Years ago I was a public health microbiologist in California. One day our favorite pediatrician came bounding in the back door, hair awry saying he had throat swabs for a family, 2 adults, 2 small toddlers that kept getting stop throat. He also had one for the family dog. Guess what? The dog's's culture revealed group A strep also. The dog and the toddlers were passing it back and forth. When I have tried to explain this to vets and Dr.s they aren't interested. They all know dogs do not get strep throat( the disease). But they do harbor the organism long enough to reinfect a household. The vets explain that pets and humans trade bacteria. But they don't seem to get the point that reinfection occurs in the humans. Vet students working on a degree could infect 5 dogs and see how long the organism survives in dogs. Simple. No death of the dogs. If a vet student in every college did 5 dogs, meaningful data could be assembled at little or no cost. Maybe this has already been done.
This was everything I was looking to know about and more! Thanks so much for writing this. I will happily and responsibly carry this info and disperse to patients, family, and friends.
Thank you for this post. @adviceigivemyfriends had made a comment about strep carriers before which really stressed me out but now I feel more knowledgeable about that aspect.
Years ago I was a public health microbiologist in California. One day our favorite pediatrician came bounding in the back door, hair awry saying he had throat swabs for a family, 2 adults, 2 small toddlers that kept getting stop throat. He also had one for the family dog. Guess what? The dog's's culture revealed group A strep also. The dog and the toddlers were passing it back and forth. When I have tried to explain this to vets and Dr.s they aren't interested. They all know dogs do not get strep throat( the disease). But they do harbor the organism long enough to reinfect a household. The vets explain that pets and humans trade bacteria. But they don't seem to get the point that reinfection occurs in the humans. Vet students working on a degree could infect 5 dogs and see how long the organism survives in dogs. Simple. No death of the dogs. If a vet student in every college did 5 dogs, meaningful data could be assembled at little or no cost. Maybe this has already been done.
This was everything I was looking to know about and more! Thanks so much for writing this. I will happily and responsibly carry this info and disperse to patients, family, and friends.
Thank you for this post. @adviceigivemyfriends had made a comment about strep carriers before which really stressed me out but now I feel more knowledgeable about that aspect.