Dog recovers from leptospirosis after lifesaving treatment at Veterinary Teaching Hospital

Andrew Mann

11 Mar 2025

Rex Williams (at right) and his owner Ross Williams (at left) hugging and posing for a photo in the lobby of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital — Ross Williams and his dog, Rex. Photo by Margie Christianson for Virginia Tech.

Autumn flooding around Blacksburg left behind an invisible threat that nearly claimed Rex, a beloved family dog.

The energetic 10-year-old mixed breed, adopted from the SPCA in 2016, faced a life-threatening battle with leptospirosis at the Virginia Tech Veterinary Teaching Hospital that underscored the importance of evolving vaccine protocols.

A normal life disrupted

Before falling ill, Rex lived the good life.

"He used to have a backyard he'd run in when I was at school or at work all day long, and he would crash on the couch pretty much when I got home," said Ross Williams, Rex's owner. "His favorite time is when my fiancée and I are just talking around the house, and he can wrap up on the couch with blankets all over him."

That comfortable routine changed suddenly. "He wasn't eating or feeling like himself," Williams said. "Then he was whisked away to ICU for a week at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital."

Understanding Leptospirosis

The culprit – leptospirosis – shocked Williams.

“Leptospirosis, or 'lepto, is a bacterial infection that animals can get usually from drinking water that's been contaminated by the urine of wildlife species,” said Sierrah Travis, a third-year small animal internal medicine resident at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.

“He picked it up probably when we had a lot of different floods that happened when the hurricane came through," Williams said. “You can pick it up anywhere. We live in a neighborhood that happens to have farms nearby and skunks in the area. Any one of those animals could have lepto and spread it to your pet.”

The disease can cause acute kidney injury and affect the liver, Travis said. “If the kidneys get injured badly enough, it could push them into failure. When that happens, the prognosis is much poorer."

During Rex's week in intensive care, the medical team faced additional challenges.

"We tried to place a feeding tube down his nose into his stomach a couple of times, and he just kept sneezing them out," Travis said. "He was not a good candidate for them, so I'm really happy that he's continued to improve."

Rex, a tan mixed breed dog, playing with a braided rope toy in his mouth — Rex. Photo courtesy of Ross Williams.

The recovery

Left untreated, leptospirosis can be fatal. It's also zoonotic, meaning it can spread from pets to humans, making prevention and early treatment critical.

"Leptospirosis doesn't improve quickly," Williams said. "He seemed like he wouldn't pull through. But then he started changing a little bit. He started accepting food and was acting more like himself by discharge."

The challenge continued at home, where strict infection control was necessary. "I had to wear gloves to clean up any accidents," Williams said.

"To prevent the spread of leptospirosis and other diseases, I recommend pet owners wear gloves when cleaning up after their animals, wash their hands thoroughly afterward, and apply lotion to prevent skin breaks that could increase transmission risk," Travis said. "It's also crucial to use a bleach solution to disinfect areas where a sick pet has relieved itself to kill the Leptospira bacteria."

A new understanding

During Rex's hospital stay, a shift occurred in veterinary medicine — the leptospirosis vaccine was reclassified as a core vaccine, making it as necessary as rabies, parvovirus, and distemper vaccines for all dogs.

The change represents a unified position from major veterinary organizations, including the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, the World Small Animal Veterinary Association, and the American Animal Hospital Association. Their consensus moves leptospirosis protection from optional to essential status, reflecting a new understanding of the disease's severity, increasing prevalence, and potential to spread to humans.

"Now we know that leptospirosis can infect any dog year-round, even just from drinking contaminated water from a puddle on the sidewalk," Travis said.

Through Rex's battle, Williams learned about vaccination options. "There are two different vaccines," he explained. "There is one for Lyme and lepto, but it only covers a couple strains of lepto, and then there's a more involved Lepto-only vaccine that covers four of the major strains. That's the one they recommended for Rex."

Now receiving ongoing care through the veterinary college's Community Practice service, Rex has shown remarkable improvement.

"From what I was told, it typically takes about two or three months for their kidney values to actually hit a baseline," Williams said. "He's almost fully recovered to baseline and is back to being a normal, energetic dog again.

"Knowledge makes all the difference," Williams said. "I had a lot of guilt while he was away because I didn't know if he was going to pull through or not, and a vaccine is such an innocuous thing. Had I known, I would have vaccinated my dog for sure."

Rex now has received his leptospirosis vaccination.