Is it true that my dog can be poisoned by eating raw salmon?
One of my professors once told me; “…any day you don’t learn something new is a day wasted.” Today was not wasted. Until today, I didn’t know about Salmon Poisoning Disease.
Dogs and other canids such as wolves, fox, coyotes, that eat RAW anadromous fish (fish that are born in fresh water spend most of their life in the ocean then return to fresh water swimming upstream to breed) are susceptible. Examples of anadromous fish are salmon, some species of trout, smelt, shad, striped bass and sturgeon. The Pacific giant salamander has also been incriminated, but your dog must be very special to catch and eat one of these.
This is another disease, like Lyme disease, caused by a parasite vector, in this case a fluke named Nanophyetus salminicola. These flukes can be infected with a nasty bacteria known as, Neorickettsia helminthoeca. If your dog eats raw fish infested with these flukes, they attach to the dog’s intestine and release the bacteria. If the flukes do not harbor the bacteria, the dog usually shows no sign of a problem. Cats, raccoons, bears and maybe even sushi-loving humans can eat raw fish containing the parasite with the bacteria but don’t get sick. However, the same fluke can also harbor Neorickettsia elokominica. This bacteria causes a similar disease known as Elokomin fluke fever in canids, bears, raccoons and ferrets.
Signs of Salmon poisoning are; vomiting, lack of appetite, high fever, diarrhea, weakness, swollen lymph nodes and dehydration. Some, or all of these signs, manifest within six days after your dog eats infected raw fish. The bad news is that ninety percent of dogs with salmon poisoning die within a week or two if they are not treated. The good news is that treatment is usually straightforward and successful, if diagnosed early. The key for your veterinarian is you providing the information that your dog ate raw fish.
Your veterinarian makes a positive diagnosis by finding the eggs from the parasite in your dog’s feces and/or finding the rickettsial organism in a needle sample from a swollen lymph node. The treatment involves killing the parasite in your dog’s gut and treating the bacterial infection with an appropriate antibiotic. If the dog is seriously dehydrated, fluid therapy may be indicated.
So, Fido gets no sushi! You, my friend, are on your own.
Dogs and other canids such as wolves, fox, coyotes, that eat RAW anadromous fish (fish that are born in fresh water spend most of their life in the ocean then return to fresh water swimming upstream to breed) are susceptible. Examples of anadromous fish are salmon, some species of trout, smelt, shad, striped bass and sturgeon. The Pacific giant salamander has also been incriminated, but your dog must be very special to catch and eat one of these.
This is another disease, like Lyme disease, caused by a parasite vector, in this case a fluke named Nanophyetus salminicola. These flukes can be infected with a nasty bacteria known as, Neorickettsia helminthoeca. If your dog eats raw fish infested with these flukes, they attach to the dog’s intestine and release the bacteria. If the flukes do not harbor the bacteria, the dog usually shows no sign of a problem. Cats, raccoons, bears and maybe even sushi-loving humans can eat raw fish containing the parasite with the bacteria but don’t get sick. However, the same fluke can also harbor Neorickettsia elokominica. This bacteria causes a similar disease known as Elokomin fluke fever in canids, bears, raccoons and ferrets.
Signs of Salmon poisoning are; vomiting, lack of appetite, high fever, diarrhea, weakness, swollen lymph nodes and dehydration. Some, or all of these signs, manifest within six days after your dog eats infected raw fish. The bad news is that ninety percent of dogs with salmon poisoning die within a week or two if they are not treated. The good news is that treatment is usually straightforward and successful, if diagnosed early. The key for your veterinarian is you providing the information that your dog ate raw fish.
Your veterinarian makes a positive diagnosis by finding the eggs from the parasite in your dog’s feces and/or finding the rickettsial organism in a needle sample from a swollen lymph node. The treatment involves killing the parasite in your dog’s gut and treating the bacterial infection with an appropriate antibiotic. If the dog is seriously dehydrated, fluid therapy may be indicated.
So, Fido gets no sushi! You, my friend, are on your own.
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Clark
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Oct 13, 2011 02:23PM
David, Amazing how different species react to the same food or bacteria. Strange that we humans are not affected by the bacteria that kills canines. We usually think that dogs can eat things we cannot because, for one thing, their enzymes kill bacteria (after all dogs drink from toilets). Yet here's case where it's the opposite.
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That is why science has always fascinated me. There are a lot more things we don't understand than those we do understand, or think we understand. We are just beginning to unravel some of the mysteries of immunology, particularly why some individuals don't get sick when exposed to a bacteria or virus and others do.
Yes, or why most people can eat a certain food (e.g. peanuts) while others become deathly ill from it. We're all the same species, yet there are these amazing differences in our genetic material.
