Since January 21, 2009, Veterinary Public Health has received reports
from several veterinary clinics that they were seeing an increasing
number of dogs with watery and bloody diarrhea. Thus far, 53 official
reports have been received, with an estimated 120 or more cases being
seen at four veterinary clinics in the San Fernando Valley since January
1st.

The first 29 case reports were reviewed. The primary symptoms have
been diarrhea (96.6 %) and vomiting (75.9%), with about half having
bloody stool. Recovery rate has been variable, with about 20% having a
waxing and waning of symptoms. The average age was 5 years, with a
range of 2 months to 13 years. About half were small breed dogs.

Locally, increases in Canine Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis (HGE) have
been report during the winters of 2004, 2005 and 2006. Veterinary
Public Health gathered reports and tested many stool samples during
previous outbreaks, but was not able to identify a definitive cause.
With the clustering of reported cases, it is suspected that a contagious
infection or food contamination may be causing these illnesses.
Preliminary investigation of these cases, and similar cases from
previous years, has not yielded any definitive evidence of bacterial or
viral infection. Studies are on-going, but there is no evidence to date
that this outbreak is linked to the current Salmonella outbreak in
people.

Veterinarians who see potential cases of HGE are requested to complete
the attached “Canine Diarrhea and HGE Report Form” and fax it, along
with relevant laboratory reports, to our office (fax# 562-401-7112).
Please let us know if we can contact the dog owner to obtain additional
information if needed. We may contact you about submitting stool
specimens, as we attempt to determine the cause of the outbreak.

I would like to thank Dr. George Cuellar of the Southern California
Veterinary Hospital and Dr. Nada Khalaf of VCA McClave Animal Hospital
for reporting this outbreak. Participation by local veterinarians is
essential to make our local animal disease surveillance effective, and
such reports are a value to the entire animal health community.

As always, please contact our office at 562-401-7088 if you have any
questions.

Karen Ehnert, DVM, MPVM
Senior Veterinarian
County of Los Angeles
Department of Public Health
Veterinary Public Health
562-401-7088
kehnert@ph.lacounty.gov


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