My dogs, one by one, have come down with a 36 hour intestinal bug. Some vomiting, diarrhea. We had a week of that awful, damp weather. Anyone else's dog get sick? One dog was at a show two weeks ago, but he is fine.

Yes - it has run through all of my Labs. Two were over it in 48 hours, the third was 7 weeks post-whelp and due to that, she was hit terribly hard - requiring IV fluids once, and then a rush back to the Vet 2 days later after more violent vomiting and dehydration - it happened very fast. It had migrated into pancreatitis, basically - she was put on fluids again and also IV antibiotics, kept from the pups. Put on a low residue diet - she is fine now a week later.

The pups never contracted it. This is a nasty virus, if your dog is old or somehow health compromised or taking care of her litter, keep the dog away from others in your brood who have it as best you can.

3 weeks ago my 14 year old Jet had the worst diarrhea I've ever had in a dog. He was up all night and couldn't stop going. I took him to the vet in the morning for fluids and he got a shot of cerenia. He was knocked flat for 2 days, and I was afraid it was going to kill him. He survived it, thank God; but I feel for anyone experiencing this with their dogs. My 10 year old Nikki was fine. My vet did say they were seeing a higher number of cases of vomiting and diarrea. It is nasty and your dogs will be really sick if they get what my poor sweet boy had.

There were reports on the local news here of a new strain of influenza. There is a vaccine available for it that involves a booster after the initial shot. Check with your vet and stay away from dog parks, etc. I plan to just take the dogs into the show ring and back to the car then potty off show grounds in hopes of avoiding it. Not sure if it is a problem at the shows yet but better safe then sorry.
Traci

My Vet said he had seen numerous cases of this virus - but mostly from people who went to dog parks or doggy day care, of which my girls do not visit. However, they are walked in the neighborhood daily, and could have picked up the virus from anywhere. It is nasty, for sure. I could have lost my post-whelp girl, the second round of vomiting hit suddenly and hard, and I was able to get her in that Sunday morning.

My Vet said he had seen numerous cases of this virus - but mostly from people who went to dog parks or doggy day care, of which my girls do not visit. However, they are walked in the neighborhood daily, (except the nursing dam) and could have picked up the virus from anywhere. It is nasty, for sure. I could have lost my post-whelp girl, the second round of vomiting hit suddenly and hard, and I was able to get her in that Sunday morning.

I still cannot believe, though very relieved, that the pups did not contract it.

When these things are going around don't hesitate to ask if you can show the bite to the judge yourself at a show. We get in the habit of doing it ourselves as it is usually faster, but I don't know a judge who minds the handler doing it to avoid spreading illness. Take the time to practice so you can do it fairly easily as we only have so much time to examine each dog. It can be a challenge for a puppy but if you get them used to it they shouldn't struggle. If anyone needs help learning how to show the bite just ask an experienced breeder, or one of the handlers to show you. Some of the other breeds do this routinely and the handlers are very good at it.
Traci

I think showing the bite yourself might prevent some infection, but it seems that it is on the ground where the dogs walk, then they clean their feet. So do you avoid shows altogether, disinfect the dogs' feet, or just use something as a prophylactic like Tylan?

Good point Traci - about showing your own dog's bites.

Here in the northwest we have not had significant rain in over 80 days - tomorrow the rains start - so the mushroom growth will be huge and sudden - good point to check the dog yard in a day or 2 after the rains start.

It's a very bad idea to give antibiotics willy nilly.