Alabama rot - what are lesions?

[punter]

Just seen on the news about this potentially fatal disease. My lab often has nicks on his head and legs when he has been tearing round the bushes in the woods. Does anyone know what the lesions they talk about look like? I imagine vets are going to be rather busy in the next few days!

I am assuming cuts that are not like your typical cut, probably more sore like and shallow not deep, graze consistency that does not look like it's going to heal.

Info from RoseMullion Vets via Facebook

IT IS IMPORTANT NOT TO PANIC As some of you may be aware the BBC news service as well as the Telegraph, Guardian and independent newspapers have issued a warning about something called “Alabama Rot” (CRGV) this is a disease that went through the southern states of America – predominately affecting racing greyhounds. It is clear that this is now not limited to greyhounds or the USA. There have been 17 animals die of this disease in the UK since 2012 and 2 of them this year, the majority have died after walking through the New Forest in Hampshire, however there have been a number of deaths in other counties including Cornwall.

There has been extensive tests done on afflicted animals and there is no clear reason as to how these poor dogs contracted the disease. Here are the facts as far as we know right now

1. It is really really rare – only 14 cases last year in whole country. Only 1 in Cornwall in 13 month – this was in Launceston

1. This disease is infectious, not contagious – so if one dog has it the dog in the next cage will not necessarily catch it – evidence suggests that the two dogs would have to be in very close contact. The disease will - if left untreated- result in the death of the animal through kidney failure.

1. There is no drug available to cure it.

4. How to recognise the lesion – Please remember there are so many skin lesions, they all look similar and they do not all mean that the dog has CRGV. The words the researching vets in Hampshire used to describe the lesions were – unduly red, sweaty, necrotic, ulcerated, similar to snake bite wounds, overly painful. If the dog has a lesion like this and it also has vomiting or off its food and most importantly if there a ulcers on the animals tongue then you need to get the animal in and hospitalise it. 99.99% of wounds will be from an identifiable source, essentially if the animal was running in a field with loads of barbed wire, chances are it was barbed wire and the animal will be fine.

1. The only possible cure is to catch it early, and hospitalise the animal and treat with intensive nursing care and dialysis. The earlier it is caught the better the animal’s chances are of surviving the infection, that being said even infections spotted early had a survival rate of 50:50 at best

1. The dogs will suffer lesions on their legs and sometimes on their undercarriage – kidney failure follows within 2/7 days. If you see a wound on your pet that you would ordinarily leave but your pet has any of the other symptoms listed above or you are just worried about it just get it checked by a vet

Thought it was a new band..

From an article in the Telegraph:

"Alabama rot was discovered in America in the 1980s and is the common name for diopathic renal glomerular vasculopathy.
The condition only affected greyhounds when it was identified but there are now fears the disease could spread to other breeds.
The disease is believed to be caused by a rare form of E.coli.
The Greyhound Racing Association of America claims that infection with the disease comes from the dogs being fed meat from dead, diseased, dying or disabled cattle.
The earliest signs of Alabama rot are skin lesions which occur on the legs, chest and abdomen and spread across the skin."

There are also a few photos of the lesions if you look on google images. Looks like a raised rash ~ I don't know how you would notice if your dog has long hair.