Alabama rot claims life of beloved pet in Lambourn

A COUPLE have spoken of their heartbreak at the loss of their beloved pet dog to Alabama rot.

Grace, a three-year-old Labrador, deteriorated rapidly after owner Simone Meloni from Lambourn discovered a lump on her chest.

Now he and partner Sara have spoken out to highlight the symptoms and dangers of the disease, which has a mortality rate of more than 90 per cent.

Mr Meloni said: "Grace was like a daughter to us, so it isn’t easy to accept she’s gone, and gone so suddenly and tragically.

"She was young, she was fit and she was powerful but this is such a dangerous disease and everything happens so fast."

He added: "One morning she was a little bit lame and while we were brushing and combing her we discovered a lump on her chest which was very sore.

"We took her straight to our local vets and they gave her pain relief and antibiotics, but the lump grew bigger and she started to decline very quickly.

"She was eating less but vomiting a lot and we were very worried so took her back to the vets.

"On our third visit to the vets they said it could be a case of Alabama rot, a very rare but very serious disease.

"We were shocked but wanted to try everything to try to save her, so they referred us to Anderson Moores veterinary specialists (in Winchester, Hampshire) but sadly Grace didn’t pull through."

Mr Meloni went on: "We keep asking ourselves ‘Why Grace?’

"We live on a cottage on a farm working with racehorses and there must be 20 other dogs running and playing in the same fields.

"All the other dogs are okay and only Grace was affected, which is so hard to understand.

"We don’t want any other dog lovers to be left feeling that same sense of loss and pain.

"That’s why we’re telling our story, in the hope owners and vets across the country are alerted to the dangers."

Cutaneous and renal glomerular vasculopathy (CRGV), also known as Alabama rot, which originally appeared in the late 1980s, attacks the kidneys and was first detected in the UK in 2012, with 290 confirmed cases to date.

In 2016, following, an outbreak in both Hungerford and Lambourn, Jonathan Green, owner of The Veterinary Hospital, Hungerford, urged owners to keep a sense of proportion.

He said: "It’s is a very serious condition, but also very rare.

"No one knows for certain what causes it and all we can do is offer symptomatic treatment and treat the kidney failure.

"There have been reports of dogs contracting it after being walked in woodland but owners have been known to attribute any skin lesions to it.

Mr Green added: "It's still very rare and it would be silly to stop walking your dog on Hungerford Common.

"There are no particular precuations owners can take, other than to avoid places where it is known that dogs have contracted it."

To view Anderson Moores' dedicated CRGV website, which includes a nationwide map of cases, visit https://www.alabama-rot.co.uk/