02/07/2025
About Monday: Cairns Post:
Well, potential to misquote in the media when it comes to medical issues is enormous. Could have been worse 😂
A bit about this dramatic article. First of all, rats are everywhere! Smithfield is full of them and has always been so. They are busy looking for food and breeding. A large warehouse like Bunnings carries animal food, garden supplies and also left-overs from people’s lunches. It’s ideal place to find some food.
Leptospirosis is a bacterial infection caused by infection with pathogenic (able to cause illness) species in the genus Leptospira.
There are more then 300 different types of Leptospira, only a limited number can infect dogs and humans.
Most infections are occupational - in agriculture or recreational - water exposure to contaminated water.
Presence of bacteria is maintained in hosts that do not become sick. Rodents such as rats 🐀 are common hosts and the bacteria can stay in their kidneys for a length of time.
The bacteria is shed into the environment via urine.
Soil, puddles and stagnant streams can get contaminated.
For a person to get infected they would need to touch rat urine or contaminated water and then touch their mouth (a snag at Bunnings anyone ?). Or grab the rat and get bitten, it’s harder to get infected that way.
Of course, our dogs stick their noses and tongues into absolutely everything!! And we can catch this disease from our dogs if they brcome unwell.
If you are NOT SURE if your dog is fully vaccinated against the CORRECT type of Leptospira, we can check their records for you. Please give us a call on 4000 0619 😊🩺🐕🐈
