Quick solution sought for go slow

Research is being carried out into Northland cases to see if wild pork causes go slow in dogs. Photo / File

A disease called "go slow" that affects working and hunting dogs mainly in Northland sounds like something comic farmer Fred Dagg made up - but serious research is going into the lethargy-producing illness.

Go slow, or more officially Northland dog myopathy, is an unexplained muscle disease that turns once super-charged dogs into sloths. It is being studied by Massey University scientist Dr Hayley Hunt, with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) getting in behind.

More cases of go slow have shown up in Northland than any other region, with reports of it going back possibly 20 years.

The fast-hitting symptoms include muscle trembling and fatigue, followed by a long period of exercise intolerance. Some dogs never return to full fitness.

Because more pig dogs than farm dogs have come down with it, go slow has been attributed to dogs eating wild pork or other game.

Kaeo pig hunter Ross Guy said he knows several Northland hunters whose dogs have had go slow.

"The dogs just suddenly have no energy, they run 100m and then just collapse.

"They show no sign of anything wrong beforehand."

He knows of one dog getting well again after six months of perseverance, and others where a dog has had to be put down. In one case, the dog recovered quickly "after a change of tucker".

Mr Guy said the disease was of major concern, and something of a mystery to hunters.

He said it had been age-old practise to feed dogs meat off an old boar or other game.

Dog owners are asked to report new cases to Northland Regional Council's biosecurity unit, to be included in Dr Hunt's hunt for answers.

MPI has agreed to support Dr Hunt's diagnostic and toxicology testing costs as cases come forward.

The research will follow up on a three-year study by Massey University scientists that ran from 2003.

The investigation team found the incidence of go slow was low - 47 cases - but defined by geography (Northland, with cases elsewhere linked to travel from the region), several cases per property, seasonal (worst in winter) and activity-related (hunting and farm dogs).

While another unproven claim is that possible toxins such as 1080 poison have got into the dogs' food chain, the previous study ruled out exotic disease, parasitic, infectious or contagious causes and any association with breed or diet.