THE GERMAN SHEPHERD SENTINEL
AUGUST 2006 - NEWSLETTER OF THE
GSDC OF GREATER RALEIGH
Pat Embrey, Newsletter Editor
1390 Sanders Road, Benson, NC 27504
PH: 919-934-6232, E-Mail: VonRillca@aol.com
Website: www.gsdcofgrraleigh.org
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Board Policy on Dogs at Club Sponsored Events
2. August Meeting Information
3. July Meeting Minutes
4. Leptospirosis
5. Roof Trotting Toddler Saved by Family GSD
6. Tick Removal
7. Vinegar Increases Killing Power of Bleach
8. Bleach to Control Flies
9. Cool Mat Instructions
BOARD POLICY ON DOGS AT CLUB SPONSORED EVENTS
The GSDC of Greater Raleigh welcomes your German Shepherd at our events, including meetings. However, the following rules must be followed:
1. Anyone with an aggressive dog (one that growls, snaps, or is in any way aggressive towards other dogs or people) must be muzzled.
2. Dogs will be free of loose hair and external parasites (fleas or ticks). Please brush your dog prior to bringing it to the meeting as we must clean up the room after we are finished.
3. For the safety of all members, guests and their dogs, it is strongly recommended that all dogs be kept up to date on their vaccinations. ALL dogs that are old enough, MUST have a current rabies shot.
AUGUST MEETING INFORMATION
The next meeting of the GSDC of Greater Raleigh will be held on Wednesday, August 2 at the Exchange Park on Spring Forest Road. Socialization will start at 7:00 PM with the program starting at 7:30 PM. Refreshments will be furnished by Frank Sanders.
Our program consists of a lecture by Dr. Denis Marcellin-Little DEVD with Animal Rehabilitation and Wellness Hospital entitled “Effectively Managing Osteoarthritis at All States of Life” with enough time allowed for questions and answers. Denis is an animated speaker with enough of a French accent to be very charming but easily understood, and a brilliant veterinarian with a wonderful perspective on veterinary medicine and physical rehabilitation. As GSDs have a tendency to get Arthritis as they get older, that should be an extremely interesting program. Hopefully we should have a good turnout of members and guests.
JULY 2006 MEETING MINUTES
Program: K-9 Officer Jeremy Burgin of the Cary Police Department brought his dog Max to our meeting to demonstrate some of the duties they perform. Max, a GSD Czech Republic import, is the only dog in Cary so far and is supported by many local donations. The hope is for the police department to eventually acquire 4 or 5 more dogs. Some of the duties performed by this canine team include building searches, article searches, drug searches, tracking suspects and suspect apprehensions. After taking us outside to see the inside of the specially equipped police vehicle, Officer Burgin demonstrated how Max would do a drug find. He also reminded us that the Police Dog Trials are held in Raleigh again this year at Cardinal Gibbons High School on October 18-21 and encouraged everyone to come out and see the competition. Thanks to Officer Burgin and Max for our program.
Meeting: The August 2 meeting will feature a vet discussing osteoarthritis in dogs. A tentative date of September 16 is set for the club picnic. Bill Pfeiffer is working on getting Royal Canin to sponsor our show again next year since they were so helpful in providing refreshments and food to this year’s show. He is also looking at buying our trailer after determining what repairs are necessary to put it on the road and getting a fair appraisal for it. Member Ellen Ransom has volunteered to be membership chair this year for our club. The AKC has passed the Working Dog Sport starting January 1, 2007 for a masters level title. The sport will be a cross between obedience, agility, tracking and bite work. Five breeds can offer the title: Bouviers, Rottweilers, Dobermans, Malinois and German Shepherds. The competition can only be offered by the parent clubs but they can do it more than once a year.
Third reading: James & Keri Teater
Welcome to the Club James and Keri
Treasurer’s Report: No report today.
Brags: Bill Pfeiffer’s Angel took 2 Best of Winners in Quebec, Canada and Reserves Winner for 2 days. A dog needs 10 points in Canada and she already has 5.
LEPTOSPIROSIS
Kansas State University Media Relations and Marketing
9 Anderson Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506-0117
785-532-6415; fax - 785-532-6418
Note: articles you receive from K-STATE_PETS may be reprinted in newsletters and other publications. You do not need to request specific permission.
1) Veterinarians See More Cases of Leptospirosis in Warm, Wet Weather
2) Sidebar: What To Do If Your Dog Has Leptospirosis
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1) Source: Dr. Kenneth Harkin, 785-532-5690
News release prepared by: Cheryl May, 785-532-6415, may@k-state.edu
VETERINARIANS SEE MORE CASES OF LEPTOSPIROSIS IN WARM, WET WEATHER
MANHATTAN -- If your dog is in the wrong place at the wrong time, its life could be in danger from exposure to leptospirosis.
Because many veterinarians see only one or two cases of leptospirosis each year, it is easy to miss the diagnosis.
Dr. Kenneth Harkin, a veterinarian at Kansas State University's Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, suggests dog owners ask their veterinarian for a lepto test if the dog shows:
* unexplained fever
* increased thirst and urination
* lumbar (back) pain
or if the dog is diagnosed with:
* kidney failure
* liver failure
* uveitis (inflammation of the eye)
There are a number of tests for lepto. Harkin said the "gold standard" is a serological test, the microscopic agglutination test, which is used by all veterinary diagnostic laboratories.
Harkin, one of the nation's foremost experts on leptospirosis, developed the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, test that can identify infection in some cases before they are serologically positive.
He said it is important to find a lab experienced in doing the PCR test. Other tests for lepto include the fluorescent antibody test and culture. The culture takes at least two weeks. The fluorescent antibody test and culture are not recommended for routine diagnostics.
There are numerous strains of leptospirosis and a vaccination has been available for two of them for 30 years. Today there is a newer vaccination that protects against four of the most common strains of lepto, and is said to cause fewer side effects. Harkin recommends vaccinating dogs against leptospirosis.
"Most cases result from contact with urine in contaminated water," Harkin said.
If your dog drinks from a contaminated pond, or has a cut on its foot and walks through a contaminated puddle of standing water, the dog can become infected.
Rainy weather provides conditions ideal for lepto, which can live in moist soil for up to 120 days.
A research study conducted by Harkin and colleagues found that housing developments that encroach on wildlife habitat lead to greater exposure of dogs to lepto carried by wildlife. Raccoons, possums, voles and rats are reservoirs of disease.
"This exposure is probably greater during the warm months of late spring through early fall, because of increased time spent outdoors by dogs," Harkin said.
A retrospective study of 1.8 million dogs examined at 22 veterinary teaching hospitals showed a significant increase in lepto in the U.S. and Canada since 1983. Male dogs of working and herding breeds were at
greater risk.
There is no reason to panic, Harkin said. If you identify lepto early, it can be cured with antibiotics.
Harkin's research found that German Shepherd Dogs contract lepto in greater proportion than other breeds.
"German Shepherd Dogs seem uniquely susceptible to the disease." Harkin said. "For this reason, I recommend that all German Shepherds be vaccinated regularly for leptospirosis."
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2) Source: Dr. Kenneth Harkin, 785-532-5690
News release prepared by: Cheryl May, 785-532-6415, may@k-state.edu
SIDEBAR: WHAT TO DO IF YOUR DOG HAS LEPTOSPIROSIS
MANHATTAN -- If your dog is infected with leptospirosis, it is important to prevent infection of other dogs and to protect yourself. Lepto is a zoonotic disease -- one that can be passed from dog to human through contact with contaminated urine.
Dr. Kenneth Harkin, a veterinarian at Kansas State University and an expert on the disease, has the following recommendations:
* Have your other dogs tested to see if they have been exposed.
* Ask your veterinarian if other dogs in your home should be given doxycycline or other antibiotics for a week or more as a preventive.
* Protect yourself from contact with urine. Wear eye protection, disposable latex gloves and consider a surgical mask while cleaning up urine. Cleaning with a household bleach solution will kill the lepto
bacteria.
* If you develop flu symptoms, tell your doctor that your dog has lepto so that you can get antibiotics as a precaution.
* When bathing your dog, soap the dog before adding water. The soap will kill the lepto bacteria, and prevent the water from turning the bacteria into an aerosol that could infect you.
* Keep your dog away from other dogs until your veterinarian says it is safe.
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An earlier K-State article on leptospirosis is at:
http://tinyurl.com/966ehROOF TROTTING TODDLER SAVED BY FAMILY DOG
An article that was on ABC and Action News.
The German Shepherd followed the toddler onto the roof, barking for help
July 16, 2006 - A Southwest Philadelphia toddler is safe tonight, thanks in large part to the family dog... who followed him up on the roof!
Neighbors on the 6300-block of Reedland were horrified early this morning when they saw a 23-month-old boy and a barking dog running along porch rooftops.
Patti Pertocelli/NEIGHBOR: "I heard something and when I looked up the baby was running back and forth across the roof with the German Shepherd dog."
The baby was little Phillip Redmond Jr. who'll be 2 next month and his family's female German Shepherd Alfie. While his parents were sleeping, Phillip apparently climbed from their bed and out a broken window onto the roof, followed by Alfie. Their footprints can still be seen on the black roofing material of the row houses.
Tina Mitchell/NEIGHBOR: "He was following the baby across. He was protecting the baby, making sure the baby was alright."
The toddler scampered across the rooftops of at least 8 homes. All the while Alfie stuck by, barking his head off. Finally a neighbor was able to grab him.
Shavyonn Robinson/NEIGHBOR: "First I had my hand sticking out trying to grab him. That's when he tried to run past cause he thought I was playing with him and he almost fell so I had to go out and get him."
Police arrived and transported Phillip and his mother, 20-year-old Katie Berkelback, first to the hospital to be checked out, then to the Special Victims Unit.
Phillip Redmond/FATHER: "They had a lot of questions for us. Real curious about what 2 parents were doing and how the child got out the window unattended. I was embarrassed but thankful he's fine."
Redmond says child welfare officials are involved and his son will be put in the care of relatives while an investigation is conducted. Meantime neighbors are marveling about how Alfie the pooch protected his little pal from what could have become a tragedy.
TICK REMOVAL
Information from the Internet
Please forward to anyone with children.. or hunters, etc!! thanks! or if you work in the yard, golf, fish, you name it!
A School Nurse has written the info below -- good enough to share -- And it really works!!
I had a pediatrician tell me what she believes is the best way to remove a tick. This is great , because it works in those places where it's some times difficult to get to with tweezers: between toes, in the middle of a head full of dark hair, etc.
Apply a glob of liquid soap to a cotton ball. Cover the tick with the soap-soaked cotton ball and swab it for a few seconds (15-20),the tick will come out on it's own and be stuck to the cotton ball when you lift it away. This technique has worked every time I've used it (and that was frequently), and it's much less traumatic for the patient and easier for me.
Unless someone is allergic to soap, I can't see that this would be damaging in any way. I even had my doctor's wife call me for advice because she had one stuck to her back and she couldn't reach it with tweezers. She used this method and immediately called me back to say, "It worked!"
VINEGAR INCREASES KILLING POWER OF BLEACH
Adding white vinegar to diluted household bleach greatly increases the disinfecting power of the solution, making it strong enough to kill even bacterial spores. Researchers from MicroChem Lab, Inc. in Euless, Texas, report their findings today at the 2006 ASM Biodefense Research Meeting.
Sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) in the form of laundry bleach is available in most households. The concentrate is about 5.25 to 6 percent NaOCl, and the pH value is about 12. Sodium hypochlorite is stable for many months at this high alkaline pH value.
"Laundry bleach is commonly diluted about 10 to 25-fold with tap water to about 2000 to 5000 parts per million of free available chlorine for use as an environmental surface disinfectant, without regard to the pH
value of the diluted bleach. However, the pH value is very important for the antimicrobial effectiveness of bleach," says Norman Miner, a researcher on the study.
At alkaline pH values of about 8.5 or higher, more than 90 percent of the bleach is in the form of the chlorite ion (OCl-), which is relatively ineffective antimicrobially. At acidic pH values of about 6.8
or lower, more than 80 percent of the bleach is in the form of hypochlorite (HOCl). HOCl is about 80 to 200 times more antimicrobial than OCl-.
"Bleach is a much more effective antimicrobial chemical at an acidic pH value than at the alkaline Ph value at which bleach is manufactured and stored. A small amount of household vinegar is sufficient to lower the
pH of bleach to an acidic range," says Miner.
Miner and his colleagues compared the ability of alkaline (pH 11) and acidified (pH 6) bleach dilutions to disinfect surfaces contaminated with dried bacterial spores, considered the most resistant to
disinfectants of all microbes. The alkaline dilution was practically ineffective, killing all of the spores on only 2.5 percent of the surfaces after 20 minutes. During the same time period the acidified
solution killed all of the spores on all of the surfaces.
"Diluted bleach at an alkaline pH is a relatively poor disinfectant, but acidified diluted bleach will virtually kill anything in 10 to 20 minutes," says Miner. "In the event of an emergency involving Bacillus
anthracis spores contaminating such environmental surfaces as counter tops, desk and table tops, and floors, for example, virtually every household has a sporicidal sterilant available in the form of diluted,
acidified bleach."
Miner recommends first diluting one cup of household bleach in one gallon of water and then adding one cup of white vinegar
The following two articles are repeats of articles that I put in the Sentinel last year, but if you are like me, you forget the details of things over the years. Hope you enjoy them.
BLEACH TO CONTROL FLIES
In reply to all the people who have asked about the original post on using bleach water to keep flies, etc., away...
It said 2 parts bleach to 5 or 6 parts water. I actually didn't have quite enough bleach in the house...but it was close. I used tap water and clorox (no scented clorox, just the plain stuff) and put it into a Tupperware pot.
The directions said it would take a few days to work, but it started working almost immediately.
Someone wrote me and said the bees were attracted to the bleach water...maybe they were using a scented bleach.
Where to put it? Wherever you need it and the dogs can't reach it.
I put mine on a table outside my back door, which is where all my dogs go in and out and where the flies and bees seemed to be the biggest problem. Every time I opened the door, in came the little pests (the flying ones)...now I can stand there and hold the door open and there are no flying critters.
I'm not the bleach water expert...whoever it was who put this on the list first deserves all the credit.
One of the other recipes was to put a chlorine tablet into a bucket of water... but using Clorox (unscented) was easier--and that was the recipe I used.
COOL MAT INSTRUCTIONS
Someone asked about cool mats a few days ago...I finally found the instructions for making your own. Here goes: Want to do it yourself, i.e. make a cool mat for your dog or the neckerchief for yourself and save some money? Go to your plant nursery and get a package of Polymer Granules, it will probably have a brand name but the stuff is the same, aka x-linked polyacrylamide. It has a fantastic adsorption rate—1 pound of the granules will hold 50 gallons of pure water, much less if high in minerals or salts. Lay out the size mat you think you'll want, top and bottom pieces, sew around three sides, sew parallel tubes about 1 ½ inches
wide. Put about 1 teaspoon of the granules per 12 inches of length of each tube. Sew across the 4th side. Place it in water, about 30 minutes will give you 1/2 absorption, 60-90 minutes should give 100% saturation.
If you find it;s too full or not full enough, leave it dry completely out several days and add or take out granules as you see the need. Take an ordinary bandana and make a cool collar for yourself.
The granules you don't use this way you can mix in with your soil for your plants as per the instructions that came with the stuff from the nursery-you won't have to water your plants the whole time you are off to the next show weekend.
MORE:
I hope some will find it useful. In response to another inquiry earlier today I related that I had used about 2 tsps per tube-18" long x 1 and 1/2" long. The mat hung on a clothes line for 5 days in 100 plus degrees - daytime temp - and still had a bit of moisture retention this pm at a low corner. If it had been laying on a flat surface I suspect it would have been quite functional yet today from its initial soaking 5 days ago.
AND MORE.....
I've done these beds using a standard pillowcase for the casing. When soaked, its just a little smaller than a 400 sized crate. I put 8 vertical channels and then divide each channel into 4 sections. Use about 1 teaspoon of crystals in each section.
The commercial ones have a laminated fabric covering that is closed with velcro. I haven't bothered with the coverings as I couldn't see how the dog cooled if it wasn't touching the damp covering. Has worked fine so
far. If the pillowcase you use is light colored, you may want to slip a second one over the "bed" so that you can wash the cover. The outer pillow case will still get and stay damp from the inner one with the crystals. If you want to do the covers, most fabric stores sell either the laminated fabric (for chair seat covers) or a plastic sheeting that can be fused to any regular fabric by ironing.
I found the crystals at a gardening store under the brand name Soil Moist. I've also purchased them from gardening supply catalogs (but can't seem to locate the catalog or # of the most recent place I got them)
If you cannot find them near you, call 1-800-962-4010 (JRM Chemical Inc. – who makes them) and ask for a distributor near you. They come in 1 pound (about $12US) and 3 pound (about $30US) containers.
For Canadians who cannot use a US 800#, JRM Chemical's address is 13600 Broadway Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44125
Peggy M
THE (REAL) EDITOR AT THE COMPUTER
