I’m not in one of the infected states, but the expectation is it’s under-reported
https://www.nytimes.com/article/dog-respiratory-illness.html
Gift article;
We’ve had something like this in New England for about a year - wonder if it’s the same thing. I first heard of it in NH. If so, it’s nasty, but it does seem to have calmed down.
Atlanta GA area here. My son’s family dog just got over a really bad cough caught at a boarding kennel. Vet thought it was kennel cough, but dog had already been vaccinated for it. I gather there were a few nights when it was touch and go. Anyway, they are going out of town for three days and I have offered to take him in for that time. Don’t know how my cat will react to this, but I’ll remind him that this is called “paying for your room and board.” Hopefully it will work out.
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I like to walk our dogs in town during the winter to keep their feet safe from the road salt out here in the country. However, with this thing going around, we’ll just keep the farm trails maintained and walk them at home. Luckily, mine were vaccinated over the summer, so they have no reason to go anywhere. We’re not vacationing anytime soon and we don’t do dog parks.
Anyone else keeping their pups on lockdown?
Yes, my adult son is Social Director for my GSD
and takes her all over, into stores, parks, lake swimming and allows her to meet many dogs
I put my foot down and said Halt. I don’t need another sick animal to càretake. Reports here
say this is a pretty severe illness.
Our county shelter closed to intakes for several weeks. So it’s been pretty bad.
There are various strains of “kennel cough” (respiratory virus); they are not all covered by the vaccine. It still could be the new respiratory thing; but vaccinating for kennel cough is not at all foolproof. I think it’s about 20-50% effective.
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It’s cropped up in my area. This is the first time I’ve been glad that my dog is not good with other dogs. We get spirited in to the vet office through a side door so the waiting room doesn’t turn into bedlam (unfair to other pet owners) and in town we walk early and late to avoid other dog walkers. So I think she will be ok, but I have warned a friend who’s dog needs regular grooming.
There’s a Facebook group out there that’s public. It’s hard to tell if all of the dogs had this new illness or if some had kennel cough or something like that and because this is hitting the news, the owners are assuming this is what it is.
Some claim that their dogs got it even without leaving their home or socializing with other dogs. I don’t know if this is what they had or not, but it does make one wonder if wild animals could spread it or if people could spread it on their shoes and clothes.
One thing I gleamed from my deep dive into Facebook is that a number of people are saying that the dogs’ lungs sound clear but do not x ray clear. If any of my crew comes down with anything respiratory, I think I’ll get x rays, even if it’s silly.
I hope they get some additional answers soon on how it spreads, etc.
I have a new pup, and when I have been taking her in for her shots, I don’t let her touch the floor. I insist she be held the entire time. She’s a lab and getting too big for my lap, but one more round and we are done for the year and her spay in Spring.
I live in an area where parvo is actively around and people think vaccines give 5G and magentic capabilties. 
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You might want to wait on the spay if your pup will be younger that 2 yrs old this spring. Current research has associated pediatric spay/neuter with a host of orthopedic issues and cancers especially on large breeds.
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Last year my greyhound had a severe pneumonia, I had just recovered from Covid and he got sick, high fever, hard breathing, difficult in standing, no eating at all. All the vets said it was impossibile he caught Covid from me but it definitely looked like it was, it took months for him to recover completely. The other (younger) dog just had a cough, it was very likely a virus because they contaged each other. We are in Italy. I am wondering if It could be a new form of Covid
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I throught it was typical to spay after their first heat? She was born July 30. I have no problem waiting, my other female is not spayed and she is 7. She wears cloth diapers once a year for 2 weeks, no biggie.
…and no I do not breed or have bred her. She is 105 lbs and I am afraid to have her on the operating table.
It used to be, but on the last 10 years, research has been able to link early spay/neuter with abnormal growth and orthopedic issues. I believe the issue is that the sex hormones tell the long bones to stop growing. Without them. The dogs can become abnormally tall which can cause orthopedic issues such as blown cruciate ligaments. I found this out the hard way with a German shepherd who was 6 inches taller than breed standard who blew both knees and had other orthopedic issues. His only risk factor was neutering at 6 months. They’ve also linked pediatric neuter to certain cancers in dogs.
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I think this bug has been around longer than media thinks. My dog had something very similar last Feb/March (we are in the Atlanta area). Vet thought at first it was kennel cough contracted either at daycare (1 day per week), or at the groomer (she had been to the groomer about 7-8 days before her symptoms started). She was still “officially current” on her Bordatella vax although her next one was due about 4 weeks later. Her cough was different from typical kennel cough though and vet could not conclusively say she had it unless it was a new or different strain. She also had a lot of fluid in her chest and after ruling out pneumonia, he thought she may be in the beginning stages of congestive heart failure - esp. since any exertion caused her to cough. Vet got an ultrasound machine a few weeks later and sonogram showed the fluid was pretty much gone and her heart looked mostly normal. She did recover but it took a good 6-8 weeks and there were still occasional episodes over the next 3-4 weeks where heavy exertion caused her to cough a bit. She is good now but I worry about a reoccurrence this winter.
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FACTS:
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Had my dog at the vet today and heard reception field a call from an owner asking if the practice had seen any cases of this. Receptionist said no. I’m in Central VA.
I don’t know enough about it, but I don’t know that social media is actually helpful with it.
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Any thoughts on traveling with your dog while this is out there? Of course according to FB, the sky is always falling but how prevalent is it? I’m planning on taking my big guy with me to an endurance ride (going from MD to NC) on New Year’s weekend. I know there will be other dogs there at ride camp, although generally they are on leash etc. Should I be considering not going?
We were horrified to learn about this bit of nastiness going around AFTER we were in multiple hot spots while on vacation! And while we kept our dogs on leash apparently people on Oregon beaches can’t and our dogs had multiple face to face interactions after dogs failed to listen to their owners. Between this and the lepto outbreak in the sea lion/seal population I was a nervous wreck for weeks after we got home. My dogs basically only have risk when we go on vacation or trips to the vet. Otherwise they are only in their fenced yard or on my family land that has no other dogs.
Is there a group chat with the others at the endurance ride or something? Or the organizers? Maybe you can start a convo with one or the other to ask about measures for avoiding dog close encounters.
I’m still going to my weekly dog classes, albeit warily. We have all been instructed to not let our dogs approach one another. My dog hates other dogs so that’s par for us. It’s a huge room and we’re each in an xpen plenty far away from each other. (It’s a rally class, so we are in the ring by ourselves when we run the course) Only about 6 dogs show up per class and the instructors stopped bringing their dogs to hang out. We spray the pens with sanitizer and they are running the floor cleaner daily. I stopped bringing my dog’s Kong for her to chew on while in the xpen because I don’t want her licking the floor. So far no cases reported in my state, though I assume there are probably some unreported cases. Right now I’m ok with this but we’ll see for how long.
