Canine Medical Alert:  Leptosporosis is a severe bacterial disease which is now found in New York City. It has been infecting dogs on the Upper West Side since 2002, and before that in Brooklyn, Long Island, and upstate New York. Leptospirosis is frequently fatal, causing sudden kidney and liver failure in dogs. The disease is contagious to humans. It is transmitted when a dog swallows water that has been contaminated by the urine of an infected dog, rodent, or other wild animal. There is a good vaccine against the disease, but it is imperative that the innoculation given includes the current strain: Lepto canicola, plus the other two types found nearby. The old lepto vaccine, often contained in the DHLPP combination shot, does not offer protection against the current local strain of the bacterium, and tended to cause temporary fever reactions, which the new vaccine does not. A dog is initially inoculated with a two shot series two to four weeks apart, then once a year. 

We recommend the new lepto vaccine for all Upper West Side dogs, and since the disease is spreading so quickly, vaccination of dogs in other areas of Manhattan and Brooklyn is recommended as well.