[pyrnet] (Fwd) just a mushroom reminder

["Judith Stroh Miller" <jsmiller@newmex.com>]

PERMISSION TO CROSSPOST GRANTED


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As I took Sampson for his morning walk today I saw him chewing 
something he plucked from the neighbors yard as we walked by.  I told 
him to drop it and he dropped part of a white mushroom out of his 
mouth.  Luckily, it appeared to be a benign mushroom and he did drop 
it but it I just wanted to remind everyone about the potential deadly 
dangers of mushrooms. 

In many areas of the country fall is mushroom season.  Rain and wet 
dewy grounds is fungus fuel.  There are 1000's of types of mushrooms 
less than 20 have the deadly amatoxin that killed Shiloh but 
regardless there are many that are posionous.  After Shiloh's death I 
started researching and analyzing the various mushrooms in my yard 
and neighborhood.  I have come across many that were posionous to 
dogs and or hallucengenic.  Identifiying them by sight is very 
difficult even to a professional.  Spore print, microscopic views and 
meixner testing is really what conclusively identifies a mushroom and 
it's potential dangers.  Since most of us do not have access to that 
type of info it is best to just remove all mushrooms/fungus growth 
from your dogs reach and dispose of it.  Kicking them across the yard 
can just increase their ability to reproduce since many spores become 
airborne. 

Even if you think your dog would not eat a mushroom still be on the 
safe side and remove it.  I never thought Shiloh would have eaten a 
mushroom. She preferred hard crunchy things to chew but some how she 
ended up w/ a deadly mushroom toxin in her liver.  I never saw her 
eat and she only needed 1 small dime size cap to cause her death.  

The fungal expert from Cornell University who helped me figure out 
what happened to Shiloh after she died asked me to co-author a story 
about Shiloh that she will use at Cornell.  Here is the link if 
anyone is interested.  It does show pics of the mushrooms. Later this 
month it will also include the Veterinarian details (liver values and 
techinical info)so that other vets will see the sequence of medical 
events on this case.  

http://blog.mycology.cornell.edu/?p=511

The good news is that up to today there is no diagnostic test a vet 
can do to check an animal for amatoxins (living or dead). Assupmtions 
need to be made based on symptoms, blood values, liver biopsy, and 
enviroment, and finally a test on the mushroom in question. But last 
week, I learned that Shiloh's death is helping Cornell create a 
specific test that will check for Amatoxins in the liver of an animal 
including livestock.  This will not change the outcome of the 
patient's fate but will help the owner of the animals/livestock save 
others by moving them to a different pasteure etc...  The remainder 
of Shiloh's liver is being used at Cornell to help develop this new 
diagnostic test which will hopefully save other animals from the same 
fate.  Who knows maybe some day they will even find an antedote! :)

Tami  


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