Superbugs and your pet: On the rise
By Gina Spadafori
May 27, 2008
Christie’s writing about drug-resistant staph infections in pets for her “Your Whole Pet” column for SFGate.com, the online home of the San Francisco Chronicle. That piece won’t be up until Wednesday, but you can get a preview by checking out the transcript of her extended interview with veterinary dermatologist Dr. Laura Stokking:
Dr. Stokking is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Dermatology, and has published several book chapters and reviews in veterinary dermatology and has lectured veterinarians at national and local conferences. She is active in educating general practitioners in San Diego County on recognizing and treating resistant staph infections in companion animals.
[...]
CHRISTIE KEITH: Are you seeing a lot of MRSI in your practice?
DR. LAURA STOKKING: I certainly am, and certainly more than I saw a year ago this time.
CHRISTIE KEITH: Do you think it’s being diagnosed more or do you think it’s more prevalent? And what do you suggest to general practitioners?
DR. LAURA STOKKING: I think it’s definitely a combination of both, being diagnosed more and also more prevalent.
I’m basically recommending to general practitioners that they do cultures if something does not respond the way we think it should. So if a pet has been on the standard antibiotics that have been working for years like cephalexin and clavamox and all those things that have worked for canine skin infections for decades, if they see a change where the pet is on those drugs and they’re not working, then a culture needs to be done so we can treat based on the culture result to know exactly what the issue is, what the organism is and what the best ways to treat that organism are.
Here’s the rest. We’ll put up the article (and the transcript link, again) when Christie’s article is up on SFGate.com.
As long as docs, animal and human insist on troweling on the antibiotics as the first - and usually only - course of treatment the situation is only going to get worse.
With older, more practical and ultimately more effective vets aging out and a new generation trained in the new religion of miracle drugs the situation will only get worse too.
Certainly, no one wants to go back to the days when a scratch could kill you or your dog but when a vets first reaction to a skin infection is systemic (pills or shots) anti-biotics then we have to start taking a long hard look at what vets are learning and whether we make the right assumptions in selecting a vet as well.
New is not necessarily better. Its just new. As well as untested.
Comment by Bernard J. (Bernie) Starzewski — May 27, 2008 @ 7:49 pm
The June issue of National Geographic has a one page blurb about the revival of the topical medicinal use of honey and not just any honey. The kind with the most antibacterial properties comes from manuka trees, which grow in New Zealand.
Apparently hospitals in Asia and Europe have been using bandages infused with it for a number of years now in their wound and burn centers. I tried to find the page on the web to post a link, but it seems to only be in the hard copy.
Comment by Susan Fox — May 27, 2008 @ 8:07 pm
I’m curious to know if anyone has looked at the synergistic relationship between staph and C. albicans which was described by Eunice Carlson in connection with Toxic Shock Syndrome. There seems to be a similar action in the MRSI, and C. albicans is so common in dogs anymore that many consider it “normal” - which it clearly isn’t.
Comment by Sally Santeford — June 29, 2008 @ 12:21 pm