Strep Culture Entire Family - But the Dog?

[ShannonOtown]

My son was dx this past Summer, so we are currently making our rounds of testing everyone in family for strep.

I just recently tested my non-pandas daughter and I'm getting cultured myself in the morning... husband is next. My primary physician reminded me today to test the dog, which I have heard many times on this forum. In fact she suggested that the dog get tested first!

 

Has anyone found their dog's test positive?

 

Is throat culture enough to test for carrier? Primary doc suggest sinus swab/culture, since strep can move around the body?

[peglem]

I wonder, wouldn't it be cheaper to just treat everybody (including the dog) with antibiotics? For us, that would be 6 labs run for strep- insurance would pick up partial on that, but we'd still be stuck with a pretty hefty bill.

[ShannonOtown]

I agree. I just get nervous that a throat culture might not prove I'm a carrier (a negative/positive result) ... but I have read it's a 100%. So like you mention, just treat everyone. On the other hand, it would be nice to know if one of us has been holding the smoking gun the entire time. Blame the dog!

[EAMom]

I would definitely throat culture all the people (do the 72 hour culture if the rapid is neg). Follow anybody that was positive with a re-culture a few weeks later to make sure they have cleared on the prescribed antibioitcs.

 

If you just treat everyone (w/out doing cultures) then you would still want to follow-up with cultures to see if everyone is clear after abs...so you're not really saving yourself much (plus giving kids antibiotics can be a hassle). In other words, you would l have to culture everyone after antibiotics if you didn't know who was positive in the first place (you can't just assume that everyone cleared).

 

 

I don't know how easy it is to culture sinuses (I haven't heard of this being done)...perhaps it makes sense to treat individuals with signs of a sinus infection even if throat cultures are neg.

 

When first learned about pandas we throat cultured everyone (people--both kids were positive) and PANDAS dd also had a perianal culture (positive) due to some bloody discharge in the potty....insurance pretty much covered everything (maybe it depends on your plan). Our younger dd was positive on the rapid (no symptoms). We treated her with Augmentin. When we rechecked her culture a few weeks after (did only the 72 hour culture) that course of antibiotics she was still positive. She eventually cleared on Azith. (If you recheck the culture too soon after stopping the abs you may get a false neg).

 

 

If we had just treated everyone (which our docs wouldn't have consented to do anyway) we wouldn't have known that our younger dd was a strep carrier and to recheck her. People that are strep carriers one year tend to be carriers in subsequent years...so you know to keep an eye on them.

 

I don't believe that anyone on this forum has had a dog culture positive for GABHS. BTW, group G strep is a normal inhabitant in a dogs resp. flora. Personally, I feel that the theory that "dog's are big carriers of strep (meaning gabhs)" is an urban legend. There have been few studies done but they seem to all lean toward it being rare that a dog would a GABHS strep carrier and infect people. Other humans (family, friends, classmates) are a much more likely problem.

 

If you are still really worried about the dog....since culturing a dog wouldn't be covered by insurance (unless you possibly had pet insurance) financially, you would probably be better off just treating with antibiotics (if you are worried). Either way, I think the possiblity that the dog is causing problems is just really remote, IMO. I never cultured my dog (she was elderly, 16 years old, passed away in June) but I did happen to have her on antibiotics 2-3 times anyway in the past year due to dental/urinary issues...so I was espcially not worried about her harboring gabhs. I never noticed any correlation in my dd's symptoms when our dog was on abs (or not).

[bmom]

Just wanted to note about the dog question. During this whole PANDAS process, a lot of the time my dog started to gag a lot. I took him to the vet and the vet checked him out. They said he had inflammation in his throat, but did not know what from. The vet said he could not have strep, but I checked with another vet and they said he could. One PANDAS doctor we met with told us to check the dog. Soon after the visit to the vet, our dog passed away from old age. I still wonder if he many have been a carrier. We have had strep since too, so who knows.