acdrobert Posted September 9, 2009 Report Posted September 9, 2009 I took my dog in for his yearly visit and I remembered to ask for a culture to check for strep. It came back with "normal flora" but digging a little deeper it came back saying that he had alpha and gamma strep in his mouth but not beta. His vet (who actually researched this) reccomended a course of amoxicillian. Any thoughts ?
EAMom Posted September 9, 2009 Report Posted September 9, 2009 I took my dog in for his yearly visit and I remembered to ask for a culture to check for strep. It came back with "normal flora" but digging a little deeper it came back saying that he had alpha and gamma strep in his mouth but not beta. His vet (who actually researched this) reccomended a course of amoxicillian. Any thoughts ? So...no Group A Beta hemolytic strep (GABHS)? It wouldn't hurt anything to put him on a course of amoxicillin if it makes you feel better though. Here's some more info on pets/GABHS: Group A Streptococcus in Dogs and Cats The following information is from PROMED: “The few published prevalence studies suggest that GAS infection in dogs is rare: Biberstein (J Clin Microbiol, 1980;11:558-61) recovered 254 isolates of hemolytic streptococci from dogs over a 3 year period, 45% from the skin, 25% from the genitourinary tract and 13% from the respiratory tract. 81% of these isolates were group G; only 1% were GAS. Kurek and Rutkowiak (Epidemiol Res, 1971;25:234-8) reported 7% of urban pets positive for GAS, while Peterson (USAF Med Service Digest,1976;27:21) found 1% positive. Evidence of an association between GAS in dogs and human disease is limited to case reports: Mayer (Postgrad Medicine,1983;74:277-9) reported on a family of four that experienced recurrent GAS pharyngitis. After 2 unsuccessful simultaneous treatments of the family, their dog was found to be culture-positive for GAS. Family and dog were treated and all were culture negative 4 weeks after treatment. Copperman (NYS J Med, 1982:1685-7) investigated 72 dogs (along with some cats and birds) over a 16-yr period as possible sources of recurrent strep sore throat in humans: he found that 42% were positive for GAS and after treatment of both family and dog most cases resolved. For comparison he studied a consecutive dog control group not known to be in contact with SST and found 10% prevalence (2/20). More recent studies have questioned the use of bacitracin disks to identify GAS because some strains of group C and G are susceptible. Also, no sub-typing was done in these investigations and, in the case of Copperman's article, it's not clear that the human infections were grouped. Analytical studies suggest no association between human GAS disease and infected dogs. Crowder (Int J Zoon, 1978;5:45-54) found 3/71 (4.2%) dogs from families with GAS disease were positive for GAS, similar to the 4/143 (2.8%) from families free from disease for 30 days. Recently, Wilson (Pediatr Infect Dis J, 1995;14:372-5) throat-cultured children with acute pharyngitis from 42 households. Although 26 households had a child with GAS, none of the oropharyngeal secretions from 43 household dogs and 25 cats were GAS positive. In addition, no GAS was recovered from 149 dogs and cats surveyed at a veterinary hospital, although 9% of the dogs were positive for group G strep. Unpublished data (to be presented at ICAAC) from Dr. Ed Kaplan (U. Minnesota) also suggest that carriage of GAS in dogs is rare and not associated with human illness. Throat cultures were done on 295 dogs (from 190 households) undergoing elective surgery: 21% were positive for Beta-hemolytic strep. 90% of isolates were group G; only 1 isolate was group A. No association between strep-positive dogs and human illness was observed. While some of the case reports suggest that treating culture-positive dogs can help clear recurrent infection within a household, there seems much more evidence that dogs are not a reservoir of human GAS disease and the consensus from veterinarians was that culturing dogs wasn't worth it. Some suggested that dogs only carry GAS temporarily while in contact with infected humans.”
pandas2boys Posted September 9, 2009 Report Posted September 9, 2009 Dr Latimer asks if there are pets at home. If yes, she suggests that it should be cultured. Is it because she believes that a pet can be a strep carrier and cause haywire among us?
dee45 Posted September 9, 2009 Report Posted September 9, 2009 Hi, Dr. Latimer asked us as well if we had any pets. WE had just put our 16 year old lad down in May and Anthony would love to lay next to her. She said pets especially dogs were big carriers. Don't know if there was ever any connection between Anthony and the dog??? Deanna
NancyD Posted September 9, 2009 Report Posted September 9, 2009 Did Dr. Latimer say anything about horses?? My daughter is around her horse every day. This past week she had her first setback since starting monthly IVIG infusions last year. I figured she was exposed to someone at school. I never considered her horse... Nancy Hi,Dr. Latimer asked us as well if we had any pets. WE had just put our 16 year old lad down in May and Anthony would love to lay next to her. She said pets especially dogs were big carriers. Don't know if there was ever any connection between Anthony and the dog??? Deanna
KeithandElizabeth Posted September 10, 2009 Report Posted September 10, 2009 Out of desperation, I treated our dog with amoxicillan even though her strep test came back negative. I thought why not cover all bases? Elizabeth
NancyD Posted September 10, 2009 Report Posted September 10, 2009 I just just googled "strep" and "horses" and, although horses can get strep it's strep C that they can get and is easily transferred from horse to person to horse. This causes Strangles, which is deadly for horses. But strep A is not a worry. She only mentioned dogs. Deanna
FallingApart Posted September 10, 2009 Report Posted September 10, 2009 Can you tell me how you culture your dog? I called our vet after reading this post and they told me that the dog can't pass it back and forth to humans. I aid I wasn't concerned with that explanation that I just wanted him tested. They want me to come in and have a discussion about how best to culture him because they said there were different ways to do so. I think that I need to find a different vet. But, while I'm waiting, can you tell me the method used to culture your dog? Throat swab, urine, skin, or blood? THeese were all mentioned to me on the phone. If your dog does have it or is a carrier, is one round of abx enough? Or do you have to keep having him/her cultured and redoing the abx?
chrisw Posted September 10, 2009 Report Posted September 10, 2009 I was fortunate to have an easy going Vet who just agreed to put my dog on a round of abx. She said that they don't even do a test for strep in that office.
colleenrn Posted September 10, 2009 Report Posted September 10, 2009 I would treat any pet with any type of strep at all to be safe. Strep A is the first trigger, but other streps definitely cause a flareup of PANDAS symptoms. We have tested positive for Group B strep (usually found in vaginal area during pregnancy), and also Non-A beta hemolytic strep. For us, it is all and any strep. Colleen
FallingApart Posted September 10, 2009 Report Posted September 10, 2009 Colleen, what was the method you used to test your animal(s)?
colleenrn Posted September 10, 2009 Report Posted September 10, 2009 I am sorry- I was not clear. All of these non A streps have been in myself and my children, not pets, but that is why I was saying to treat any type of strep your pet has and not just strep A. We did culture our dog years ago. The vet did a throat swab. Colleen
T_Mom Posted September 12, 2009 Report Posted September 12, 2009 We have two big dogs and our vet said to really swab them he would need to put both to sleep--He went ahead and did as thorough a swab as he could, and we put both on a strong round of antibiotics just in case.
FallingApart Posted September 12, 2009 Report Posted September 12, 2009 T. Mom, is one round of abx enough for the dog, or is this something you need to check regularly like you would a human?
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