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Dogomania

"It"... the sequel


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Remember The Great E Coli Outbreak Of 2004? Well, it's returned in '05. Have I mentioned lately that I [u]just[/u] paid off the vet bill from the first go'round and was enjoying seeing a $0 account balance for a minute or two?

The good news, if there is any, is that the dogs that got sick before seem to be handling it well. Perry (one of my Standards) was one of the sickest in the first go'round and one that had to make a late night emergency run to the vet and was hospitalized for a couple of days. Well, for that matter, so was Simon (the Schnauzer). Anyway, they got a mild case of the sloppy poops, wouldn't really call it diarrhea, but it passed pretty quickly without them acting too ill. However, the ones that didn't get sick the first time are getting the whammy this time. It's probably a good thing we stockpiled antibiotics because we've been able to start them on it as soon as they show symptoms. The antibiotics kick in pretty quickly, so it hasn't been as bad this time as it was the first time, though having an 80 lb Lab blow out in the house is no fun. So far (knock on wood, spin around in a circle three times, flip the magic wand, and grab my *ss), we haven't had to hospitalize anyone. The vet believes they should develop a bit of a tolerance for it as it goes through them, said it would probably become "normal flora" for them. Well, I'll be glad when it does.

I've had just about enough of this. :-?

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HF,,, You always seem to bring a smile to my face while I read your posts. Don't get me wrong I'm not smiling becuz your babies are sick but I chuckle about this you said---"So far (knock on wood, spin around in a circle three times, flip the magic wand, and grab my *ss), " You always see the brighter side of everything!!! I sure hope this year is a better one for you and yours!! Sending warm thoughts!! :)

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Im so sorry HF!! hopefully all get well soon!! I agree with bleaching the yard though......... I did that after the parvo here, I put straight bleach in one of those "miracle grow" containers that attach to the hose to dillute it and sprayed and sprayed :wink: other than about 2 milliion worms coming to the surface for a few minutes ( I think they were cussing at me, but not sure :wink: ) the grass and everything survived just fine!

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We're pretty worn out from having to get up about every hour during the night to let a dog out. Geez, for a good night's sleep...


The good news is that it's not nearly so bad this time as it was the first time. The first time around, we had dogs getting sick and didn't know what it was and had to wait for the culture report to find out what it was and what it was susceptible to. Now that we know what it is, we know how to treat it and can begin treatment as soon as symptoms arise. The antibiotics work pretty quickly, so we've avoided any late night vet runs (unlike last time). Antibiotics aren't really cheap, but it's MUCH cheaper than late night emergency vet runs and hospitalizations.

We did bleach the yard a while back. Baileys, we have the exact same thing you're talking about... a sprayer that fits on the water hose (used to use it for washing dogs... add shampoo and blast... works like a charm on thick coated dogs if you have good water pressure :oops: ), and we saturated the yard. The thing is, I reckon, it's virtually impossible to saturate the yard fully way down into the soil. We are in a pretty sandy area and I imagine the amount of rainfall we get just keeps it moving around. Not to mention the fact that some of my dogs enjoy excavating, so who knows how they came back into contact with it?

At this point, we are just looking forward to getting it over with. I'm SO tempted to take "samples" and expose my three remaining dogs that haven't had it yet just to get it over with. Since there's a (slight) chance they won't ever get it, I just can't do it. The vet seems pretty optimistic that they will eventually develop a resistance to it and we won't keep having these problems. We're still pretty sure the initial exposure came from the standing water from the hurricanes last summer.

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