By GLENN GARNETT
When I was a kid living in New Brunswick, friends of the family invited us to their cottage on the Gulf of St. Lawrence and our dog, a key member of our family, came along for the ride.
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Upon arrival at the cottage, our normally well-behaved dachshund became the Guest from Hell. Loosed on the wild for the first time in his life, his feral instincts leapt to the fore and he proceeded to terrorize the local critters, including a jackrabbit which he chased in and out of the woods for hours, reckless dashing onto a busy road to keep up with his prey. He returned from the hunt with a scab on his snout and burrs along his undercarriage, and capped his boorish performance that afternoon on the beach, where he located a particularly noxious smelling fish carcass to roll in.
We were eventually invited back - but our dog’s name was noticeably missing from the guest list.
Taking your dog or cat to the cottage is part of the fun of heading out to the country. But there are dangers you should be prepared for, and a vet will tell you that leaving your pet to its own devices isn’t a good idea.
Claire Mannella, DVM, has been a veterinarian for over 20 years, moving from a private practice in her native Montreal to academia to working in the biopharmaceutical industry in the U.S. For starters, she says courtesy to other outdoor lovers means keeping your dog or cat on a leash or under control or supervised, just as you would in the city. The same rules apply.
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“Getting pets into the great outdoors with family members is great, but I would encourage pet owners to think about things like tick-borne diseases (Lyme's disease is a great example) and heartworm disease (carried by mosquitoes),” she says.
Mannella also warns of foreign bodies getting into their ears like grass awns (that’s the stiff bristle on the top) or splinters into their footpads. Actinomycosis is a disease that hitches a ride on grass awns which can pass along to your pet.
To protect your animals’ health at the cottage, Mannella strongly recommends simple routines like making a trip to your local vet’s office to ensure that your pet is on heartworm prevention BEFORE putting it at risk. And every time your pet comes indoors, give it a close examination, making sure to look between its toes, behind and in their ears, and under their belly, for ticks or foreign bodies.
“Just run your hand everywhere, and if there is something that needs attention, you can take care of it right away,” she says. “These are simple, logical procedures to prevent the problem before it becomes serious.”
Because dogs aren’t too discriminating about what they’ll lap up or sniff, another thing to worry about is toxic algae. When it gets really hot, ponds loaded with the stuff can become a dangerous brew. Vets will also warn you leptospirosis, a bacterial infection which is spread through the urine of wild animals like raccoons, skunks and mice. Make sure your pet is innoculated against that - there’s a new vaccine.
Then there’s rabies. In southern Ontario, raccoon rabies have been in the news the past couple of years, so a surprise encounter with an infected animal can have serious consequences for your pet. Mannella says that because rabies is a zoonotic disease (transmissable to humans), its control remains a high priority in the veterinary community.
“Species susceptibility can vary, and foxes, coyotes, wolves and certain rodents are among the most susceptible,” she says. Skunks, raccoons, bats, rabbits, and cattle are also at great risk. Most rabies infections are due to the bite of an infected animal that has rabies virus in its saliva.
Interestingly, Mannella points out that cats are actually more resistant than dogs to infection, but that’s no reason to let down your guard, particularly as cat owners are more prone to letting their pets roam freely. Younger animals are usually more susceptible to rabies infection than older ones.
“In North America, rabies is predominantly a disease of wildlife, so keeping dogs and cats vaccinated is incredibly important, to maintain that barrier to human infection,” Mannella says.
One of the problems with rabies diagnosis is that it may not be immediately apparent your pet has been infected. Mannella says the period of incubation varies, based on the age of the animal, how much virus was innoculated into the muscle at the bite site, the distance to the spinal cord or brain, and what type of treatment was done after the biting incident, among numerous other factors. So incubation periods can vary from a few weeks to a year or more!
Mannella outlined a wide range of symptoms, which in its early stages can include signs like nervousness, apprehension, solitude and variable fever for the first two to three days. From there, it gets worse. Bottom line is, in most cases - pets, wildlife and people - the disease is considered to be invariably fatal after the onset of clinical signs. Make sure your pets get their shots at times proscribed by your vet!
Lyme's disease is another unwelcome gift your pet can bring you from the outdoors. It’s an illness caused by a spirochete bacteria which is transmitted to animals and man through the bite of infected ticks.
“For the spirochetes to transmit, it requires 48 hours of tick attachment,” Mannella says. “That’s a good argument for simply checking your pet each time they come in from outdoors, and removing any ticks that you see immediately - and for checking yourself!”
It may take a few minutes to detect ticks on your pet, but it’s immediately apparent if your dog’s had an unpleasant encounter with a skunk. It’s Mannella’s experience that dogs are far more likely than cats to get blasted and many of them will get the treatment several times before they finally take the hint.
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So what do you do with the smelly pooch? When she was in practice, Mannella generally told people to apply the time-honoured tomato juice first before trying some other type of home remedy, figuring the acidity of the juice was a good first line of defence against the acrid skunk spray. If you can get to a pet shop, there are products tailor-made for the job.
“I've seen things written about home remedies like baths in soap and water followed by a rinse in a diluted ammonia-water solution, one to two teaspoons of ammonia in one litre of water,” Mannella suggests. “I’ve also heard of rinsing them with vinegar and water solutions and even toothpaste!
“I also know of a method that recommends using Massengill douche - mixed as directed on the box, and poured over the dog. Don’t rinse,” she says, adding that putting petroleum jelly around the eye area is an excellent idea no matter what method you decide to try.
To avoid at least some of these perils, when packing for the cottage remember to take your pet’s best defence against trouble - his leash!
