Introduction & E.coli
 

Hi my name is Marjan, I'm Dutch but have lived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the past 8 years. I have 5 cats; one which I took from Holland she is now 16, 3 brothers I picked up from the street and another one that ended up in my garden 8 years ago and is now domesticated. also have 5 dogs: a shepherd, 2 street dogs, a dog that is limping and has been in a cage for 4 years and a Rhodesian ridgeback puppy.

I came to this forum as I am looking for an explanation why my dog died or what I could/should have done. My oldest Shepherd Bob died 3 weeks ago. Seemingly nothing seemed really wrong only that he lost appetite on Friday and struggled with his daily walk on Saturday. took him to the vet on Sunday who gave him antibiotics. Tuesday he was admitted and put on a drip as he also stopped drinking on Monday and he kept on vomiting. Thursday he died after heavy diarrhoea ending in blood. Other symptoms were a very high heart rate, enlarged spleen, sediment in the gal bladder and high count of white blood cells.

Post mortum showed he had E.coli. I'm so extremely sad this happened and would like to know what I could have done or how to prevent my other dogs getting this.

:grouphug: I am sorry for your loss

It would have been from something he ate or drank, possibly a contaminated stream or pond which could have been heavily contaminated by animal or human feces. Raw meats can also contain e coli, possibly from a dead animal or meat that had been tossed in the garbage or simply was bad

Did he have opportuntity to wander off where he could have ate a dead animal or raw meat someone threw out, drank out of any large puddle, pond or stream that may have been contaminated by animal or human waste.


This has occured in greyhounds at the race tracks as a result of getting contaminated meat as part of their racing diet where the dogs became sick and many died , but they call it alabama rot as the skin will also develops ulcers but it is rare to occur in other dogs, but in reality it may happen a lot more than we are aware as most pet owners will not do post mortems so the cause of death is never known, but in greyhounds it is noticed right away, with 1000 to 2000 greyhounds all at one track all being feed the same meat and several hundred getting sick all at the same time, vets and scientists are rushed in and deceased dogs are immediately taken to university hospitals to find answers fast just incase the problem is contagious.
Nowadays the greyhounds are fed higher grades of ground beef instead to prevent this from happening

[QUOTE]ALABAMA ROT:

Alabama Rot has long been a "mystery" disease among racing greyhounds. It was originally thought to be contagious. Racing greyhounds with the disease were found with open, weeping sores. In some dogs the sores healed on their own; in others , there was liver involvement and the dogs died in a matter of days.



Researchers at Kansas State University have done a study to try and determine the cause of Alabama Rot. After eliminating several possibilities, they took healthy dogs and fed them 4D Meat in an attempt to duplicate the symptoms of Alabama Rot. The study concluded that the Bacteria E. coli, which is found in 4D Meat is the cause of Alabama Rot. 4D (meaning Dead, Dying, Diseased or Disabled) meat can come from cattle , sheep, poultry, goats, horses , roadkill or even bodies of cats and dogs euthanized at animal shelters. 4D meat is apparently widely fed to racing greyhounds because it is high in protein and it is cheap (approx. 40 cents per pound) .
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THis link goes into a bit of detail [URL="http://www.jbardag.com/pets/ecolibacteria.html"]http://www.jbardag.com/pets/ecolibacteria.html[/URL]