Nov 2020 - Contagious diseases

 Parvo, distemper, and rabies, oh my!  The clinic has been bursting from the seams with very sick animals recently.  Thankfully, only one suspected case of rabies (and it may be distemper instead), but we are seeing 2-6 parvo puppies daily and 1-4 cases of distemper each week.  Whenever we experience a season change from winter to summer it seems the infectious diseases hit huge peaks.  This may the worst year I’ve seen for distemper.  It is gut wrenching to see so many poor dogs suffering and so many euthanized when vaccines are essentially 100% effective in preventing these diseases.

For those who are not familiar with these diseases, parvo is a virus that causes immunosuppression and destroys rapidly dividing cells of puppies like those lining the intestines.  This leads to severe vomiting and bloody diarrhea, intestinal pain, dehydration, secondary infections, and often death.  Even with hospitalization, many puppies do not survive.

Distemper virus affects all ages of dogs and generally causes mild signs initially including vomiting and diarrhea, coughing, and eye/nose discharge.  It generally progresses to gradual weight loss, twitching/seizures, and fading away to death.  We do not recommend treatment, but rather euthanasia, which is difficult for most owners to accept.

Rabies is a fatal disease primarily transmitted though saliva and causes irreversible brain damage and death.  Any unvaccinated animal with sudden onset, unexplained neurological changes (twitching, seizures, changes in behavior, aggression, etc) must legally be euthanized and tested for rabies.  This is because if humans are exposed and not treated in the initial stages, it is fatal to us as well.

Although it is good experience for the students to see these diseases and learn how to recognize them, I hate dealing with the pain and distress they cause for both man and beast.

On the human side of things, we have had two confirmed cases of Corona virus (one student and one staff member) in our department, as of the writing of this letter.  Our department head is concerned that the department will be forced to close if we have further cases.  This could mean the students (final-years) cannot finish the term and would need to return next year.  Please pray that this is not the case; that we can finish out the term and allow these students to graduate as planned. 

Please also pray for the many in South Africa who have lost their businesses and/or livelihood due to the lockdown.  Tourism accounts directly or indirectly for almost 9% of the GDP and 10% of jobs in South Africa, so the effect of the lockdown was severe.  Although the borders opened Oct 1st, it will likely be some time before international visitors are once again filling the cities and safari lodges of South Africa.

To close, I’ll leave you with a spot of South African beauty.  In September I was blessed to be able to travel to the west coast where the desert blooms once a year.  Many in the area said it was the best flower season for 20-40 years, so it was perfect timing!  To see more photos, or to see the photos in living color, visiting the Google photo album I set up - https://photos.app.goo.gl/oKXwhX1MYqZnoEuq7.