Community Chat

[maestra]

Here in the Carolinas canine influenza is spreading, esp. at dog shows.

Symptoms include coughing, watery eyes, fever, lethargy and it can go into pneumonia, killing dogs.

It is highly contagious to other dogs and possibly cats as well. No threat to humans

There is a vaccination, which our vet is giving; we are getting Red vacinated tomorrow.

I am putting this out here instead of in Pet Lovers Forum since more people read this forum.

So far, this flu has been confirmed in FL, GA,SC,NC, with deaths in SC and NC.

Check w/your vet for more info. Our vet will not accept a dog for grooming or boarding without being fully vaccinated against this flu.

[Bird mama]

@maestra  I don't have a dog, however this is great information.

[Kachina624]

If it starts moving West, I'll definitely have my dogs vaccinated.  They aren't exposed to any other dogs.  They had their shots last week and the vet didn't mention it. 

[suzyQ3]

Thanks, @maestra. We're in California and have close contact with our vet because of some issues with our dog, but she hasn't mentioned it. We'll ask her.

She did mention that we should be especially careful regarding heartworm right now and had us switch to something that works for that along with fleas, just in case.  I don't know whether this is a only a local concern.

[Daysdee]

Vet here (CA) did not mention anything either.  She did recommend the Leptosporosis vaccine though since she said they can get bacteria from rodents and there are more rodents now since the weather we had.  It is a series of 2 the first year and then one annually.  I thought the chance of my dog getting it was small, but I did have her get the vaccines. 

[tervuren]

I live in California and this last weekend there were close to 3000 dogs at the Woofstock dog show in Vallejo.  These dogs travel from all,over for the dog shows.  It is no surprise that this dog flu is spreading.  We recently traveled to Texas and our vet suggested Lepto  shots and the flu shots.  

[Kachina624]

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@suzyQ3 wrote:

Thanks, @maestra. We're in California and have close contact with our vet because of some issues with our dog, but she hasn't mentioned it. We'll ask her.

She did mention that we should be especially careful regarding heartworm right now and had us switch to something that works for that along with fleas, just in case.  I don't know whether this is a only a local concern.

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@suzyQ3  Could it be because of all the rain you had and a proliferation of mosquitos which carry heartworm disease? 

[suzyQ3]

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@Kachina624 wrote:

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@suzyQ3 wrote:

Thanks, @maestra. We're in California and have close contact with our vet because of some issues with our dog, but she hasn't mentioned it. We'll ask her.

She did mention that we should be especially careful regarding heartworm right now and had us switch to something that works for that along with fleas, just in case.  I don't know whether this is a only a local concern.

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@suzyQ3  Could it be because of all the rain you had and a proliferation of mosquitos which carry heartworm disease? 

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@Kachina624, that certainly makes sense, but I don't really know. We are certainly seeing more mosquitos this year.

[maestra]

Thank you for all your support w/this bad virus.

Just another way we are stewards of our planet and furabies.

[Bird mama]

@maestra  You have to be so careful with respiratory things.  I know I had an ancient veterinarian who used to tell us to stay away from our cats and dogs (no face kissing, etc) when we had any kind of lung ailments - like bronchitis.

He wasn't worried about us, he said we could pass them to the cat or dog, rofl.

If I get a cold I get super paranoid around my birds - Dr. Fuller would be proud.