Dog Diseases Caused by Bird & Rabbit Feces

Video Transcript

"Let's talk about diseases that can be caused in dogs from rabbit or bird feces. Now these creatures can carry some parasites, bacteria, viruses, fungal diseases that sometimes can be transmitted, and so these are what we're really talking about, generally are wild animals. And so it's very important to prevent your dog, if possible, from ingesting bird or rabbit feces. Certain things that can occur or be transmitted would be fungal diseases like cryptococcus, histoplasmosis, and those are typically inhaled and cause respiratory like problems. There are other ones like leptosclerosis, which is a bacterial disease that can cause kidney and liver disease. There are parasites also, like coccidia and giardia which can cause diarrhea. And so, some of these things aren't necessarily transmitted directly, they can be indirectly as in a bird fecal, or some bird fecal material could be contaminated in stagnant water outside, and a dog by drinking that water can get it that way, so it's not always directly by eating fecal material either. So all these diseases or organisms can cause different symptoms and have to be diagnosed by your veterinarian. And so the best thing to do since treatment for some of these is not always rewarding, is make sure you're preventing it. So if you're walking your dog in parks or things like that, just try to prevent them from ingesting stagnant water or eating things off the ground that they're not suppose to."