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Why the ? "Do you have a dog?"


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Im almost scared to ask-because we have a dog who we love dearly. Ive read on this forum, of doctors asking new patients if they own a dog, so now im wondering why .I hope it isnt the dog infecting a person with something. Does anyone know? My dear dog and I await an answer. Angela

Edited by kengela
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From your post, I'm not sure who was asking the question or in what context, but . . .

 

Dogs can have strep and/or be strep carriers, just like people, so maybe that was behind the question? :)

 

We had my in-law's dog tested (b/c my children are small and get licked in the face, etc.) and she came back positive for....drum roll please......group A strep! The vet thought we were crazy but we needed to know! So now my kids are not aloud in the same room as the dog when they go over (we are not as strict with this with our 5 yo b/c we just tell him not to touch the dog). Our doc tells me to keep the kids away from dogs. We do our best. Everywhere we go someone has a dog. You can only do so much.

 

You could actually treat the dog with penicillin if it ever becomes an issue.

 

Stephanie

 

Stephanie

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O M G! And I thought I knew everything!!! I know that dogs carry a lot of other nasty stuff- Toxocara canis, and cats carry Toxocara cati, both of which can reach the eye and cause permanent blindness, but Strep??? We are just no match for microbes. They will one day rule the world!

 

 

 

 

 

From your post, I'm not sure who was
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HOLY COW...I mean DOG!

 

O M G! And I thought I knew everything!!! I know that dogs carry a lot of other nasty stuff- Toxocara canis, and cats carry Toxocara cati, both of which can reach the eye and cause permanent blindness, but Strep??? We are just no match for microbes. They will one day rule the world!

 

 

 

 

 

From your post, I'm not sure who was
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We took our dogs in to the vet to be tested for strep but we were told that to swab them correctly (so very far back in their throats) they would need to be asleep! Instead the vet offered to treat the dogs with heavy antibiotics and that is what we did--appeared to be a prudent choice and cheaper--

:)

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tmom, How nice of your vet,no eye rolling or suggestion that you shouldnt believe everything you read on the internet? he just used commonsense and treated the dog? Too bad hes not a people doctor!

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Personally, I wouldn't panic about any dogs...although I don't have a problem with treating your dog with antibiotics if it makes anybody feel better (probably cheaper and easier than doing a culture). It's extremely rare for dogs to carry Group A strep (GABHS). The can carry Group G strep...which is something totally different. (To put things in perspective, I would be much much more worried about carrier children in school, etc.)

 

Here is some research on the topic.

 

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.

 

ONLY 1% of the strep positive dogs were positive for GABHS (this is not 1% of all dogs...since only a percentage of dogs culture positive in the first place).

 

 

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.

 

So the studies that did find a (small) association were flawed.

 

 

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.”

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Thanks EA mom! We promised the girls a puppy this summer- so it is nice to see that research.

 

I think animals are SO important for our kids.

 

Pet therapy!

Ditto, EAMom!

 

We have a dog we love who's grown up with DS, and I've been walking around for a while now, worrying about whether or not she could be contributing to the harboring of strep in the house. It's nice to know the odds are against that!

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We took our dogs in to the vet to be tested for strep but we were told that to swab them correctly (so very far back in their throats) they would need to be asleep! Instead the vet offered to treat the dogs with heavy antibiotics and that is what we did--appeared to be a prudent choice and cheaper--

:ph34r:

 

 

My dog gets doxicycline(sp) every day with her breakfast..Got to cover everything

 

Melanie

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Im almost scared to ask-because we have a dog who we love dearly. Ive read on this forum, of doctors asking new patients if they own a dog, so now im wondering why .I hope it isnt the dog infecting a person with something. Does anyone know? My dear dog and I await an answer. Angela

 

 

Just wanted to let you all know that my dr suggested getting my dogs tested for strep 2 weeks ago and the vet called yesterday to let me know they were both positive. I could not believe it. Both dogs have been put on amox for 2 weeks. no one else in the family has tested positive so Doc thinks the dog is the carrier. its crazy!!!

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Im almost scared to ask-because we have a dog who we love dearly. Ive read on this forum, of doctors asking new patients if they own a dog, so now im wondering why .I hope it isnt the dog infecting a person with something. Does anyone know? My dear dog and I await an answer. Angela

 

 

Just wanted to let you all know that my dr suggested getting my dogs tested for strep 2 weeks ago and the vet called yesterday to let me know they were both positive. I could not believe it. Both dogs have been put on amox for 2 weeks. no one else in the family has tested positive so Doc thinks the dog is the carrier. its crazy!!!

 

I'll be it's strep G and not GABHS (Group A)...can you ask the vet what kind of strep it was? There was another parent who posted the same thing a year or so ago, but then later found out it was just strep G!

Edited by EAMom
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