sure. It turned out that Bubby had an immune disorder brought on by a food allergy... so we know what caused his illness. But now, I am worried about bringing MRSA home again.

Thanks for the information. It must have been truly heartbreaking to her to lose her dog, because my dachshunds are also chid replacements as well.

[Magnum]

City scientists to study MRSA pets and humans 'link'

The Herald Times

FIGHTING INFECTION: scientists hope to bring out a new cleaning fluid which could be used to kill off MRSA

SCIENTISTS in Glasgow are to launch a study into the spread of killer superbug MRSA between humans and their pets.

The ground-breaking project will look at whether Scots struck down by the infection are passing it on to their dogs and cats.

Professor David Taylor, of Glasgow Veterinary School, revealed he had seen 20 cases of animal MRSA over the past two years. Around half are thought to be from the Glasgow area.

Professor Taylor also admitted it would be "entirely possible" for humans to pick up MRSA from infected animals.

The study comes as scientists at Strathclyde University look at introducing a new cleaning fluid which uses living viruses to kill off the deadly MRSA superbug.

The shock increase in cases of animal MRSA has sparked fears the potentially fatal superbug - already killing around 5000 people in the UK every year - will become even harder to control.

He said: "Because animals' wounds are open it's entirely possible for humans to pick up this bacteria. However, we have not found one single case whereby an animal has passed the infection on to a human.

"Our study will look at the risks of humans transmitting the infection to animals.

"The 20 cases identified came from animals all over the country and not just from Glasgow alone. Most have been wounds found naturally or at operation which have become infected. Very few have come from other vet practices."

Despite the increase in MRSA infections among animals, dogs and cats are much less likely than humans to contract the bug. It's also less dangerous in pets as it can be treated with a cheap and simple drug.

Meanwhile, vets across Scotland are being urged to maintain strict standards of hygiene as animal MRSA has become more common over recent years.

The study is a partnership between Glasgow Vet School and experts at the MRSA Reference Library at Stobhill.

Professor Taylor, Professor of Veterinary Bacteriology and Public Health, said he discovered Glasgow's first case of animal MRSA around two years ago. Britain's first case was reported around three years ago.

Mr Taylor added: "For us it is a fairly recent event and we are still finding out more about it. It has been two years since our first case here."

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus is blamed for killing 5000 people a year in British hospitals.

MRSA is transmitted by direct contact with the bacteria, such as touching contaminated skin or inanimate objects.

But people with serious health problems or undergoing surgery are at particular risk. One-in-three people carry the bug harmlessly.

[katatawnic]

(This is a "cross" post. As I was about to submit it, I thought that it needs to be here along with a link to her site. We need to educate ourselves and others about MRSA and other super bugs, this is too dangerous to go unnoticed!)

MAIN SITE URL: Pets with MRSA superbug infection: MRSA in dogs cats animals (http://www.pets-mrsa.com/)

COMMENTS URL: http://tahilla.typepad.com/petsmrsa/2005/09/bellas_story_ho.html#comment-17516432 (Please, anyone who has knowlege of MRSA, go to her site and post your information; she is doing all she can to spread education about MRSA and our pets.)

Dear Jill,

I cried as I read about you and Bella. You have not only my prayers, but also my empathy.... I can relate to your traumatic experience on two major levels:

I know the pain of losing a furry family member due to infection. I also know the pain of MRSA firsthand: I've been suffering from this for 14 yrs. now, and yet I just found out THIS WEEK what has been causing these infections all of my adult life!

Tigger, a Shi'tzu who adopted me (he was an unclaimed stray), lived to be 19 yrs. old, and despite congestive heart failure and a heart murmur he was a very lively critter who, like Bella, fought to live. When he finally passed away three years ago, it was from a small infection on his eye. He survived less than 48 hrs. after his eye first appeared slightly puffy. Throughout his life the only sounds he made sounds were to talk to us, and he had a very unique vocabulary. He never barked (aside from talking to me while welcoming me at the door) and he never whined or cried. Not once. Those two days, however, his cries pierced our ears and our hearts.

What I didn't know then made my Tigger suffer needlessly. I have been having these infected boils/cysts surgically drained and removed since I was 21 yrs. old (I'm 35 now), many times a year every year. Each one is worse than the last: both in pain and in severity of infection. Each infection makes me more weak, both in mobility and immune system.

I'd had a boil/cyst surgically removed just days before Tigger's eye got puffy. He followed me everywhere I went, he only felt truly secure glued to me. So of course he slept on my bed, and of course I cuddled him constantly. Of course this is no way to diagnose him three years after the fact. But factor in my MRSA infection which was wide open and a very old dog who was weak albeit strong minded enough to have "pep" in him. Because no one had yet bothered to run cultures on my cysts and find out what was causing me to get so sick so often (several doctors said I was "just a cyst grower" and that was the end of any investigation!), no knowledge of how dangerous it could be to my loved ones being near me with my open wounds. (I was raised by R.N.s, so I know how to take proper care of my wounds; but obviously more caution needs to be taken with MRSA or anything of similar nature.) Needless to say, I am positive that Tigger contracted MRSA from me and that it was MRSA, and NOT "just" old age, that took his life.

My Huskey/Border Collie mix, Tama, is a rescue dog who was severely neglected; his life before coming to us was almost identical to the home from which you took Bella. He's a year and a half and now quite adjusted and happy in our home. (We've had him for five months now.) I am home alone this weekend, and I have an open wound from a MRSA-inflicted cyst surgery a week ago. This was the largest one I've had yet (larger than a grapefruit!), as well as the most severe SYSTEMIC infection I've had from this. Tama keeps coming to nuzzle me for petting, and I am afraid to touch him at all. I keep talking to him lovingly so he doesn't feel neglected, but he's disappointed that I'm not petting him. All I can think is, "What if I transmit this to him?"

Because the MRSA has to date only attacked me in the underarm region (the most common area along with the groin from what I've read in medical journals this week), they can stop my cysts from recurring with surgery: removal of the sweat glands and skin grafting to remove all of the scar tissue. It won't be "fun" but then again neither is having infections and surgeries three to eight times a year! So one last surgery is fine with me.

It doesn't appear very likely from what I've read so far, again in medical journals, that I will be able to get completely rid of the bacteria. Unless some information is still "hiding" from me, it looks like I will always be a carrier even if we can stop the infections.

So now I'm not only scared for my health. I'm also scared for the health of my family, and anyone who comes into contact with me. We know there's a good chance that my mom transmitted this to me, as she is an R.N. and was charge nurse in the trauma units when I had my first boil/cyst infection; so she was constantly exposed to anything one could imagine. I didn't *do* anything to get this, nor did whoever it was that transmitted this to me (which could have been at a grocery store for all we know). Yet I've been suffering with pain, weakness from repeated systemic infections, and dangerous levels of weight loss on numerous occassions. It makes a person want to shout as loud as humanly possible, "IT'S JUST NOT FAIR!"

Tama is both a housedog and a back yard junkie. (I leave the back door open during most waking hours so that he can come and go as he pleases; our landlord renegged on agreeing to us installing a dog door, so we make do best we can.;) He is still a pup, so he loves to look for mischief when outside; and he could have minor abrasions at any given time. Meaning that if I pet him and he has any exposed flesh, I could make him deathly ill.

This is what I've gathered so far, but again it's only been a week that I've known even the existence of MRSA, much less that I have it. Aside from common sense hygiene practices, does anyone have any advice as to how I can feel safe to let be close to me? I don't want to risk Tama going through what Tigger, Bella, or any other animal has endured due to this disease.

Now that I think of it, I am going to "cross" post this to petlovers.com and provide a link to your site; there always seems to be answers from the large volume of members, and the issue of MRSA and our furry family members needs to be addressed as widely as possible.

[reeskujo]

I to am a nursing home nurse and as stated here MRSA is just plain out horrible and devistating.....With the affect it has on humans I can't begin to imagine what it can do to a poor animal!!