A must read for gundog owners

[jetjockey]

Nocardia raised its ugly head again......  Many vets don't know, or don't understand exactly what it is so it's up to us dog owners to stay diligent when observing our dogs.

http://clubs.akc.org/brit/VetArticles/Nocardia-Infections-in-Bird-Dogs.pdf

[jagermiester]

Are there a large number of cases of this in a year?

[jetjockey]

Theres enough.   I know too many people who have lost dogs to it.  Seeds scare the hell out of me, and too many vets miss the symptoms.  Just happened to another really nice dog.

[Bluemoon]

Thank you for putting this up Jet.  This is very real.  I lost a outstanding young dog to this.  By the time we got the results of it back from WSU it was too late. He got it while hunting in ND..  No vet in Western Washington that I had spoke with had ever heard of it.  It is very close to home as well. There is a huge Orvis wingshooting facility just across the border in Idaho that has it on their  property.  It is very treatable with SMZ's every trainer that I know of who trains in infective  areas uses it for preventive maintenance.  As you stated this is a MUST READ.

[KFhunter]

OMG! thanks for bringing this up, I'll never know if my dog was lost to Nocardia (first I've heard of it here) but the symptoms presented very closely resemble what is described here.

My dog would get a lump then I'd have it drained, the vets would talk about seeing "tracks" and kept telling me it was a grass awn and that they were hard to get sometimes.  Then another lump and another and another.  At first the lumps were on her flanks as described in the article, but towards the end of her life she started getting lumps on her forehead.  Her stamina and drive were nearly gone.  I had her x-ray'd and in multiple vets many times. 

Not once did I ever hear the word Nocardia. I even created a username and reached out on gundog forum, still no one had ever mentioned Nocardia.


this is a difficult thread that chronicles what happened
http://gundogforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=88&t=25582

[ribka]

Thanks for the reminder. have about this disease before and god reminder as I hunt More praire grass areas now on road trips in ND SD MT

Interesting that it affects younger dogs more and have higher fatality rates and that older dogs that hunt in grass have lesions in lungs indicating they have been exposed to it.

[jetjockey]

The age thing is interesting to me as well.  Not sure why younger dogs are more susceptible to it, but they are....  I had a scare with it when living in GA.  I was hunting quail when my young dog came out of a bottom sneezing and shaking her head back and fourth.  I didn't think much of it at first but 30 minutes later it wasn't getting any better so I took her to the emergency vet.  The first vet couldn't find anything but they didn't have a scope.  I took her to a specialist the next day and they sent a scope up her nose.  $1500 later this is what they found.  I'm not sure how much if an issue these seeds would have been, but the vet was happy I had her checked.  Seeds scare the hell out of me as my hunting/trial dogs are also my buddies who steal the covers at night.

[Jitters]

One of my dogs, a 4 year old GSP, nearly died of this after multiple misdiagnoses before I took her to VCA-Northwest Veterinary Specialists in Portland, where she received appropriate treatment. $7000 later, she is fully recovered and spent last winter hunting quail in Arizona. My wallet however, is still in shock.

Anyone know a vet with experience with hunting dogs in the Camas/Vancouver area? I am no longer comfortable with the vet I have been using in Camas.

Jitters

[Happy Gilmore]

grass awns.... Don't just throw your dog on the ground and go hunt anywhere you think looks birdy. A dog was taken to the vet between series of the National Retriever Championships last year to have an awn removed from deep inside the lung.

Any vet with a performance background will diagnose it quickly.

http://www.seattledogspot.com/dog-health-wellness/foxtail-grass-can-kill-your-dog/

[KFhunter]

https://www.outfoxfordogs.com/