• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

For info: URI Yersinia Pseudotuberculosis

Status
Not open for further replies.
P

Pebble

Banned
Joined
Oct 12, 2009
Messages
3,030
Reaction score
1,542
Points
880
Location
Sussex
For two months now my vet and I have been working to find out what is wrong with my piggies who are all going down with varous symptoms. It starts as a URI (although there are other preceding signs up to 3 months beforehand which I now know with the benefit of hindsight).

Despite baytril clearing up the initial runny nose, hooting and wheezing episodes developed whether or not the pig was on baytril or not. Because only pigs genetically related were affected and there were other symptoms including fluid around the heart (revealed on X ray), we then went down the route of cardiac problems but to no avail.

Now on referral to a specialist exotic/cardiac practice, the pigs are under investigation for a little known URI disease neither I nor my vet had turned up in our guinea pig research over the last two months (I am a microbiologist)

The disease is Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and is carried by rats ( living next to a stream I have recurrent "vagrants" in my compost bin and underneath my shed). It is like TB in humans but can be isolated from the intestines (Poo culture from antibiotic-free pigs). It can be transmissable to humans.

I am not going to post the symptoms of my pigs until the cause has definitely been identified/confirmed. However if your pig is displaying a mix of URI/heart symptoms with possible kidney involvement but no stones; baytril isn;t working and your vet is at a loss to know what's causing it - it's worthwhile bringing this bug to their attention before you go the cardiac medication route -especially if you too get visits from rats.
 
Pebble said:
For two months now my vet and I have been working to find out what is wrong with my piggies who are all going down with varous symptoms. It starts as a URI (although there are other preceding signs up to 3 months beforehand which I now know with the benefit of hindsight).

Despite baytril clearing up the initial runny nose, hooting and wheezing episodes developed whether or not the pig was on baytril or not. Because only pigs genetically related were affected and there were other symptoms including fluid around the heart (revealed on X ray), we then went down the route of cardiac problems but to no avail.

Now on referral to a specialist exotic/cardiac practice, the pigs are under investigation for a little known URI disease neither I nor my vet had turned up in our guinea pig research over the last two months (I am a microbiologist)

The disease is Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and is carried by rats ( living next to a stream I have recurrent "vagrants" in my compost bin and underneath my shed). It is like TB in humans but can be isolated from the intestines (Poo culture from antibiotic-free pigs). It can be transmissable to humans.

I am not going to post the symptoms of my pigs until the cause has definitely been identified/confirmed. However if your pig is displaying a mix of URI/heart symptoms with possible kidney involvement but no stones; baytril isn;t working and your vet is at a loss to know what's causing it - it's worthwhile bringing this bug to their attention before you go the cardiac medication route -especially if you too get visits from rats.
Click to expand...

let us know the symptons when you get a defo awnserxxx
 
As long as you don't catch Weil's disease...
A quick look in a reference book, about YT, shows it to be nasty, with zoonotic potential.
 
Last edited:
Apolopgies, just read the sentence about transmission to humans in your post.
 
Thankx AP.
Have been tested for Weils a couple of times over the last ten years when i;ve had a high fever in view of my unwelcome "lodgers"! I knew rats could also carry Yersinia pestis (plague) but was unaware of pseudotuberculosis.

However there is also another one - Yersinia enterocolitica that piggies can also catch from rats. Since none of my pigs have diarrhoea, pseudotuberculosis is still the vet's hot favourite as it also causes lesions in the kidney liver and intestines - with liver damage inducing cardiac problems.

Blood results this pm from the worst affected pig have shown high neutrophils, CK and AST - indicating inflammation/liver damage - but not high monocytes which would have reinforced the initial diagnosis
Poo cultures will be done on monday by which time they will have been off antibiotics for 5 days...results may take over a week as this bug is slow growing- however i can put the pigs back on antibiotics on monday.

At the moment they;re holding up well - just hope none go downhill this weekend as otherwise i will have difficult choice to make about whether to start antibiotics again and withold their poo sample or whether to PTS so a PM can be done and tissue samples taken for culture. :0:0

(For the benefit of those reading, if the piggie is put back on antibiotics but still dies, although a PM can be done, it is unlikely the bug will be cultured from any tissue samples and that is what is really needed. As I have 11 pigs at risk, of whom 7 are symptomatic, it will be a case of whether the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one....suffice to say I am pretty distraught and am praying i don;t have to make that decision):...:...
 
And yes - if they do have this bug i will need to go see my GP.

I never used to be particularly concerned about handling piggie poos......but in light of what they may have I am instigating full protective measures for me as well as them!

I am also considering whether to separate cage mates as I have two pairs where one has respiratory symptoms and the other doesn;t - although having said that the other ones probably DO have it, just haven;t got as far as the respiratory symptoms yet :(
 
I have never seen a case of YT in 21 years of pig experience. YT is well documented in the literature.
I wonder if there is any lymph node involvement, that seems to be one of the clinical signs?

Just a thought, I sometimes think specialists, in any subject, tend to diagnose problems which are relevant to their speciality.

I see that the "apparent" URI did not respond to Baytril. A case of hay-fever is often mis-diagnosed as a URI, in which case antibiotics are of no value.
Could the genetic relationship between affected pigs be coincidental? I presume there is no inter/cross breeding?
I note that the first vet did not prescribe a diuretic, which is often a first line of attack for heart problems.
Interesting case, from one point of view. A potentially sad case on the other hand.
 
Last edited:
" It starts as a URI (although there are other preceding signs up to 3 months beforehand which I now know with the benefit of hindsight)."

What are the signs? Reading through your original post the thought which crosses my mind is that a number of common problems could fit the symptoms that you describe. As the saying goes " Common things happen most commonly", (always bearing in mind that this could be the 1 in 1000 case)
A full history would be worth reading, if you like typing!
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top