London woman speaks out after rare tick-borne disease kills dog
A London woman is warning pet owners in the Long Point area to be vigilant after a rare tick-borne disease killed her dog.
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A London woman is warning pet owners in the Long Point area to be vigilant after she says a rare tick-borne disease killed her dog.
Taylor Walpole would often visit family members at a cottage in Long Point – a Norfolk County community on Lake Erie, about a 90-minute drive southeast of London – during the summer months and bring along Tobi, her white husky rescue pup from northern Manitoba.
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As a sometimes–travelling nurse, Walpole left Tobi in Long Point this spring as she left for a stint working in British Columbia.
“He loved to go to Long Point,” Walpole said. “He would swim in the water, loved walking on the beach and all the trails and everything there.
“I was still in British Columbia, and I got a text from my family saying Tobi wouldn’t eat breakfast that morning, he was really lazy and didn’t want to go on any walks. They had to push him to get out the door, which is really unlike him.”
Tobi’s health worsened in the coming days. He was taken to Walpole’s regular clinic in London and an emergency hospital in Toronto. Despite a number of attempts to get the regularly spry six-year-old to health, including plasma transfusion, nothing worked.
“I decided to put him down June 16, three days after I got a call from the vet and all his extended bloodwork and tests came back,” Walpole said. “He tested positive for Rickettsia rickettsii bacteria . . . Tobi was on tick prevention medication 12 months of the year, but it didn’t protect him.”
Rickettsia rickettsii bacteria causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF), a very rare, dangerous and fast-acting tick-borne disease not typically seen in Ontario.
In his blog about responsible pet ownership, Scott Weese, veterinary internal medicine specialist and the chief of infection control at University of Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College, said the disease hadn’t been considered a risk locally, but now five dogs have tested positive in Ontario, four having a history of visiting Long Point.
“We need to be more aware of this disease and pay even more attention to the ticks,” Weese wrote. “In Ontario, RMSF can be transmitted by the American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis, which is well established here, but a different species from the tick that typically get the most attention, the black legged tick Ixodes scapularis, which is associated with transmission of Lyme disease.”
Weese advises that folks in Long Point should regularly perform checks for ticks both on themselves and their pets as RMSF can be dangerous for humans and animals. If any people or animals in the area become sick following what is assumed to be a tick bite, they should seek medical assistance immediately.
Walpole said she notified local public health officials of the dog’s diagnosis. She says she’s doing her best to let everyone visiting the lakeshore know they should be cautious in the wake of Tobi’s death.
“I think for me and my family, the thing we’re really doing in our grief is just trying to spread the word,” she said. “We can’t bring Tobi back, but we can hopefully save some other dogs.”
To learn more about RMSF, visit Weese’s blog at wormsandgermsblog.com.
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