This one’s bound to attract a lot of attention, and that can be both good and bad. A tiger at New York’s Bronx Zoo has tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The tiger was sick (cough, decreased appetite) and was presumed to have been infected by a caretaker who was infected but asymptomatic. Three other tigers
Routine mask use in vet clinics?
Questions about mask use keep filling my inbox. I’ve written before about when mask are most useful, and my general advice hasn’t changed much. However, some recent developments have make me think more about when and where more routine mask use might be of benefit.
Why are we re-thinking when to use masks? What’s
COVID-19 veterinary clinic contact guidelines: Updated (and now in Russian)
Here is an updated version of the decision tree for screening of owners / patients coming to veterinary clinics, which I originally posted a few weeks ago, to help with identifying higher risk situations. We also have a Russian translation courtesy of Dr. Varvara Solovyeva.
You can use the links below to download the
SARS-CoV-2 in cats: Wuhan, China
Disclaimer #1 is my standard “COVID-19 is almost exclusively a human disease. Information about this virus in animals is important to investigate and consider, but don’t over-react.”
Disclaimer #2 is that this post is about another paper that’s available as a pre-print, meaning it hasn’t yet undergone peer review. However, it provides some useful
Pets of people with COVID-19: What to do if the owner can’t care for them?
I think most people agree that the best thing we can do with pets of people with COVID-19 is to keep them in the home with the owner. However, what do we do with someone’s pet if they have to be admitted to the hospital and they live alone? Someone needs to take care of
Distanciation sociale chez le vétérinaire: Vidéo
Here is the version française of the client-oriented video I made earlier this week about social distancing at veterinary clinics.
Human-to-cat SARS-CoV-2 transmission: Hong Kong
We’ll soon reach the time when I won’t bother reporting on every new instance of SARS-CoV-2 infection in an animal in contact with an infected person, but at this stage a little more discussion is probably still warranted. As part of Hong Kong’s One Health approach to COVID-19 (one that is sadly very rare), they
SARS-CoV-2 in ferrets, cats and dogs: A new experimental study
Hot on the heels of the experimental study of SARS-CoV-2 in ferrets that I discussed a couple days ago is another new study, available in pre-print, that looked at susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 in a slightly wider range of animals, including ferrets, cats, dogs, pigs and poultry (Shi et al. 2020). Bear in mind that
New guidelines on COVID-19 and animals
A couple of new guideline documents have been released.
First up, a Canadian COVID-19 FAQ for veterinarians, created by a working group of Canadian public health and animal health experts (French translation to come).
Also, there’s a revised version of animal shelter guidelines from the US: “Interim recommendations for intake of companion animals
Social distancing and veterinary clinics: A video
I took a break from COVID-19 to play around with some animation (of… well, COVID-19 stuff. It was still a nice diversion though).
Anyway, here’s a quick animation for pet owners about social distancing practices in veterinary clinics. It was my first crack at animation, but if anyone wants to use it, you should be