Some of you may remember the story earlier in the year about dogs dying or becoming seriously ill after walking in Thetford Forest in Norfolk, Sherwood Forest and Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire, Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.

The AHT are now asking dog owners to Help

"The more people that know about SCI, its effects and how quickly a dog can be taken ill, the more chance we have of identifying cases and stopping them before it's too late"

Champdogs will post alerts as and when we receive them, but it is in all our interests to 'pass the word' :)

SCI - What to look our for:

"If you have walked in woodland and notice the following signs in your dog/s please contact your vet immediately:

Vomiting - Diarrhoea - Lethargy

Clinical signs come on incredibly quickly, within a few hours, of access to woodland"

If in doubt, ask your vet. Better to be safe than sorry!

Hmmmm....it's an odd one isn't it...???

It really makes me wonder about levels of organophosphates and pesticides...seeping into groundwaters...and drifting over land other than the Farmland it is sprayed on.....

There is also the issue of Silage  which is EXTREMELY POISONOUS to animals and which SHOULD be contained in a specialised manner....(Not so on a lot of farms...)

Living where I live I can certainly plot a history of asthma attacks in My Grandson Alfie...coinciding with convulsions..and unexplained itchiness and rashes....sickness and diarreah... amongst both the children and dogs and cats here....

I have heard of another dog dying in its owners arms of this dreadful mysterious illness....I cannot stop thinking of their heartbreak,... please be hyper aware of it and spread the word especially but not exclusively if you live in the high risk areas. If you walk in woodland especially but again, not exclusively...act quickly if your dog starts to display symptoms as they have better chance but sadly it seems not a sure chance of survival if veterinary treatment is started early.
I have never known a year when I have been so keen for Autumn to be over and for Winter to arrive....

Heres a link to a list of areas although it doesnt appear to have been updated since August... not sure if that means there havent been any new areas notified or it just hasnt been updated...perhaps if you know of any FOR CERTAIN you could add them to this post as a reply? The long list is last years hit list I understand.

http://www.aht.org.uk/cms-xmodnewsrss_detail/sci-reported-areas.html

What are the symtoms of this illness?

Sheila.

It has now been "found" in the New Forest. Symptoms are said to be vomiting, shivering, shaking, stomach pains. Not sure about diarrhoea. It seems to be an allergic reaction to something, maybe fungal spores or spores from bracken & ferns. No one seems to know for sure but time is of the essence if you are at all concerned & your dog is unwell. Vets first, don't delay.

> Not sure about diarrhoea

Definately diarrhoea...and especially any bloodstained or bloody or blood filled pooh or diarrhoea. Please look on the link I gave, there is other information on there too.

Latest AHT information:

"Dr Mark Spencer from the Natural History Museum and the AHT went to the Sandringham Estate shortly after the first cases were reported.This was to enable us to identify whether there was anything unusual or anything that has recently emerged within the habitat that might coincide and therefore possibly explain the sudden onset of several SCI cases among dogs walking in that specific site at this time of year. Dr Spencer noted that there was NO evidence of any plants which would cause the clinical signs we were seeing in dog purely from contact. He was confident that there was nothing unusual growing in this woodland that had not been growing there for more than 50 years. This information has made the suggested theories of possible causes, much less likely. These include:

Blue-Green Algae
Non Native Plants
Bracken/fern spores
Fungi

Whilst we haven't entirely ruled out plants and these other toxic causes, this is helping us focus our investigations on other possible causes including animal related factors."

Received 17 October 2011 10:44

"We are issuing email alerts as and when we have significant news to update dog owners with, however numbers of cases reported to us at our five study sites are being updated on our website on a daily basis. We are also listing possible affected areas, other than our study sites on our website. As you can imagine lots of areas are being reported so once we have a number in the same area we are speaking with vets in that area to confirm cases are definitely SCI and not another gastrointestinal illness. Once we have accurate information these areas are added to the website.

Our email alert system is to highlight breakthroughs or let people know how they can assist with the investigation. Any news we have will be issued via our email alerts, on our website and through our facebook and twitter pages. For more regular updates in terms of numbers of cases reported and possible affected areas we do ask people to visit our website. We also point people to this from our email alert system.

http://www.aht.org.uk/cms-display/seasonal_illness.html

Thanks for your interest in our investigation.

Best wishes,

Farrah Stevens

Animal Health Trust"

I've had one dog with Di+, one dog with shivering and one dog with Vo+.  My only other dog has been fine but he was the only one I didn't take to our local 'woods' walk on Sunday (Leith Hill, Surrey).  Symptoms only lasted one day and all recovered now. I put it down to the fireworks/visitors/too many treats from visitors! But it's possible they picked something up?

Seem to be a lot of upset tummies about at the moment - I have heard of a number of dogs who have had diarrohea.  My dog has vomited - once bringing up some undigested meal from the night before and secondly when given some left overs at lunchtime - she was quieter than usual but otherwise seems fine.   I suppose at any one time in the year a number of dogs on here will have some sort of stomach upset.

I've just seen that the unknown killer in many of the forests around Nottingham is back. It's been put on a friends fb page and now sharing with you for anyone living in the area or going to visit. It's Sherwood, Clumber and Blidworth have all had deaths reported!!

My next door neighbour had this in one of her Norfolk Terriers (diagnosed by our vet) about 2 months ago in Norfolk - not in one of the main forests this time. The vet said that he had had several cases. Her dog made a full recovery, fortunately. We've avoided local woods since especially as Bramble is elderly.

Notice:

A cluster of dogs in the Thetford area have gone down with symptoms similar to SCI. Vets are waiting on confirmation that all the dogs are suffering from SCI. Please be vigilant.

My dog has just spent the morning in the vets with a high temperature, sickness and diahorrea and was put on a drip... he is home but very quiet and subdued.

I have only walked him and my other two around the area I live in Manchester so not sure it could be this but I wish I knew what it was as he looks so miserable :-(

Gabrielle

I hope your dog is ok now?

There seems to be a problem with dogs in my area at the moment.  I wonder if this could be it?  We don't seem to have just one vet serving the estate, so I wonder if they would not necessarily put two and two together.  I plan to keep away from the common walking place!!

>We don't seem to have just one vet serving the estate, so I wonder if they would not necessarily put two and two together.

Vets are well briefed about this at the moment, so I would not worry. I can not speak for other peoples vets or area's but my own seem to be very pro-active about this and would appear to be erring on the side of caution with all dogs exhibiting 'symptoms'.

Edited to add: I have also been told that there are a number of posters locally advising of the 'symptoms' and advising people to wash their dogs feet when returning from a walk. I would be surprised if washing a dogs feet would stop it getting this but it is no hardship to give their feet (and legs) a quick 'rinse' just incase :)

I hope so, we have a facebook group for our neighbourhood and it's quite worrying the number of dogs who have been ill - two have died :-(

He is not too bad.... I wouldn't say he was 100% but he is definitely better than he was.... whatever it was that he had, it really knocked him off balance.

I am taking a urine sample in this week to the vet and he will have bloods redone at the end of the week also..
He has also just finished two weeks of oral antibiotics so we will watch and wait....

Gabrielle

Update recieved:

"We have had a great response to our online SCI questionnaire from dog owners with more than 200 questionnaires completed for our study sites to date. Of these, there have been 14 suspected cases of SCI reported to us. We have had cases reported from each of our study sites.

These 14 cases are those which fit our case definition. There could, of course, be more cases that are occurring but have not been reported to us.

Please help us keep spreading the word so we can minimise the impact of SCI in 2012. From our knowledge of previous years we are now in peak SCI season so please remain vigilant for the clinical signs in your dog - diarrhoea, vomiting and lethargy.

If you see these signs in your dog shortly after walking in woodland, please access veterinary advice as soon as possible.

We're very grateful to everyone who is helping us spread the word. Please continue to do so - the more information we can gather through our questionnaires the better chance we have of identifying the cause of this mystery illness."

Received:

"We would like to inform you that the Animal Health Trust's investigation into seasonal canine illness (SCI) will feature on BBC's Countryfile this Sunday 21 October, with the programme on air from 18:20.

As part of his 'Investigates...' series, Tom Heap speaks with Dr. Richard Newton who is spearheading the AHT's investigation into SCI. Tom will also report from woodlands where suspected cases of SCI have recently been reported. If you are a dog owner who is still unsure about what SCI is, what the clinical signs are and how you can help our investigation into this mystery illness, please watch this episode.

You can watch it live on BBC1 on 21 October or when it becomes available on BBC iPlayer for the following week.

Investigation update ...

We created an online questionnaire in 2010 to help us with our investigation into SCI and have had a great response to our plea for information.

So far this year the AHT has received over 300 completed questionnaires. Of these, we have been made aware of 60 cases of suspected SCI from all of our study sites - Sandringham Estate, Thetford Forest, Clumber Park, Sherwood Forest and Rendlesham Forest - as well as in other areas."

is this ok to crosspost?
Thanks

Sure :) Here is a direct link to the topic: http://www.champdogsforum.co.uk/board/topic/132217.html

Update:

" .. in the past 12 months, we have been able to make good progress in our Seasonal Canine Illness (SCI) investigation.

We have not had any new cases of suspected SCI reported to us since November so we believe we are out of the high-risk season - as always though, we advise you to stay vigilant and watch out for clinical signs. If you are worried about your dog, please seek veterinary advice immediately.

2012 has been a busy year for our investigation. Following the coverage on BBC Countryfile, we had an enormous response from dog owners. We received more than 500 responses and enquiries which, as you can imagine, is keeping the team incredibly busy. In addition more than 650 questionnaires were submitted via our website, bringing the total number submitted this year to over 1000.

To date, the total number of affected and non-affected dogs reported from our designated sites for 2012 can be found in the table below:

Study area - Affected dogs -  Non-affected dogs

Clumber Park - 28 - 114

Rendlesham Forest 14 - 75

Sandringham Estate 22 - 70

Sherwood Forest 25 - 72

Thetford Forest 19 - 112

Total  affected 108 - unaffected 443

Following Countryfile, we have had a number of suspected cases reported from other areas across the UK. Whilst this helps us in warning dog owners to remain vigilant when walking in any woodland during autumn months, we are not planning to expand our study sites at this point. We really are looking for a needle in a haystack and if we make that haystack any larger, it will be even harder to find the needle!

We are very grateful for all of this information and are busily sifting through the data to see what new clues it can offer our investigation. We have also been collating information and samples from vets that have been treating cases of SCI. All this information should help us narrow down our case definition, and subsequently help us narrow down the cause of SCI.

There is still much to be done before the definitive cause can be pin-pointed but we are confident that the search area is narrowing. We will be continuing our investigations next year, and we will be in touch with you when we have significant developments to report.

Between now and then, if you would like to kept up-to-date with the Animal Health Trust's work fighting disease and injury in animals, you can sign-up to our monthly enewsletter at www.aht.org.uk

The Animal Health Trust"

Received From AHT:

"As you will know cases of seasonal canine illness (SCI) are usually seen from August to November with dogs showing clinical signs of vomiting, diarrhoea and/or lethargy within 24 to 72 hours of walking in woodland. Please seek immediate veterinary advice should you notice these signs in your dog following a woodland walk.

We have been investigating SCI since 2010, and in recent years have had a fantastic response to our request for information from dog owners. However, unfortunately this information doesn't yet point to a definitive cause.

Decreasing number of dog deaths

The good news is that since we started our investigation fewer dogs have died from SCI. In 2012, less than two per cent of cases reported to us resulted in death, this was significantly fewer than in 2010, when 20% of cases resulted in death.

We hope this is due to increased awareness of the condition and that dog owners now know to contact a vet for advice if they spot any of the clinical signs. Information provided to us certainly shows that if dogs get veterinary treatment quickly for SCI signs, they tend to recover within seven-10 days.

Common themes seen in cases

Despite no definite cause being recognised, we have identified a number of common themes which may increase a dog's susceptibility to SCI.

A number of cases reported to us have had an infestation of Harvest mites. Because of this we are advising dog owners planning to visit woodlands this autumn to ensure pets are up-to-date with preventive treatments for external parasites. Products available without prescription may not offer sufficient protection against mites so please talk to your local vet about spray treatments which can be applied to feet, legs and other exposed areas of skin immediately before walking as these may offer better protection against mites than spot-on treatments.

Our evidence also shows that dogs which have travelled further to one of the study sites have more chance of developing SCI. At the moment we do not know if this is an effect of potential immunity in local dogs, or another factor due to dogs travelling long distances.

If you are taking your dog on holiday with you and/or travelling with your dog, ensure a supply of fresh water is always available and give your dog plenty of breaks from the heat of the car. Also bear in mind that accommodation such as conservatories and caravans heat up incredibly quickly and may lead to dehydration in your dog.

We do not know for definite that travel or Harvest mites are associated with causing SCI, but ensuring your dog has access to clean water and is protected from external parasites is all part of good dog ownership.

Help our investigation

In 2013, we are continuing to ask dog owners who walk their dogs at any of our five study sites: Sandringham Estate or Thetford Forest, Norfolk, Clumber Park or Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire or Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, to complete our online questionnaire at www.aht.org.uk/sci

We still need information about dogs which have been walked at any of our study sites, even if they did not become ill. The information we can glean from owners of dogs who walked at the sites and didn't show clinical signs of SCI is just as important to our investigation as information from affected dogs.

Please remember that dogs could be a risk of SCI walking at any woodland during autumn, so please remain vigilant and seek veterinary advice immediately if you suspect your dog has SCI."

http://www.aht.org.uk/sci

I am currently researching Seasonal Canine Illness (SCI) for an article. If your dog has been affected, I'd appreciate you getting in touch. Thanks.
Julie xx

Received:

"Hello

We have now entered peak seasonal canine illness (SCI) season and, as part of our Kennel Club funded SCI investigation, have 49 cases reported to us from our study areas so far. Many of you have been in touch for information regarding reported cases of this mystery illness. You can find details of the number of cases reported from each of our study areas in the table below:

Study area         Affected  Non-affected
Clumber Park            10                42
Rendlesham Forest       11                16
Sandringham Estate       8                22
Sherwood Forest         14                 9
Thetford Forest          6                 8
     
Total                     49              97

Following many independent reports, we are aware that harvest mites have been found on dogs reported to be displaying the clinical signs of SCI. There may be other external parasites involved, such as ticks, although these have not been readily identified on SCI cases so far.

This year we are advising you to speak to your local vet about fipronil spray treatments for ectoparasites (fleas, ticks and mites) which can be applied to your dog before walking in woodlands as a preventive treatment against any external parasite.

Products available without prescription may not be as effective so please contact your local vet to discuss which options are suitable.

We are continuing to ask people to submit questionnaires via our website where you can also read the latest updates on our SCI investigation.

Animal Health Trust"

Received:

"We have concluded a small pilot study, funded by the Kennel Club Charitable Trust, linked to the investigation of a possible association between seasonal canine illness (SCI) and harvest mites.

SCI is a mystery illness which can make dogs walked in woodlands suddenly become ill. In 2013 there were 143 cases reported to the AHT from across its five study sites in Nottinghamshire and East Anglia. 

Cases of SCI are usually seen from August to November, with dogs showing clinical signs of vomiting, diarrhoea and/or lethargy within 24 to 72 hours of walking in woodland. Dog owners are advised to seek immediate veterinary advice should they see these signs in their dog following a woodland walk.

Despite no definitive cause being identified, we recognised a common finding which may be linked to the development of SCI. A number of cases had an obvious infestation of harvest mites, which may also be present, but not as obvious, in other animals.

There are currently no products specifically licensed to prevent infestation by harvest mites. However sprays containing fipronil that are licensed against fleas and ticks on cats and dogs are believed to be effective against several different mites.

To investigate the possible link between SCI and harvest mites, during the 2013 SCI season we advised dog owners to treat their dogs with fipronil spray before walking in woodlands during high risk autumn months. We advised owners to speak to their own veterinary surgeons before treating their dog using a spray containing fipronil as these products are only available on prescription from veterinary surgeons.

We also worked with the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk and a manufacturer of one type of fipronil spray, to conduct a small pilot study. The study aimed to evaluate whether dog owners would comfortably access complementary fipronil spray from their vets and treat their animals prior to walking in woods on the estate. 

As fipronil spray is a prescription only medicine, we issued vouchers to dog owners which they could redeem for fipronil spray through their local vet practice. The aim of this pilot was to check whether this was a feasible method of providing the spray to dog owners.

Twenty-four dog owners signed up to take part in the study, and those eligible were provided with fipronil spray. Conclusions from the pilot study reveal that all participating owners found it easy to enrol and take part in the study. The owners also thought the simple process of being able to claim the spray from their veterinary practice the best method of receiving the product.

Through evaluating our pilot study we are confident that a larger, perhaps nationwide, study would be useful in further testing the possible association between harvest mites and SCI.

However, due to the size of the pilot study, we are not able to make valid conclusions as to whether fipronil spray protects against harvest mites. This in turn obviously means we cannot confirm or deny whether harvest mites have a direct correlation to SCI.

Through the pilot study we have devised an effective way of providing dog owners with fipronil spray at an appropriate time and we would love the opportunity to be able to develop this study to be able to confirm or deny whether harvest mites are a contributing factor to SCI, should sufficient funding be available.

Due to the success of the pilot study in indicating that it is feasible to provide dog owners access to complementary fipronil, we are currently exploring funding opportunities to progress the study in 2014.

If you are interested in funding future investigations into SCI, please contact me directly on 01638 555399.

Best wishes,

Dr Richard Newton
Head of Disease Surveillance and Epidemiology
Animal Health Trust"

It's that time of the year again - please remain vigilant :)