Your Afternoon Animal Fix + Information about a deadly virus affecting dogs

If you have any fun or interesting animal/pet photos please shoot me an email to princeofpetworth(at)gmail(dot)com with ‘Animal Fix’ in the title and say what neighborhood you’re from or upload to the PoPville flickr pool with your pets name and neighborhood. I can’t guarantee I’ll get them all posted but I’ll do my best.

“Here’s Coco (foreground) and Hugo relaxing on their balcony in Logan Circle.”

“CJ lives in Adams Morgan. I adopted her in June 2011 from Homeward Trails.”

“Phillip from Columbia Heights waking up from a crisp fall night.”

Info on deadly virus affecting dogs after the jump.

From an email:

“Our beloved Luna passed away this morning at an animal hospital in Fairfax, VA. She was brought there yesterday fighting for her life – The doctors believe that she most likely had a virus called Leptospirosis, which will be confirmed within a week from blood tests.

We are inconsolable with the loss of our little princess – She was the daughter of our first Jack Russell Terrier, Pippo, and the little girl in our family.

We would like to raise awareness of “Leptospirosis” – apparently, there is an epidemic according to the Veterinarian and the Animal Hospital. Please notify any dog owners that you may know to research this virus and take the highest precautions. Luna first showed symptoms late Sunday night, she was lethargic and had vomitted. It seemed as though Luna had a general stomach virus, which we have experienced before with both of our dogs and thought it would just pass.

To all DC residents – this is a major epidemic, specifically, here according to the Veterinarian due to the rat problem that we have. Leptospirosis is transmitted to dogs primarily through rat/possum/raccoon urine (that could be found in a puddle, stream, pond, etc) as well as from contact with rats and other infected dogs and infected dog urine. It is highly contagious between dogs and transmittable to humans.

There is a vaccine for Leptospirosis (speak to your veterinarian), however, like with most viruses with multiple strains – it can be of limited help (there are 7 different strains).

Note to cat owners – This does not affect cats.

We need to finally resolve the rat issue in DC immediately!

We would like to thank everyone for their support, the doctors and nurses at City Paws and South Paws and our dear friends Mat, Melissa and Ragnhild for their tremendous support and love these last few days.

Again, please forward this information to any dog owners you may know. This is a very serious virus that is lethal to dogs and humans as well.

We have attached a photo in Luna’s memory – she is on the left (with red collar) with her dad Pippo.”

Leptospirosis_in_Dogs