Dog Flu Warning In Colorado Springs
For anyone in Colorado Springs (CO), there is an outbreak of dog flu in the area. Two dog daycare centers have voluntarily closed their doors while the situation is being dealt with.
Dr. Susan Bloss of Cheyenne Mountain Animal Hospital says the current string is extremely contagious.
“If they’re (dogs) around a dog who’s in the contagious period, which is usually the first two to five days of the infection, they can definitely contract it,” Dr. Bloss says.
Dr. Bloss says the dog flu is a respiratory virus with no vaccine. Although it’s rarely fatal, she says your dog can still get very sick. All it takes is a sneeze from one dog, and a sniff from another to contract it.
The dog flu can be very dangerous, and potentially fatal if not treated with antibiotics. If you notice your dog is coughing, not eating, or just not feeling well, you should go to vet for a check-up.
* If you are sick you need to get plenty of rest like Ernie.
One correction, influenza is a virus, antibiotics will have no effect and may actually create greater harm to the public (human and animal) health. Antibiotics are only used if a secondary bacterial infection occures and is confirmed as bacterial. They are not recommended to be used empirically. Overuse of antibiotics in both human and animal populations is the primary reason that we have a dangerously high level of antibiotic resistance in this country. Just a note from your clinical Pharm.D..
Wow, thats scary!
We have a ton of loose dogs in our neighborhood, not necessarily neglected, but not given the best care in the world.
I’ll be keeping a close eye on my dog!
I own a dog daycare/boarding facility in Colorado Springs. We had a confirmed outbreak of Canine Flu in July 2008 – have not had any cases since then, knock on wood.
I understand that antibiotics are not effective against viruses such as the dog flu – yet, from personal experience I found that dogs treated with antibiotics seemed to do better. It seems that dogs with the flu are more suspectible to serious secondary infections, and may develop pnemonia. We also found that cough suppressants that help dogs with kennel cough caused by Bordetella, do not seem to benefit dogs with the Flu.
Sharon
Central Bark – 719-592-9300
http://www.coscentralbark.com
Sharon,
In the medical professions we call the “anecdotal evidence”, it carries very little weight when determining the treatments with the strongest clinical evidence. It is probably a secondary placebo effect, you want to give the dogs something that will help, so your perceptions as to which is doing better are altered. For years in human medicine the same thought existed, give antibiotics “just in case”, this is what we call treating empirically. Unfortunately after years of this philosphy we now have “super bugs” that will and are causing much higher rates of morbidity and mortality. It starts with commercially raised livestock who are brought up on a steady diet of antibiotics and continues in human medicine when hospitals place so many patients on antiobiotics even when they are asymptomatic. Also, the risk of having an anaphylactic reaction to an antibiotic, when analyzed scientifically, far outweighs the perceived benefit. While I appreciate your feelings and personal experience, in cases of outbreaks we must use evidence based medicine principles or we could be creating a worse problem than what we started with. The most difficult challenge with an animal patient population is that they can’t tell us what their symptoms are so we must rely on lab culture and sensitivity tests.
As for your cough suppressant experience, you are correct, there are very few cough suppressants, even in the human market, that have a much higher response than placebo or the good old standard of drinking plenty of water.
Canine Influenza Vaccine Now Available
The FDA has conditionally approved a vaccine for the canine flu in late May 2009. The press release was in late June, so many vets may not have the vaccine available yet – but if you take your dogs to places where there are many other dogs – dog parks, kennels, etc. – you should ask your vet about this vaccine. Dogs that have already had Canine Flu will have some immunity for probably 1-3 years, but dogs who have not been exposed are at high risk. The Canine Flu is still cropping up sporadically here in Colorado Springs. Most of my regular clients are immune for now (having come down with the flu last summer) and we have almost a “herd immunity” situation here as a result.
I too own a dog daycare and boarding facility in Colorado Springs, and had a outbreak of canine influenza last year, as most kennels did. There is controversy among veterinarians about the length of time dogs sustain immunity after being exposed to this virus. Having attended a veterinary meeting with Schering Plough, developers of the vaccine, I am more convinced than ever that the vaccine should be given to all dogs involved in a social canine lifestyle. Dogs coming to daycare, boarding, training and grooming come and go routinely. Also, with a high number of military members in our city dogs come in from other states and other countries. To assume you have “herd immunity” with new dogs coming in every day, and no guarantee how long immunity lasts, is naive. Also, we are coming up on a year since our last outbreak in town, so…if immunity lasts only a year, as it well might, we are due for illness this winter. And what about puppies? Unless their moms were exposed to the virus and they acquired some immunity from her, they are all susceptible to this virus. In all the studies done on this vaccine, and all dogs vaccinated to date, there have been no adverse affects. The vaccine has been shown to reduce the length of time the virus sheds (very important to the control of mass outbreaks) and lessens the symptoms, thus reducing veterinary costs to our clients. There is no guarantee that the vaccine will stop the flu, but to control the contagious properties of the virus, and to lessen the symptoms, is of the utmost importance in a kennel environment. At my kennel the vaccine is required by early fall for the health of my regular dogs that were with me last year, and the new dogs who have had no exposure.
To add to my above comment. An article in USA Today has acomment by Cynda Crawford, “a University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine infectious disease specialist who was instrumental in identifiying the virus in 2004.” She quotes 3 major criteria for vaccinating your dog against influenza:
1. He will come into close contact with other dogs
2. He will be in a setting where the bordetella vaccine is normally required and
3. You live in a hot zone that is having a canine flu outbreak, or has had outbreaks in the past
Colorado Springs is listed #2 hot zone for this virus in the country, every kennel in our town requires bordetella and dogs in kennels come in close contact with other dogs. I think this speaks for itself.
For dogs not experiencing the above factors, ask your vet, but your dog can probably go without the vaccine.
The article:
http://www.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=viewThis&etMailToID=247379505&pt=Y