Disease status

• Things seem to be slowing down. Whether that’s because of a true decrease in disease or “reporting fatigue” is a good question. However, I’m pretty certain that the outbreak is burning itself out in the areas that were most affected.
• Sporadic reports of sick dogs are still coming in from a few areas, but no major clusters are being reported to me, unlike a week ago.
• Fortunately, very few severe infections seem to be occurring. Most cases are fairly mild and dogs recover with simply time or basic treatment. Complications such as bacterial pneumonia have occurred, but at a rate that is similar to or lower than what I’d expect for typical canine respiratory disease cases.

Diagnosis status

• No definitive cause has been found so far, but that doesn’t mean no progress has been made. Given the number of tests that have been performed, I think we are at the point where we can say that the “usual suspects” such as canine parainfluenza, canine influenza and Bordetella bronchiseptica are not the cause.
• Work is ongoing in a few different places to figure out what the cause might be.