Report Of Bodie's Skin Biopsy From Ohio State

[Guest Bodie]

I received a call from Ohio State Veterinary Hospital yesterday. The results of Bodie's skin biopsy came back. He does not have autoimmune disease as first thought. Now they are thinking he has methicillin-resistant staphylococcus. In other words, a nasty staph infection that tends to be antiobiotic-resistant.

 

Ohio State wants our local vet to do another set of skin biopsies, at their direction, and return them for further study on what type of antiobiotic to use. He may even need to have antibiotic injections. They also want a rundown of all the antibiotics he has had so far. Since none of them have worked, they want to know what not to use.

 

Ohio State told me they are seeing more and more cases of this. Poor Bodie's feet have really been bothering him since his last biopsy. They are inflamed and scabby. He only gets up to eat or go out. I hate to see my happy boy suffer so much.

 

Has anyone else ever dealt with this? What is the prognosis? I'm very worried about my boy.

 

Rhonda

[Guest greytmonty]

Rhonda, I am going to email you later. I am so sorry about this diagnosis and I confess I know nothing about it in dogs. However my cousin and also a friend's daughter both had this last summer. It was serious but treatable. They both required major IV antibiotics and both were hospitalized for a portion of their care.

I hope GT'ers know more re staph and dogs.

You are in my thoughts!

Karen

[Jackandgrey]

Certainly it is a growing concern in humans but I confess, I have never heard of it in dogs! Please do keep us posted and hugs and scritches to your Bodie and his poor feet. I've been wondering how he's been doing.

[Guest LynnM]

Cool! That'll be a lot easier to fix than an autoimmune problem. This is actually VERY GOOD NEWS.

 

With any luck, a culture and sensitivity will show the bug to be sensitive to something oral and relatively inexpensive.

 

Even if you have to use something injectable, meds like Amikacin, while they hurt like a royal SOB, are pretty safe and inexpensive (I think I paid $38/bottle X 3 bottles, plus fluids the last time I needed it for a dog). Other injectables can only be given for a certain length of time before having to switch up, as they can be quite toxic to the kidneys, but there ARE plenty of options out there. The C&S will tell your vet what he needs.

 

Word of advice if you do have to use injectables, even if fluids don't HAVE to be given (some require SQ fluids to support/protect the kidneys) it helps with the pain factor to run a few hundred cc's under the skin and THEN slowly inject the meds. There's no way in the world that I can get 10 cc's of Amikacin (or other large dose of abx) in a dog otherwise, especially if I'm doing it without someone restraining the dog.

 

Lynn

Edited June 6, 2007 by LynnM

[Xan]

Yikes! Do you know where/how he got it? I have read of this kind of thing being picked up in contaminated waterways (lagoons, bays with poor circulation, that kind of thing).

I hope it turns out to be treatable and short-lived!! Good luck to you both!

[Guest Bodie]

Yikes! Do you know where/how he got it? I have read of this kind of thing being picked up in contaminated waterways (lagoons, bays with poor circulation, that kind of thing).

I hope it turns out to be treatable and short-lived!! Good luck to you both!

 

I have no idea where he got it. My very brief reading on the internet said it can occur after a serious injury, but he hasn't had a serious injury. We very seldom take him for walks outside the neighborhood (and that is asphalt walking), when we do go somewhere it is usually to a greyhound function. Also, there are no dog parks in this area so he couldn't have picked it up there. I'm stumped.

[Guest Scouts_mom]

I don't know anything about antiobiotic-resistant staph, but my sister's collie had antiobiotic-resistant pnemonia a couple of years ago. He made it and is a happy healthy ( and only slightly spoiled) dog today. Bodie is in good hands and getting lots of white light from GTers. We'll be keeping him and you in our thoughts.

 

[Guest LynnM]

Sometimes these things just happen. I fostered a dog a couple of years back that had an infection resistant to darn near everything except Gentamicin. Okay, I'll admit that the kennel compound here is home to all sorts of funk, but it's normally basic, run of the mill funk- nothing exotic. This boy's bug stumped the folks at Antech- the C&S only listed a "best guess" as to genus/species. Their speculation was Propionibacterium, which is most commonly known as the fairly benign crud that causes teenage acne.... not exactly known for evolving into a "superbug" of any sort.

 

Lynn

[Guest greytmonty]

The two humans I know who got it never did find out how they were exposed, I think staph is one of those weird scary things that can come out of nowhere seemingly.