Tommy Coyote Posted August 28, 2014 Report Share Posted August 28, 2014 There is a new dog park here in Parkville, Mo that just opened in June. So far hundreds of dogs have visited the park. Two dogs that visited the park have come down with Dysautonomia which is a disease of the neurological system and is mostly fatal. (So does that mean that some dogs survive? I don't know). It is also called Key-Gaskell Syndrome. There was some kind of rumor going around Parkville that dogs were getting the disease at the dog park. So the City of Parkville put out a media announcement stating that there is no reason to think the dogs got the disease at the park. Although visiting the park was one thing both dogs had in common. They don't know what causes the disease so no one knows how it is spread. And there is no treatment, I guess. It is more common in cattle country and out in rural areas. Has anyone heard of this or know of a dog that had it? Is this really rare? One of my customers just had to have her old dog put down because he started having all kinds of just weird neurological stuff going on. Came on suddenly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMP Posted August 28, 2014 Report Share Posted August 28, 2014 Wow. There's something you don't hear of very often. Personally, I would not take my dog to that park. Although no one seems to know what causes this condition, no one can say for certain that it is not passed on in some way between dogs. I have only heard of this condition via anecodtal evidence and all I know about it is that it is almost always fatal and the end is slow and terrible with body functions stopping one by one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debbie Meier Posted August 28, 2014 Report Share Posted August 28, 2014 Have not heard of it, but this article answers a lot of your questions http://www.laramieboomerang.com/articles/2014/07/27/news/doc53d47a1a905e8615884227.txt It mentioned that it shows up in places with disturbed soil where they has been building, so could be coming from the dog park if there was soil moved when they built it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GentleLake Posted August 28, 2014 Report Share Posted August 28, 2014 From what I see of it online, it seems pretty much confined to MO and KS in the US. If hundreds of dogs have visited the new park in a short length of time and it's been an ongoing problem in the area, I'd be hesitant to blame it in the park, especially since method of transmission seems to be poorly understood. http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=22+1275&aid=3366 http://www.vetbook.org/wiki/dog/index.php/Dysautonomia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simba Posted August 28, 2014 Report Share Posted August 28, 2014 I am not going to say it wasn't caused by the park, but I will say that you can have odd coincidences. Sooner or later you're going to have two cases of a rare disease in the same place, and because it's rare people will talk about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debbie Meier Posted August 28, 2014 Report Share Posted August 28, 2014 Park just opened in June, the thing to watch is to see if more cases turn up over the next 6 months or not. And if, and big if, if what ever is the source is at the park it may be contained to one specific place that many dogs never encounter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Coyote Posted August 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2014 That park was completely flooded for months the last time we had a flood here in Parkville - about 3 years ago. Once the water receded the whole area was redone. The dog park is right on the river and used to by farmland where they grew soy beans. So that whole area has been disturbed just recently. And all that river water was polluted by everything under the sun. That's an interesting idea. I just don't like the idea of dog parks. I know that lots of people love them because that is the only place they have where their dogs can just run. But I just can't get past the disease thing. With so many dogs coming from from who knows where the chances of getting some sort of illness are just too high. I have lived here forever and I have never heard of that illness before. And it's mainly Missouri and Kansas. Who knew? One thing I read said that it mostly affects young dogs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Coyote Posted August 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2014 A new article I just read said the big problem is with rural dogs. Or dogs that are let to roam. There is a much bigger problem with this stuff in the UK and Europe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gideon's girl Posted August 30, 2014 Report Share Posted August 30, 2014 There are a few diseases associated with wild animal urine and that's what I always think of when strange diseases pop up in rural areas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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