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Worms & Germs Blog

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Maureen Anderson
Scott Weese

Latest from The University of Guelph

The companion animal Ontario Animal Health Network has produced a series of mini-podcasts on COVID-19 precautions in veterinary clinics, featuring none other than Dr. Scott Weese.  Each mini-podcast features a quick 3-5 minute “lighting round” on common questions and topics – bite-sized bits for busy practitioners and clinic staff who may only have a few minutes to spare these days.  Current topics include: Avoid the 3 Cs: Crowding, close contact, confined spaces Rethinking clinic…
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I’m always on the lookout for good-looking, easy-access resources to help communicate (and to help others communicate) messages around safe and responsible pet ownership, which is how this blog got its start!  I also don’t like re-inventing the wheel when I don’t have to, and I appreciate that many organizations have people with vastly better design and layout skills than my own 😉 During the COVID-19 pandemic, the concern around the risks of SARS-CoV-2 both…
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Lyme disease vaccine is a non-core vaccine, meaning it’s not needed for all dogs in all areas. It’s an effective vaccine, and I’d consider it a reasonable vaccine to give to dogs in (or visiting) higher risk areas, especially when there might be owner compliance issues with tick preventive medication. Available tick preventatives are very good, but sometimes people forget to give them on time, so vaccination is a good backup plan for those situations…
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This is probably the vaccine about which I get the most questions when it comes to delays. Leptospirosis (aka lepto) is a regionally important and potentially life-threatening infection of dogs (and people) caused by serovars of the Leptospira bacterium. It’s generally considered a non-core vaccine, meaning it’s not needed for all dogs in all areas. However, it’s probably best considered a regionally core vaccine. If leptospirosis occurs where a dog lives or anywhere it to…
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In some ways, the approach to rabies vaccine is easy. In other ways, it’s complicated. To some degree, the medicine is easy, but other considerations (like regulatory requirements) cloud the picture. The medicine: Rabies vaccines are highly effective. A single initial dose provides at least 1 year of protection. The first dose is supposed to be given at 12 or 16 weeks (depending on the jurisdiction – rabies vaccines in Canada are labelled for use…
I’ve been dealing with questions (and some threats) about this issue for many months. How to handle overdue vaccines because of COVID delays? It’s a complex issue and one that’s hard to navigate because of limited data. We know how most vaccines work when used according to the label instructions. We don’t know much about things when use of those vaccines differs from the label instructions. Dr. Michelle Evason and I did a talk on…
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That may seem like a strange question, but bear with me and read on. Mink are back in the news, mainly with respect to vaccination against SARS-CoV-2. Mink are very susceptible to this virus, and it’s been shown that they can transmit it back to people. Perhaps more of a concern is that several mutant strains of the virus have also emerged in mink, though it’s not really surprising, since more transmission (especially with a…
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While the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated controversies continue to dominate our collective attention, much older, more familiar diseases are still out there too, causing their old familiar – and deadly – problems.  Rabies has once again reared its snarling head, this time in the small Arctic coastal community of Tuktoyaktuk, NWT. Rabies is considered endemic in arctic foxes in northern Canada and historic outbreaks have occurred cyclically. The current outbreak is shaping up…