Alaska News

Photos: 2012 Iditarod vet checks

For years, Stu Nelson, chief veterinarian of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, has recommended racing dogs be vaccinated against kennel cough. This year, it's mandatory.

"We are just trying to do everything we can to protect the dogs from infection," Nelson said from race headquarters in Wasilla, halfway through a long day of dog exams.

Vet checks are an annual ritual of the Last Great Race. Whether at the hands of Nelson and his team of race vets, or through a private veterinarian, mushers are required to have their dogs examined from head to toe within two weeks of the race. The dogs undergo pre-race physicals that check their heart, lungs, muscles, joints, gums and blood.

With 66 teams lined up to compete in the 2012 Iditarod, about 1,000 dogs will be examined. Suffice to say that's a lot of dog: 4,000 legs to lift, 2,000 ears to check and a lot of bellies to rub.

Dogs that don't make the cut get cut from the race.

Kennel cough worried many mushers even before the 2011 Iditarod began. Akin to a common cold in humans, it spreads easily. During vet checks last year, mushers were trying to get in and off the lot as quickly as possible to minimize their dogs' exposure to germs. Other mushers, like former runner-up Sebastian Schnuelle who is not racing this year, came to believe the bug caused their teams to fall ill during the race itself.

Like bordatella, a bacteria that can cause kennel cough, vets are also targeting a bacteria called leptisporisos, a bug that attacks kidneys and livers and which has reappeared among dogs in the Lower 48. "A dog with lepto is a really sick dog," Nelson said.

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The new vaccines bring to six the number of mandatory vaccines for race dogs. A quartet of inoculations against other illnesses – the viruses distemper, hepatitus, parvo, and rabies – were already on the list.

By mid-day Wednesday, Nelson said the dogs he'd seen so far looked good. But, he cautioned, the results from less-obvious problems that may be reflected in blood work or specialized heart-monitoring aren't in yet.

Contact Jill Burke at jill(at)alaskadispatch.com

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