Coughing up blood & bleeding in dog
In the latter stages of this disease your dog may-
* Develop a deep, dry cough typical of pulmonary edema
* Be a victim of unprompted hemorrhaging
* Cough up blood
* Bleeding from the nose
* Show severe signs of bruising
* Sometimes even the diarrhea turns bloody
Dr. Brad Fenwick describes the symptoms…
“Rapidly, spontaneous hemorrhaging typical of disseminated intravascular coagulation develops which is associated with coughing up blood, bleeding from the nose, severe bruising of the skin, and in some cases bloody diarrhea. Profound hypotension and toxic cardiomyopathy may develop. At this point, antibiotics and even with aggressive shock therapy are generally not sufficient to save these dogs….
…It looks very similar to a poisoning — similar to what can happen when a dog gets into rat poison. It’s more of a toxicosis than many other bacterial infections,”
Dr. Brad Fenwick, veterinarian Kansas State University
Consistent and important clinical finding
Dr. Fenwick notes that nearly all canines with Canine Streptococcal Toxic Shock Syndrome have a high temperature of over 105 degrees F. If your dog gets this disease, it is vital that he/she be treated immediately with antibiotic injections as well as clindamycin or crystalline penicillin-G. Timely intervention with these medications will increase the likelihood of your pet’s recovery.
A high mortality rate
A dog that shows the above symptoms and receives shock therapy and antibiotics may still not recover. According to Fenwick, the mortality rate for dogs that do not receive timely treatment is as high as 70-80 %. So if your canine shows the above symptoms don’t delay, rush him to your nearest and best vet as quickly as you can.
Catching the disease early enough and acting promptly, will greatly improve your pet’s chances of recovery.
Caused by a toxin
The cause of this disease is a toxin called ‘Toxic Shock Toxin’. This super-antigen short-circuits the immune system.
How it is diagnosed
You need to get a tissue sample from your dog to diagnose Canine Streptococcal Toxic Shock Syndrome.
A novel canine hereditary bleeding disorder
The Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, recently came across another rare hereditary bleeding disorder of dogs caused by a deficiency of platelet pro-coagulant activity.
“We have discovered a novel canine hereditary bleeding disorder with the characteristic features of Scott syndrome, a rare defect of platelet pro-coagulant activity.
Affected dogs were from a single, inbred colony and experienced clinical signs of epistaxis, hyphema, intramuscular hematoma, and prolonged bleeding with coetaneous bruising after surgery.
The haemostatic abnormalities identified were restricted to tests of platelet procoagulant activity, whereas platelet count, platelet morphology under light microscopy, bleeding time, clot retraction, and platelet aggregation and secretion in response to thrombin, collagen, and adenosine diphosphate stimulation were all within normal limits.
Washed platelets from the affected dogs demonstrated approximately twice normal clotting times in a platelet factor 3 availability assay and, in a prothrombinase assay, generated only background levels of thrombin in response to calcium ionophore, thrombin, or combined thrombin plus collagen stimulation.
While platelet phospholipid content was normal, flow cytometric analyses revealed diminished phosphatidylserine exposure and a failure of microvesiculation in response to calcium ionophore, thrombin, and collagen stimulation.
Pedigree studies indicate a likely homozygous recessive inheritance pattern of the defect. These findings confirm the importance of platelet procoagulant activity for in vivo hemostasis and provide a large animal model for studying agonist-induced signal transduction, calcium mobilization, and effector pathways involved in the late platelet response of trans-membrane phospholipid movement and membrane vesiculation.”
Brooks MB, Catalfamo JL, Brown HA, Ivanova P, Lovaglio J.
College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca