GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — From coast to coast, including states as close as Illinois, hundreds of dogs are falling ill with an unknown respiratory illness experts say starts as a cough but doesn't respond to regular antibiotics.
The nonresponse indicates the illness is a virus, and those affected are left struggling to breathe, which can lead to pneumonia and potentially death.
So far, in addition to Illinois, cases are confirmed in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, New Hampshire, Oregon and Washington.
But locally, the Minnesota Board of Animal Health says it hasn't received any reports of the unknown illness, and the Animal Humane Society says precautions like isolating aren't necessary unless agencies like AHS or MBAH issue a warning.
"I wouldn't change anything right now," said Dr. Graham Brayshaw, the Humane Society's director of veterinary medicine. "But you should always be safe and smart with what you do with your own pups … There are some good guidelines that we learned through COVID, that we learned through canine influenza, that always should apply and even should apply now, which, if your dog seems sick, don't bring them to other dogs."
The canine flu outbreak started in April in Minnesota but was considered subsided by late summer. AHS reopened its shelters in May.
Brayshaw says to call your vet at any first sign of illness, and with the holidays approaching he says families with healthy dogs may want to seek information before traveling.
"Check in with your aunt or uncle or whoever you're visiting to make sure their dog's been feeling well," he said.
He also noted that unknown illnesses are common in veterinary care, and that pinpointing what this one is may take time.
"Sometimes that's just the nature of veterinary medicine," he said. "Think of the resources toward human care versus the resources toward animal care … Even ourselves, if we get a flu or even a cold, we're not diagnosing what that virus is specifically."
The University of Minnesota Veterinary Medical Center says its internal medicine service has seen two cases that seem similar to the illness, but one of the dogs did test positive for Mycoplasma bacteria on a lung wash, and both dogs responded to doxycycline therapy, which is used to treat bacterial infections.
"As of now, we don't know what these cases actually are, so we have not reported them [to the state]. They are suspiciously like what has been reported, but responded much more quickly and positively than the cases in other regions," Dr. Lindsay Merkel said.
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