MYSTERIOUS DISEASE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19842, 17 May 1927, Page 9

MYSTERIOUS DISEASE

DOGS ATTACKED MANY DRIVEN TO SUICIDE. A mysterious disease which is attacking dogs of all breeds all over Great Britain has baffled veterinary surgeons. A London veterinary surgeon told a Daily Mail reporter recently that the disease apparently was imported; from America about two years ago. It was for some time confined to dogs in Lancashire, Cheshire and North Wales. Cases also occurred within a radius of 30 miles of Dublin, but recently dogs all over the country have been affected. There is, the surgeon said, no means at present of preventing or treating the disease. Much alarm is felt among dog breeders an*d; owners of packs of hounds. The disease, which is known as “Mystcria,” appears suddenly in dogs of all ages, from two months up. When attacked they become frenzied with pain and bang their heads against a wall. Many cases have ossurred of •dogs committing suicide in this way. Their eyes become inflamed and they may also go blind temporarily. Owners have mistaken the disease for rabies and the dogs have been destroyed without investigation. In one case a dog suddenly attacked ran for ten miles, and was later founid; in a bog in an exhausted condition. An Alastian in the first intensity of the disease rushed at an iron pump and knocked out all its front teeth. Postmortem examination of two affected dogs by a leading bacteriologist of a London hospital producer.} no clue to the cause of the disease.