Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) are a problem in many places right now because of massive demand (as well as hoarding and black market diversion) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Veterinary clinics facing shortages need to think about ways to extend the life of existing supplies, including conservation, extended use or reuse of items when
Mask use in the community: When / why / how?
During my (limited) ventures outside of home or the College, it’s getting more common to see people walking around wearing nose-and-mouth masks.
My first thought is “Where are you getting those? They’re short in supply.”
My next thought is “Stop wasting masks! You don’t need them.”
My last one is “
Veterinary medicine, essential services and social distancing
Updated April 6: Revised guidance document
Ontario announced a shutdown of non-essential services yesterday. Wisely, veterinary medicine was classified as essential. However, it’s not business as usual. Rather, it’s “best as we can” given other restrictions and social distancing that are absolutely necessary to curb the spread of COVID-19. There’s no clear way to
Latest Canadian statement on COVID-19 and animals
It’s still an evolving area with many unknowns, so definitive statements about COVID-19 and animals are often lacking. We realize we might change some recommendations as we continue to regularly re-assess the evidence. Nonetheless, here’s the most recent information for the public on COVID-19 and animals from the Government of Canada (specifically the Canadian Food
Wanted: Hydrogen peroxide and glycerol
As I mentioned recently, a local distillery here in Guelph, Dixon’s Distilled Spirits, has started producing hand sanitizer for healthcare facilities and essential services to help with the supply shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic. I’m helping them manufacture it according to World Health Organization guidelines, mainly by helping to scavenge the two non-alcohol
COVID-19 impact on veterinary clinics
After my last very long post, here’s a quicky. Like most professions, veterinary medicine is being impacted by COVID-19 and the urgent need for social distancing. Many aspects of veterinary medicine are essential to public health, food safety and animal welfare, but we also can’t forget the importance of the human-animal bond, especially in
COVID-19: What we don’t know (but that doesn’t mean we can’t do something)
Long post alert….
I’ve spent more time than I can count on calls about COVID-19. Lots of questions about animal aspects come up and there are few good answers. Too often, there’s a desire to come up with definitive statements, despite the lack of evidence. That’s been done by some groups, and then they’ve had
Hand sanitizer: A community effort
With all the stress of these extraordinary times, there are countless good news stories about people stepping up to help. These often get buried amid the scarier news stories, but they’re important to recognize – not that people are doing it for recognition, but to show our resilience. I never thought I’d be writing about
Update: Another SARS-CoV-2 positive dog
The Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department has reported another SARS-CoV-2 positive dog. Similar to the first positive dog, the 2-year-old German Shepherd is from a household with an infected owner and, as per Hong Kong’s current approach, was quarantined and then tested. Like the last dog, this is thought to be
SARS-CoV-2 environmental survival
It’s truly amazing how much we know about COVID-19 and the virus that causes it (SARS-CoV-2), considering it was only identified a few months ago. However, there are still lots of basic things we don’t understand (yet).
One important question is whether the environment is a significant source of infection. When people breathe, cough, talk