DOG TYPHOID EPIDEMIC

Hokitika Guardian, 5 July 1929, Page 8

DOG TYPHOID EPIDEMIC

ir LONDON, May 7

Dog-lovers throughout the country read with amazement yesterday the report of- the mysterious diseas which is killing hundreds of dogs. Many had seen their pets die, but had no idea that an epidemic was raging.

A leading veterinary surgeon told a Daily Mail reporter that the disease lias several names. It is really “dog typhoid,” and is sometimes called Stuttgart disease, (from the German town where it;was first diagnosed. It occurs in waves, and. the last was two years ago. The present epidemic is, however, much more severe and is mow roa'dhiug its peak. More than four-fifths of the dogs affected die.

THE ONLY TREATMENT.

The veterinary surgeon said

The first symptom is the tongue turning brown, like a rusty nail. In extreme cases the tongue or part of it may drop off. Usually the owners think that the dogs have been poisoned. The only treatment is, as with human typhoid .a sedative and a stimulant. The worst mistake is to give an emetic.

Flow the infection is carried we do not know. Experiments concerning the disease are being carried out in Germany and France. The germs are probably transferred either by water by food or in" dust. No animal but tho dog can be affected, and human beings are immune. A curious thing is that all dogs aro equally liable, but if there are six dogs in a house, only one may be affected which is quite unlike distemper. The disease is occurring all over the country, hut principally in London and its surroundings. Like human inlluonza epidemics, the disease dies out gradually.

Mr Sampson Bennett, a Cambridge, veterinary surgeon, said yesterday that he had seen six eases of tho disease in the last few days. All the dogs died within 24 hours.