The two-year-old dog became lethargic, thin and listless, deteriorating to the point that it was admitted to a pet hospital for a week for a blood transfusion.
“I was really worried about him,” Ms Powell, an enrolled nurse, said.
Testing confirmed Leo had ehrlichiosis, a disease transmitted through bites from brown dog ticks carrying the Ehrlichia canis bacteria.
But what worried the specialists is that Leo lives in the urban Top End, which some experts fear is becoming a new stronghold for a disease spreading like wildfire.
The first Australian case was detected in the Kimberley region of Western Australia in May last year.
By June, cases were rapidly emerging in Katherine in the Northern Territory and the surrounding remote communities.
The Northern Territory government has recorded 370 confirmed cases — 110 in the Darwin and Arnhem Land region, 149 in the Katherine region, 36 in Tennant Creek and in Alice Springs and surrounds, 75.
Experts say countless more have been left undetected in remote communities with little intervention.
“When we finally got to bring him home, [the vets] said he needs to stay inside, he’s at risk of spontaneous bleeding and he might not make it,” Ms Powell said.
“It was very full-on, very emotional.
“There were tears basically every night.”
Until the first cases were discovered just last year, stringent biosecurity controls had kept ehrlichiosis out of Australia.
Experts are still baffled by how the disease got in but, according to Professor Peter Irwin from the School of Veterinary Medicine at Murdoch University, the disease is now considered “endemic” across the NT.
“Ehrlichiosis is one of the most serious diseases of dogs in my opinion,” he said.
“It makes them very ill, and many dogs can die.
“Once it establishes into a tick population, it’s very difficult to eradicate.”
Common symptoms include lethargy, fever and cloudy eyes, which can be cleared up with antibiotics but, if left untreated, the disease can lead to blindness, uncontrollable bleeding and death.
“The problem with this disease is that dogs travel and spread infected ticks,” Professor Irwin said.
“Dogs that have moved from an endemic area of the community into the city will possibly bring ticks with them, and the ticks can then drop off.
“There have now been dogs with the disease identified in most other capitals, most as a result of travel from the north.”
Doctor Stephen Cutter, the head veterinarian at Darwin’s Ark Animal Hospital, is no stranger to the crippling disease.
He said up to 40 per cent of the dogs are infected in the remote communities of the Top End he visits on rotation.
But in August of last year, he saw his first case in a pet that had not left urban Darwin.
Arielle Giles, a vet at the Darwin Veterinary Hospital, confirmed the disease’s spread to Darwin, saying she had seen six cases in the past three months.
“It’s a devastatingly bad disease and it’s really difficult to treat,” Dr Cutter said.
“It’s basically everywhere and it’s now a matter of living with it.”
Both Professor Irwin and Dr Cutter said keeping ticks at bay is the best way to prevent ehrlichiosis.
“Because the infection is transmitted so quickly from the tick bites, the most important way of protecting your dog is to use a product, such as a collar that kills ticks before they bite,” Professor Irwin said.
It has now been five months since Leo was struck down by the tiny parasite and, while he is still getting regular check-ups and his future is looking brighter, vets can’t give the all-clear.
“Ehrlichiosis is really nasty in that it can stay hidden in the bone marrow for a long period of time,” Dr Cutter said.
Earlier this year, the NT government brought on a new coordinator to transition the NT’s response to the disease from a biosecurity threat to managing the outbreak.
“This disease is a nationally notifiable disease, which means that suspected cases of E.canis need to be reported, and free testing can be carried out on blood samples from suspected dogs,” said the chief vet at the Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade, Dr Sue Fitzpatrick.
She was abandoned with the largest tumor on her face and suffered for a very long time without any assistance
Meet Honey, This is the poor soul Dumaguete Animal Sanctuary rescued today. Honey was dumped in severe condition with the biggest tumor on her face. She was in discomfort for a long time since she was swollen and infected.
” We are with her now at Animal Wellness getting X-rays to find out if this mass is treatable. Her early blood tests revealed that her organs were working OK, but she is anemic. She was also found to have heartworm.
They will put her on anti-inflammatory for 2 weeks and also work on raising her red blood cell count. She will then require surgery and chemotherapy. She stands a high chance of living a regular, happy life!
She need to do surgery to remove the mass, followed by chemo if it is cancerous. Given the position of the tumour, surgeons will need to do the procedure at Animal Wellness, where they have gas anaesthetic, giving Honey the highest chance of survival.
Her red blood cell count is still low after 15 days in the center, therefore she will have a transfusion. Hopefully, surgery will be performed soon after.
“Day 17: Honey’s operation has just begun. Just before she was sedated, she was photographed with Rina and Rudylyn. We will do the procedure at Animal Wellness since gas anaesthesia is safer for more serious instances. Because the tumor is so close to her brain, the procedure will be lengthy and complicated.
Day 19: Honey’s surgery was as successful as it could be given that the tumor had grown around so many of her facial and optical nerves. Unfortunately, the nerves controlling her left eyelid had to be severed, leaving her with a little droop.
The tumor was huge, and as a result the surgical wound is large. She is eating chicken which is a good sign. She will be able to live a normal life even without it. She is already eating on her own, but her face is still swollen from the operation and inflammation, so doctors are hopeful she will eat more once that subsides.
She is still in the very early stages of recovery from such an invasive surgery, and each day she survives without complications, is a blessing. She made it through the procedure!!! Honey is still deemed critical, but she is awake and breathing.
“We just had the results of Honey’s tumor biopsied and unfortunately it’s malignant. Doxorubicin is the most effective chemotherapy treatment for the type of cancer she has. We must act quickly to halt the spread of any cancer that may still be present in Honey’s system.”
She hadaother tumor in her vagina but the amazing news is that the tumor in her vagina has shrunk by 60 percent since she started chemo and she has only had two sessions so far.
After more than 3 months, she’s gaining weight and is generally in good spirits despite being on chemo. Her prognosis is still uncertain because chemo affects the organs, but we are confident she will recover completely.
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