I read on CNN recently that there is some kind of mysterious dog flu going around the country. It started on the East Coast and is here now. I took my dog to a vaccination clinic and he was sick a few days later. What’s going on? — Dog Lover, El Centro
We spoke with longtime Brawley veterinarian Dr. James R. Howard, who on Tuesday morning said he had just finished reading an article on this so-called new dog flu in a veterinary journal.
He said he hasn’t seen any sickness presenting itself locally to the degree that veterinarians around the country are reporting.
Howard said vets are describing numerous cases, and Web searches we found from different parts of the country are reporting dog flu happening at a rate of dozens of cases a week.
Howard said he cannot even confirm whether this new strain of dog flu is present in the Imperial Valley. What he did say is that dogs are coming in a few isolated cases, with kennel cough-like syndrome. Unchecked, they are coughing for three or more weeks, but when treated with an existing flu vaccine, they are getting better in two to three days.
He said this might just be an undiagnosed and unidentified flu that has been around for years, but is spreading … with the help of the media. His words, not ours.
He said in 2005 there were a number of puppies coming in with kennel cough symptoms that also presented like a flu. At that time, he sent off samples from those puppies to Cornell University and University of California, Davis. In both cases, those tests came back negative, meaning there was something not yet diagnosed.
However, Howard said he just treated those puppies with a flu vaccine and they got better. He’s doing the same here in these few cases.
Whatever is it going around, Howard said it’s minor and is responding well to existing treatments, although it is highly communicable.
We spoke with longtime Brawley veterinarian Dr. James R. Howard, who on Tuesday morning said he had just finished reading an article on this so-called new dog flu in a veterinary journal.
He said he hasn’t seen any sickness presenting itself locally to the degree that veterinarians around the country are reporting.
Howard said vets are describing numerous cases, and Web searches we found from different parts of the country are reporting dog flu happening at a rate of dozens of cases a week.
Howard said he cannot even confirm whether this new strain of dog flu is present in the Imperial Valley. What he did say is that dogs are coming in a few isolated cases, with kennel cough-like syndrome. Unchecked, they are coughing for three or more weeks, but when treated with an existing flu vaccine, they are getting better in two to three days.
He said this might just be an undiagnosed and unidentified flu that has been around for years, but is spreading … with the help of the media. His words, not ours.
He said in 2005 there were a number of puppies coming in with kennel cough symptoms that also presented like a flu. At that time, he sent off samples from those puppies to Cornell University and University of California, Davis. In both cases, those tests came back negative, meaning there was something not yet diagnosed.
However, Howard said he just treated those puppies with a flu vaccine and they got better. He’s doing the same here in these few cases.
Whatever is it going around, Howard said it’s minor and is responding well to existing treatments, although it is highly communicable.
