Angus, the C. difficile sniffing dog, visits two Ottawa hospitals

We’ve heard of bomb sniffing dogs and drug-sniffing dogs, but a dog that can detect potentially deadly hospital bacteria? That’s where Angus comes in. The English Springer is Canada’s first certified bacteria-sniffing pooch, visiting two Ottawa’s hospitals this week.

When Angus goes to work, he puts his nose to the grindstone, or the railing, the floor, the chair; wherever invisible spores of C. difficile may be lurking in hospital hallways.

His trainer, Teresa Zurberg, knows all too well how important that “work” is.  Six years ago, she contracted Clostridium difficile, or C. difficile, while in a B.C. hospital recovering from an infected wound in her leg.  She had been given antibiotics to deal with the infection which killed off the good bacteria in her intestines, letting the C. difficile she may have picked up in the hospital take

hold.

Read more…