Canine Tetanus: a Facial Expression to Remember

Here’s a facial expression you should commit to memory.  A vet may only see it a few times during their career, and a pet owner only once if unlucky. No, it’s not Rabies or ferocious aggression; it’s the look of Tetanus.  Opposite to the paralytic effect of it’s sister toxin, Botox, tetanus toxin is yet to find it’s place in cosmetic medicine.

.

Clostridium Tetanii, the bacteria that causes tetanus, is ubiquitous and lives in soil everywhere.  Humans and horses are highly sensitive to it’s toxic effects, frequently needing a tetanus booster after a dirty cut or rusty nail incident, whereas dogs and cats have evolved to cope with the puncture wounds of fighting and are usually resistant to the disease.

After infecting a wound the bacteria multiplies and pumps it’s toxin into circulation. All around the body, it binds and stimulates receptors where nerves meet muscle, resulting in continuous muscle contraction.

The early effects on facial muscles result in the classic demonic grin: raising of the lips and eyelids, with pinching of the brow and lifting the ears. Mia, the patient pictured here, was the friendliest of dogs who just wanted to play and couldn’t control her facial expression, nor understand the way it changed the response of humans she encountered during her hospital stay. Pet owners visiting dogs in adjacent cages, fearful their companion could end up with the look of a scary clown, were very pleased to hear tetanus is not a contagious disease.

If left untreated the disease progresses, resulting in stiffness of the neck and limbs and ultimately inability to walk, eat or even breathe. Human patients struck down by full-blown tetanus may occupy an ICU bed for 6 months; catheterised, cannulated, tube-fed, and on respirator, at huge cost to the public, family and the patient.

Pet owners can rarely afford such intensive care and the only good outcomes of tetanus in the veterinary setting are in animals treated early and aggressively. Fortunately, Mia was saved with prompt high-dose penicillin and antitoxin. Although it will take a while for her facial expression to return to normal. Until then she’ll remain confused as to why everyone at the beach, who used to be so friendly, now just reel in fear.

.

.

Botulinum toxin, or Botox as we now know it, is produced by a cousin of the tetanus bacteria, Clostridium Botulinum, and bonds to the same receptors but results in flaccid paralysis: exactly what we desire for our furrowed brows and crows feet.  It’s about time we developed a cosmetic product using tetanus toxin. We just need to make the maniacal-happy-look a little more fashionable.

.

.

Tags: antitoxin, bacteria, bacterial, botox, canine, cat, cosmetic, diagnosis, dog, eyelids, facial, feline, horse, lips, muscle, neurological, neurotoxins, penicillin, rabies, spasm, tetanic, tetanus, toxin, treatment, vaccination, vet, veterinary

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 9th, 2010 at 8:42 am and is filed under Case Report, Cats, Dogs, INDUSTRY, Infectious disease, Mobility Problems, PET OWNERS, toxins, Vaccination. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.