There’s an interesting report that pets of people with COVID-19 in Seoul, Korea (and soon other areas) will be tested for SARS-CoV-2 for free, if the pets are showing signs of compatible illness. This comes on the heels of the (unsurprising) identification of an infected kitten in the city at the end of January,
Dogs
Severe Canine Respiratory Disease: Ontario
I’ve recently received a few reports of serious (including fatal) respiratory disease in dogs in regions east of Toronto, Ontario. We often see localized variations in the incidence of “kennel cough” (aka canine infectious respiratory disease complex (CIRDC)), including sporadic outbreaks, but in this case there is particular concern about the number of severe infections…
More Again on COVID-19 Scent-Detection Dogs
I’ve written about COVID-19 scent-detection dogs before, and I’ve done a variety of interviews on the subject, but it keeps coming up.
Can scent-detection dogs help with COVID-19 control? The answer is (as with many things about the SARS-CoV-2 virus) less than clear. My current answer is… maybe… in some situations… potentially.
Let’s break it…
Freeze Dried vs Fresh vs Frozen Raw Pet Foods
I got a question about an old post on this topic, so I decided to add a bit of information and re-post it. Not much has changed since it was written in 2018, apart from more reports of people and pets getting sick from raw pet food and raw treats.
Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease Surveillance Map (December 31)
We continue to track cases of canine infectious respiratory disease in various parts of Canada, for what it’s worth. The data are obviously a bit dodgy because it’s primarily from self-reporting, but I think we’re getting some interesting information. Cases seem to be slowing down, but we continue to get reports from the two main…
Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease Surveillance Map (December 17)
We’re continuing to track informal reports of canine infectious respiratory disease in a number of areas. Click here for the latest version of our canine infectious respiratory disease complex (CIRDC) map (December 17).
We’re still getting lots of reports of sick dogs in Edmonton and Calgary, both via cases reported through our survey for the…
Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease Surveillance Map (December 11)
A few days ago, I wrote about our efforts to track infectious respiratory disease in dogs, based on informal reports of potentially increased disease activity in a couple of areas (particularly Calgary AB and Guelph ON). Click here for the latest version of our canine infectious respiratory disease complex (CIRDC) map.
As expected, once…
International Canine Infectious Disease Map
A few times a week, I get questions like this from veterinarians:
- I have a canine patient from [name your country] and it’s sick. What diseases should I be aware of?
- I have healthy canine patient that was just imported from [name your country]. What diseases should I be aware of?
Or I get…
Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease Outbreak Tracking
Not uncommonly, I get questions about outbreaks of “kennel cough” (more formally known as canine infectious respiratory disease complex (CIRDC)). It’s not uncommon for us to see little outbreaks of this kind of respiratory illness in dogs, and we don’t have a good handle on the amount of “background” disease that’s always present in the…
SARS-CoV-2 Surveillance in Pets Study
We are looking to recruit Canadian veterinary clinic staff who have had COVID-19 themselves for a study to learn more about the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from people to their own pets (dogs, cats, ferrets). This study is being performed by Drs. Scott Weese and Dorothee Bienzle from the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph.
Who…