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The latest version of A Guide to Mitigating the Risk of Infection in Veterinary Practices During the COVID-19 Pandemic (15-Jun-2021) has been released.  It can also be accessed through the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association Coronavirus FAQ webpage (member login required).

The main changes are a new section summarizing various considerations for re-opening of veterinary practices to clients, and minor updates to other areas such as ventilation.

Previous versions of the guidance and other related documents can be found on the Worms & Germs COVID-19 Veterinary Resources page.

I get asked about this topic a lot. Early in the pandemic, I wrote a post about options for caring for pets of people with COVID-19.  Some things have changed a bit now that we know more know about SARS-CoV-2 in animals and the associated zoonotic risks, and we have a vaccine for people.

One example of a commonly encountered scenario is: A dog owner is being hospitalized because of COVID-19 and a friend or family member has been asked to take care of the pet.

What are the risks to the caretaker of the dog?

  • We don’t know. I’d consider it very low but I can’t say it’s zero.
  • Person-to-dog transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is fairly common in households where the owner has COVID-19, based on our and other groups’ surveillance efforts. However, dogs are not really a great host for this virus and infections are probably fairly low grade and transient, and therefore low risk for further transmission.
  • Dog-to-dog transmission of SARS-CoV-2 hasn’t been seen experimentally, but the studies to date have been fairly small so we can’t read too much into that.  Nonetheless, it’s clear that dogs are lower risk than cats for passing the virus on to other individuals. Yet, live virus has been grown from canine respiratory secretions, suggesting there is at least some plausible risk.

What can or should be done in this situation?  There are two key considerations:

1. Should the person in question agree to look after the animal at all?

  • This requires consideration of the risk status of everyone in the household (e.g.  is anyone at high risk of serious disease if they get infected?), vaccination status of everyone in the household, whether other pets are present, how well the dog can be contained in the household, and whether the household members are willing to accept a small degree of risk.
  • The best case scenario is to send the dog to a pet-free household where everyone is vaccinated and where they can keep the dog away from other people or animals (e.g. they have a fenced yard). Asking someone else to look after a pet like this was harder earlier in the pandemic, but now that we have highly effective vaccines, it’s easier.  Asking if someone from a fully vaccinated household will take the job is reasonable.

2. How should the dog be managed?

  • That also depends on the risk status of the household. In a vaccinated household, I’d say it can be “business as usual” in the house, but restricted outside. By that, I mean I’d do nothing different with the human-dog interactions in the household, but when the dog goes outside it should be under control (e.g. on a leash, or in a fenced yard) so the dog doesn’t interact with other people or dogs from outside the household.
  • If there are unvaccinated people in the household, it’s tougher. I still consider the risk of transmission from a dog to be very low, but I can’t say it’s zero. So, it would be prudent to keep the dog away from unvaccinated individuals as much as possible for the first 14 days (7 days is probably reasonable if it’s a major issue, but 14 days is ideal).  That doesn’t mean locking the dog in the bathroom and never going near it, but rather avoiding contact with respiratory secretions, not having the dog in the same small airspace for prolonged periods of time (e.g. not sleeping in the bedroom), and focusing on good hand hygiene.

The main issue is we just don’t know the risk. It’s definitely very low and could be zero, but I don’t think we can say it’s zero at this point. Vaccines are a game changer for these scenarios.

Okay, but what if the pet in question is a cat instead of a dog?

That changes the risk a bit, but not really the overall approach. Cats are more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 and cat-to-cat transmission can occur, so there’s also more concern about the potential for cat-to-human transmission.  That means the issues above all apply to cats as well, but are probably heightened.

My focus here would be on finding a vaccinated household to look after the cat, if possible.  If not, it’s a matter of restricting contact with anyone who isn’t vaccinated. The good thing about cats is they are (for the most part) easier to contain than dogs.  They can be kept in a large cage or kennel if necessary, or they can be confined more easily to certain areas of the house, and cats don’t need to go outside. So, if someone who’s unvaccinated has to take in a cat, it’s easier to limit contact. The concepts above still apply, with a goal of minimizing the closeness and duration of contact during the first 7-14 days after the cat is removed from the person who was infected with COVID-19.

As we start seeing a light at the end of the (long) tunnel, we have to think about how and when to restart various activities. One particular activity that I get a lot of emails about is pet therapy/visitation programs. These are great programs, where animals (usually, and ideally, dogs) are taken into facilities to interact with residents or patients. They’re not for everyone, but have been shown to have physical and mental health benefits.  Not surprisingly, they were largely stopped during COVID-19 pandemic, but many are now gearing up again.

What’s the risk of animal visitation programs?

People.

The main issue isn’t the animals (at least when it comes to dogs), it’s the human component. Human visitors pose much more risk than most pets, since people are more likely to be infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and an infected person poses a greater risk of spreading the virus than an infected pet. That’s particularly true with dogs, who are not uncommonly infected by their owners but who are low (or maybe almost no) risk for transmitting it back to people.  Also, if the animal happens to be infected, it’s quite possible the owner is too.

So, there is some risk from these programs, but the main (if not exclusive) risk is from an infected handler.

When can these programs restart?

The focus should really be on deciding:

  • when COVID-19 is controlled enough in humans the area
  • when resident/patient vaccination rates are high enough
  • when animal handler vaccination rates are high enough
  • what basic practices to identify high risk handlers (e.g. those with respiratory disease) need to be in place.

Should vaccination be mandatory for pet therapy program participants?

(Bracing for the next wave of anti-vaxxer “love” letters as I say this…)

In my opinion, yes, vaccination should be mandatory for the people (not the animals).  A reasonable exemption for people that TRULY CANNOT be vaccinated is reasonable, but the bar has to be high so that “cannot” and “don’t wanna” are differentiated.

Mandating vaccination of handlers would be a logical measure for a voluntary activity that involves close contact with a disproportionate percentage of high-risk participants.  Also, there’s a need to make sure handlers received both doses of vaccine, as concerns about the delta variant increase.

The other approach could be to have a phased re-introduction, e.g. fully (2-dose) vaccinated people can start first, with follow up assessment of when people who are not vaccinated can start as well. That way the policy isn’t saying unvaccinated people can’t participate, it just says they can’t yet. That’s not an unusual approach now as people start to think about re-opening in other areas and how vaccination comes into play for that.

How to we reduce the risk in the event an infected person (or animal) ends up visiting?

Good ol’ infection control and common sense. There are very good guidelines for healthcare visitation programs that apply to most animal visitation settings, and those are the core of risk reduction.  A little basic hygiene and common sense go a long way.

I’ve written before about animal vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 with regard to mink, but with Russia having recently licensed its Carnivac-Cov vaccine for use in several species (namely dogs, cats, foxes and mink) and Zoetis developing a vaccine in the US for mink, there’s continued interest in the subject, so I’ll revisit it.

I’m glad companies are working on SARS-CoV-2 vaccines for animals. It’s good to be prepared and have the work done in case it’s needed in a particular situation. Whether there’s much use for these vaccines in most animals at this time is hard to say.

When I think about SARS-CoV-2 vaccines for animals, there are three main reasons we would use them:

1. Prevention of severe disease

This is the main goal of most vaccines. However, dogs and cats don’t seem to get very sick, very often, from this virus.

  • I’m still on the fence as to whether this virus really causes significant disease in dogs at all. We have some data that suggests infection is associated with risk of very mild disease but overall, it’s still not entirely clear. However, it is clear that they rarely, if ever, get seriously ill.
  • Cats are commonly infected with SARS-CoV-2, but even cats rarely develop severe illness. There’s evidence that they can, so we can’t dismiss it. However, our research and others suggests that a large percentage of cats from households where people have COVID-19 get infected. So, we have probably had millions of infected cats worldwide since the start of the pandemic. If this was causing severe disease in a reasonable percentage of cats, I think we’d have clear signs of that by now. Since serious illness can occur in a small minority of cases, vaccination could help, but in the grand scheme of things, given the low risk of severe disease, it’s hard to say that the potential benefits justify the cost and potential adverse events.  (We don’t know about any specific adverse effects of vaccination in animals to date. I’m not talking about VITT or the misinformation about mRNA vaccine adverse events in humans. I’m talking about the typical adverse events that we can see in animals with any vaccine.) I’d rather focus on better rabies vaccine coverage and other good preventive medicine things than trying to get cats vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2. I’m not opposed to it. I just think the value is probably limited.
  • Mink are different. They are clearly susceptible to infection and it can cause serious illness and even death. The two points below probably are more important when considering vaccination of mink, but there could be mink health benefits from vaccination.

I’d be most interested in vaccination of endangered species with suspected high susceptibility that have human contact, particularly wild felids (e.g. lions, tigers) and non-human primates (e.g. great apes). Vaccination of captive animals (zoos), animals in rehab facilities and animals in areas where there’s close contact with human populations (mainly applicable to primates) might be worthwhile because of the potential implications of infection in endangered populations.

2. Prevention of transmission from animals to people

Dogs pose little risk to people, if any, in terms of transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Dog-to-dog transmission has not been seen experimentally, and infected dogs seem to have pretty low viral loads, so I doubt there’s much risk. Cats pose more risk to people. Cat-to-cat transmission does happen, so we have to assume cat-to-human transmission can occur too.  But human-to-cat transmission is still far more common. Because most infected cats probably catch the virus from their owners in the first place, they are probably “dead-end” hosts in households and rarely play a role in transmission. Cats get infected from family members, who have also infected each other, and everyone burns off the virus together. I think the greatest risk of cat-to-human transmission is when infected cats leave the house, particularly to go to a veterinary clinic or shelter. However, the risk associated with that can be significantly reduced using basic infection control practices..

The risk of animal-to-human transmission is probably highest with mink, as mink-to-human transmission clearly occurs. Vaccination of mink could be an important way to control mink-to-human transmission (but preventing human-to-mink transmission is most important).

3. Prevention of viral mutation

This is an important aspect for species that might serve as reservoirs and source of new variants. Virus variants emerge because of random mutations in the viral genome, and mutations happen when the virus replicates. So, the more the virus replicates and the more individuals are infected, the greater chance of a “bad” mutation occurring. For dogs and cats, this isn’t really a big concern. We don’t have massive numbers of dogs or cats together where widespread sustained transmission  is of great concern. Yes, a mutation could happen within a single infected dog or cat, but it’s really unlikely (and even then, it’s only relevant if that dog/cat then can pass it on to a person.)

The greatest risk of significant viral mutation in any animal species to date appears to be in mink.  We know that the virus can mutate in mink populations AND spread back to people. When you house thousands of a highly susceptible animals close together and introduce the virus from an infected person, that’s the recipe for widespread transmission and massive viral replication that’s needed for “bad”mutations to result in the emergence of a significant variant. Vaccination of mink farm workers helps reduce the risk of mink getting infected and from passing the virus back to people, but there’s still some degree of risk.

 

Overall, I can’t see a need at this point for vaccination of dogs and cats against SARS-CoV-2. The cost-benefit comparison of vaccination of those species doesn’t seem convincing.  Vaccination of high-risk (e.g. endangered) susceptible animals like large cats and non-human primates might make more sense, such as in zoos, rehab facilities and other places where there’s some degree of human contact with these species.

Mink are a different story. If we’re going to continue to farm mink, vaccination is a reasonable consideration.

The final disclaimer here is that all this is based on what we know about current virus variants. New variants always have the potential to reset our knowledge to some degree.  Variants that can infect a wider range of animal species, cause more serious disease in animals or be more transmissible from animals to humans might impact the current risks and make vaccination of other species more beneficial.  That’s why I’m glad we have some information about vaccines for animals now. I don’t think we need them currently for most species, but it’s good to be prepared should things change.

Ivermectin is a commonly used anti-parasitic in animals, and it’s also used in people to treat some parasitic diseases. Additionally, it’s still widely discussed in some internet circles for treatment or prevention of COVID-19. That’s based on mainly anecdotes, some in vitro study, and very poor quality “clinical trials”.

It’s led to stories of people using or even hoarding veterinary ivermectin products. I’ve had lots of questions from the general public and veterinarians as a result (including stories of people buying more heartworm meds for their dog  than they’d ever need).

Bad idea. Here are some reasons why:

  1. There no evidence that it works. An in vitro study showed ivermectin inhibited SARS-CoV-2, but only at massive doses, well beyond what would be safe for use in people.
  2. Anecdotes aren’t data.
    • I don’t dismiss clinical observation, as it is the starting point of many important discoveries. However, a lot of things I have thought I observed or initially appeared to “work” didn’t pan out to be true over time.
    • Observations should lead us to take specific steps to figure out if something is real.  They help raise questions, not answer them.
  3. Other factors may be involved that make the drug appear effective in some siutations, but those factors don’t apply broadly.
    • One potential reason ivermectin may seem to work in some areas is because it’s an anti-parasitic. Strongyloides stercoralis is a human respiratory parasite that is common in some countries. People get infected and the parasite can lay dormant in the body, but when they are immunosuppressed, it can be re-activated.
    • Dexamethasone is a common and effective treatment in people with moderate to severe signs of COVID-19.  It reduces inflammation, but also impacts the function of the immune system (since that’s what triggers inflammation).
    • If someone is infected with dormant Strongyloides stercoralis, dexamethasone treatment for COVID-19 might lead to re-activation of the parasite, and that would complicate respiratory disease.
    • I don’t dismiss that potential, but it would mean that ivermectin might be effective in people with dormant Strongyloides stercoralis infection that are also receiving dexamethasone.
    • That’s a lot different than “ivermectin works against SARS-CoV-2 and everyone, everywhere, who is infected should be on it.”  They should not.
  4. Ivermectin isn’t a very commonly used drug in people, but it is important for treatment of certain parasitic infections.
    • Diversion of the relatively small amount of human ivermectin products towards unnecessary use compromises the care of people that really need it. (I realize that isn’t associated with “don’t steal Fido’s stash” but it’s still an important point.)
  5. Your dog’s heartworm preventative is a low dose treatment.
    • To get the levels used in the aforementioned in vitro study, a person would require a dose of  about 3500 ug/kg. Heartworm prevention in dogs is dosed at about 6 ug/kg.
    • So, my dog Merlin gets one 272 ug chewable a month. To get 3500 ug/kg, I’d need 965 tablets per dose. If I had a small dog, I’d need even more of his supply.
    • If I wanted to self-treat for Strongyloides stercoralis (not sure why I would, but let’s pretend), I’d need 52 of my dog’s chewables – per day.
  6. Ivermectin also comes in more concentrated oral, injectable (don’t even think about it) and pour-on (topical) forms. While I have good confidence in mainstream veterinary pharmaceutical companies, I still don’t want people taking a product that is only intended for (studied in and approved for) use in animals.

Ivermectin is one of many so-called “miracle cures” that we’ve seen pushed on the internet. Like most others, there’s limited substance to the stories behind it. There’s no magic bullet for COVID-19. I’d love it if ivermectin was one, as it’s a drug we know how to use and how to produce. Production could be ramped up and it’s relatively cheap. While conspiracy theories abound, no one has come up with any plausible explanation why an effective drug would be suppressed. Dexamethasone is cheap, widely used and widely produced, and it’s standard of care for some patients. That’s because it works. Ivermectin fits all of those except the “works for COVID-19” which is the most important one.

We’ve once again updated the Guide to Mitigating the Risk of Infection in Veterinary Practices During the COVID-19 Pandemic (14-Apr-2021).  It can also be accessed through the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association Coronavirus FAQ webpage (member login required).

I’ll be happy when we can stop updating these guidelines. Progress is good and adding new information is useful. I just long for the day when we don’t need them.

Previous versions of the guidance and other related documents can be found on the Worms & Germs COVID-19 Veterinary Resources page.

I’ve taken a look back at some posts from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, to see how my thoughts have evolved, what I got right and what I screwed up. We have a lot of COVID-19 posts (starting from when we called it “novel coronavirus” or “Wuhan coronavirus” before the SARS-CoV-2 terminology existed). Here are some highlights and “grading” of my comments from a selection of posts

January 20, 2020 “New coronavirus: Companion animal concerns?”: Very early on I said While this virus still seems to be less transmissible and less virulent than its relative, the SARS coronavirus, it’s pretty early to have a lot of confidence in that.

  • Grade B: It turns out SARS-CoV-2 is not less transmissible than the first SARS virus, but I guess I covered myself by saying it was early to have much confidence.

For containment measures for SARS, this new coronavirus or any other new disease, we need to assume that multiple species can be affected until proven otherwise, and we need to act accordingly. That doesn’t necessarily need to be complex. It might just be making sure animal contact questions are asked along with human contact questions, that quarantine protocols consider what to do with exposed animals, and that quarantined individuals are kept away from animals. 

  • Grade A: This turned out to be a fairly accurate statement, but fortunately risks from animals seem to be pretty limited (let’s hope this statement holds up). This is also around the time I sent some (essentially ignored) emails to try to get some consideration of animal aspects in any human exposure response planning here in Ontario.

January 23, 2020 “Novel coronavirus in China… Hold off on blaming snakes”:  In a post talking about how snakes might be the source of SARS-CoV-2, I wasn’t convinced and said I’m sure we’ll see much more genetic analysis of this virus by many different groups, but I suspect it will keep coming back to bats as the source. 

  • Grade A:  A final answer is still needed but this seems correct.

February 5, 2020 “Novel coronavirus and animals”: In talking about whether there’s actually a problem with companion animals, I said we need to focus on ensuring exposed animals are quarantined, using good old fashioned infection control like hand washing, keeping fear at bay and applying logic to the problem.

  • Grade B+: I’ll dock myself some marks on this one since it was focused on dogs. To be fair, the post was about concerns regarding over-reaction and euthanasia or abandonment of dogs, but it didn’t get into the bigger risks we now know are present with other species.

February 14, 2020 “More on COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) in animals”: I said We still have no evidence that this virus affects domestic animals, but since we also still have no real evidence that it doesn’t, it’s best to continue to take reasonable precautions to reduce the risk of exposure of animals to infected people, and to properly manage pets of people who are infected. “

  • Grade A+: Especially since it was at the same time groups like the US CDC were actively pushing back against there being any risk to/from animals.

February 18, 2020 “COVID-19 and potential animal hosts”: This post talked about a study that predicts species susceptibility based on ACE2 receptors. The potential susceptibility of cats is obviously a concern given their commonness as pets and the close interaction many people have with their cats. Pigs could be an even worse issue. If pigs could be infected and shed the virus, and it got into the commercial pig population, it would potentially be an even worse issue.  As with SARS, mice and rats are likely resistant to infection – that’s good from the standpoint of them not being reservoirs in the wild, but it also means they can’t be used for experimental study (as these are the most common lab animal species).

  • Grade C+: I think I over-estimated how useful these studies would be. They were interesting, but some species predicted to be high risk (e.g. pigs) aren’t, and some that were predicted to be lower risk (e.g. cat) most certainly as susceptible to SARS-CoV-2.  I also missed a couple of points. It seems like infection of pigs isn’t a concern but I think I missed some of the main potential concerns, as I wasn’t thinking about them as sources of virus mutants or wildlife exposure.

February 28, 2020 “COVID-19 in a dog”: A post about the first SARS-CoV-2 positive dog: Overall, my concerns are still more about cats. Dogs will probably get investigated more because there are more pet dogs than cats in most regions, and people tend to seek healthcare for the dogs (or alternative caretakers if the owner is indisposed due to illness) quicker than for their cats. 

  • Grade A: That turned out to be true.

March 27, 2020 “Human-to-cat COVID-19 transmission: Belgium”: I said If you’re worried about getting COVID-19, worry about your human contacts, not your pets. Keep pets away from high risk people, but otherwise, your risk is from exposure to people, not your pet

  • Grade A: I haven’t really changed that line in the past year.

March 29, 2020 “Social distancing WITHIN veterinary clinics”: I said Masks can reduce the risk of transmission if someone is unknowingly shedding the virus . Masks aren’t perfect but there can be some benefit. Whether it’s a good use of masks is questionable. Putting on masks for occasional close contact procedures (and ideally reusing that mask for the whole shift) isn’t unreasonable, but whether it’s really worth the mask use is hard to say.

  • Grade D: My line on masking was influenced by influenza data and concerns about mask availability, and I underestimated the usefulness of routine masking. I also focused on it being needed for known close contact situations, not more broadly. Those were the standard recommendations at that time but I still get a “D” for this one.

March 30, 2020 “COVID-19 and ferrets”: Here, I discussed concerns about ferrets.

  • Grade C:  We haven’t seen much SARS-CoV-2 activity in ferrets. Maybe that’s just because they aren’t common pets and don’t get taken to a veterinarian as often. Where I missed the boat was thinking about related species. Mink were not on my radar at all… (see below.)

April 24, 2020 “Pets and COVID-19 fears”: A commentary sent in partnership with the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association to veterinarians to balance awareness and paranoia when talking to pet owners about SARS-CoV-2.

  • Grade A: I’m not sure I’d change anything a year later.

April 26, 2020 “COVID-19 in mink: The Netherlands”: I said We’ll put this in the “interesting but not really surprising” file.

  • Grade C-: Fair statement, but while I talked about the concerns, I don’t think I really appreciated how susceptible mink would be and the issues that would develop from that.

April 28, 2020 “COVID-19 modelling and the impact of releasing cats”: This was a commentary about a crap-tastic paper about releasing infected cats and the potential impact on virus tranmission. Little did I realize this was one of many future “studies” based on little substance, little common sense and a complete abandonment of any principles of peer review. Academic opportunism has abounded in the past year and a bit, with some people putting out utterly useless papers, reviews and commentaries, and sometimes causing harm.

  • No grade… just a rant.

May 28, 2020 “Veterinary clinic staff cohorting”: I said One concept that we’ve recommended for COVID-19 control in veterinary clinics is staff cohorting.

  • Grade D: This turned out to be too impractical in most situations. It might have been useful if this was a short lived problem, but obviously that hasn’t been the case. I dropped this idea pretty quickly.

In the same post Routine cloth mask use whenever a 6-foot gap can’t be maintained between people is emerging as a key infection control tool. Cloth masks are far from perfect, but they can do a good job containing most infectious droplets, which are probably the main source of exposure.

  • Grade C: We now know the focus on the 6-foot distancing as a risk/no risk cutoff isn’t valid. Emphasizing mask use was good, but focusing on known close contact situations wasn’t.

I’d give a higher grade for the rest of the post. Most of it was actually pretty good, but these are some glaring issues.

I’ll pause here to avoid this post getting even longer. Overall, I think we had some pretty good thoughts about animals from the start. I missed the ball on a couple of key things:

  • Importance of masking: I mentioned masking above, but I didn’t realize how much of a core lifestyle component this would be.
  • Duration of the pandemic: I was expecting the pandemic to hit hard in the spring of 2020 based on modelling, so I wasn’t surprised at what we encountered then. However, I didn’t expect the pandemic to drag on this long. I was truly thinking we just needed to hit it hard in the spring of 2020 to return to normalcy in the fall or winter.

As spring approaches, a pressing question has come to the minds of many kids: “Can the Easter bunny get COVID-19?” or “Can Easter bunny eggs spread COVID-19?”

Fortunately, the answer is no. Easter bunnies are safe from this virus and kids don’t have to worry about whatever the Easter bunny leaves behind.

Based on what we know to date, “regular” rabbits aren’t very susceptible to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.  Some types of rabbits can be infected with SARS-CoV-2 experimentally, but they don’t seem to get sick and they only shed low levels of virus. So, even a regular rabbit that was infected probably poses little to no risk.  (Don’t worry kids, no one’s going to try that with the Easter bunny.)

Furthermore, as we all know, the Easter bunnies have inherent magical properties that protect them from various problems (e.g. nosy household dogs). Their elusive nature (have you actually ever seen an Easter bunny depositing its wares?) and strategic placement of gifts in empty rooms mean the Easter bunny is following our “3 Cs approach to COVID-19 control,” that is avoiding closed spaces, close contact and crowded settings. And maybe the Easter bunny wears a mask too? We’ll probably never know for sure…

Don’t be afraid of the Easter bunny.

Don’t worry about what the Easter bunny leaves behind

No, you don’t need to disinfect Easter eggs.

The biggest risk from the Easter bunny is when the family dog finds all that chocolate first (yes, I am speaking from personal experience). That has nothing to do with COVID-19.

Ontario Animal Health Network Veterinary PodcastsThe companion animal Ontario Animal Health Network has produced a series of mini-podcasts on COVID-19 precautions in veterinary clinics, featuring none other than Dr. Scott Weese.  Each mini-podcast features a quick 3-5 minute “lighting round” on common questions and topics – bite-sized bits for busy practitioners and clinic staff who may only have a few minutes to spare these days.  Current topics include:

  • Avoid the 3 Cs: Crowding, close contact, confined spaces
  • Rethinking clinic spaces: The end of the waiting room and more
  • Masks and the trouble with bubbles
  • Patients and procedures that warrant extra precautions
  • Don’t panic! Talking to clients about SARS-CoV-2 risk to and from pets
  • Staying safe with the swiss cheese approach
  • What’s on your face? The why, when and what of masks and face shields

If you have a COVID-19 related question about which you’d like to hear a podcast or mini-podcast, you can email OAHN at oahn@uoguelph.ca.  Also check out the OAHN COVID-19 resources page for veterinarians. Stay safe!