Alabama rot

[Wolfiefan]

Anxious first time dog owner here. I know this is rare but there's been a confirmed case in our county.
Is it in your area? Do you change your dog walking habits at all?
I don't know much about it. No specific cause or treatment suggested online. That scares me stupid.

[Thewolfsjustapuppy]

here and here
I refuse to get worried about this story, it's just. It worth my energy. I know I have only linked to blogs but I can't actually find any proper evidence that this disease actually exists.

[Wolfiefan]

Wasn't there a meeting of vets in Reading recently to discuss this though? What are these confirmed cases if it doesn't exist?

[Thewolfsjustapuppy]

im not a vet so not really best qualified to answer that. I'm not going to get upset about a disease that has effected in total less than 80 dogs out of 8million. If there was something that I could do about prevention I may do it but there isn't because they don't know what causes it. I'll keep an eye on pups health sameness as always and carry on regardless

[BiteyShark]

I worry about lots of things but I don't think there is anything you can do to prevent it so I just include this as something to be aware of but I don't worry about it specifically.

[Wolfiefan]

I had the impression it may be somehow linked to muddy woodland walks but I don't know what made me imagine that!

[BiteyShark]

Wolfiefan I heard the same. All our walks are muddy forest walks but I would not change that based on the current numbers.

[CornflakeHomunculus]

All sorts of things have been mooted as possible causes, including walking in either wet and muddy areas or woodland, but as yet no cause has actually been identified.

As others have sad it's extremely rare and given we don't know what causes it there's not much that can be done to avoid it anyway.

I just file it under "keep an eye out for symptoms" and carry on as normal.

[pigsDOfly]

If I'm reading it right, from December 2012 up to May 2017 there have been approximately 100 'confirmed' cases of Alabama Rot in Britain; hardly a massive outbreak by anyone's standards and not something that would make me change my dog walking habits.

Lots of nasty diseases around that can kill our dogs, this looks, to me, like a massive over reaction by certain sections of the press to just one of them.

[Wolfiefan]

Cornflake. Thanks so much. I think I've just been on such a steep learning curve I worry I will miss the signs of something big.
Precious baby puppy. She's my PFP!
And yes. She is a special snowflake!

[Sandsnake]

Our family dog died of Alabama Rot three years ago. I adored him and it was awful for everyone. It's a horrible disease but as others say it is very rare. I think personally you should try and do what you would do normally with your dog and not curtail their walks. I would say the enjoyment the dog would get would outweigh the risk. I can certainly understand why you're worried though