Introduction: Lymphoma is a very common and often an aggressive cancer in dogs. Chemotherapy improves quality of life and extends lifespan of diagnosed dogs, but most dogs eventually die from their diseases. Immunotherapy is a new form of cancer treatment, aiming to target the cancer with the body’s own immune system. We have developed a treatment vaccine for lymphoma (NOT for cancer prevention), using an animal’s own cancer protein. Results of a safety clinical trial showed that the vaccines [...]

Attention dog owners! There has been another confirmed case of Leptospirosis earlier this month  in a dog that lived in Crows Nest.  The dog was not vaccinated against Leptospirosis and sadly had to be euthanised due to kidney failure. We were unable to identify the causative strain (serovar) in this dog as the dog died so quickly that it did not have time to  develop an antibody response. The previously reported strain (serovar) known as Copenhageni was identified as [...]

Attention dog owners! There has been another confirmed case of Leptospirosis this week in a dog that lives in Balmain.  The dog had been in contact with rats and was not vaccinated against Leptospirosis. The dog has been treated at UVTHS this week and fortunately appears to be recovering.  Preliminary results show that the previously reported strain (serovar) known as Copenhageni has been the cause in both this dog and another reported dog from Newtown last week, however further [...]

Sadly, there has been another confirmed case of Leptospirosis this week in a dog living in Newtown.  The dog was not vaccinated against Leptospirosis and sadly had to be euthanised due to severe kidney failure. We are currently still investigating which strain (serovar) has been the cause. This is the first case of Leptospirosis this year and the first case reported in Newtown. Last year we saw 8 cases from May to November and these were from Surry Hills, [...]

There have been no further cases of Leptospirosis reported since December. The total case number is now 11 with 8 cases diagnosed since May 2019.  All dogs were from Surry Hills, Darlinghurst , Redfern and Glebe and all died or were euthanised. It is important to note that the recent weather (warm with heavy rainfall) may result in conditions conducive to another increase in case numbers. Therefore, please remain vigilant! We again want to emphasize the importance of considering [...]

The latest from UVTHS' canine medicine specialist, Dr Christine Griebsch 20th August 2019 Unfortunately another dog has died from Leptospirosis at our hospital on the 10th of August. The case was confirmed as a definite positive last week and we were able to identify serovar Copenhageni as the strain of Leptospira infecting this dog. Copenhageni is the serovar that we are currently vaccinating dogs for. This case brings the case number up to 7 confirmed cases. Two cases were [...]