Dog Flu

A few weeks ago, Phoebe came down with a mysterious illness. For starters, she turned her head away from food. For Phoebe, this is serious. As a golden retriever who lives to eat, turning her head away from food is a big clue that something is most definitely amiss.

Then she started sneezing, wheezing and coughing. Her nose was even running. Off to the vet we went, where she rebounded, as usual and ate a treat that was offered, but did indeed let loose a few hacking coughs. She also was running a slight fever. My vet suspected a virus, maybe even kennel cough (although she had been vaccinated against it) and sent her home with antibiotics just to be sure. That was Monday.

By Thursday, she still wasn't eating (trust me she is far from wasting away but clearly something was still not right), so we went back to the vet for some blood work. All of which turned up nothing remarkable. By Saturday, she had started to sniff at food, but it took a full week before she resumed eating with her usual enthusiasm.

Turns out Phoebe was suffering from a type of canine flu, most likely HSN8 dog flu. As reported in the NY Times, "the virus, scientists believe, jumped from horses to dogs at least five years ago, but is has never infected a human."

Just last week, the FDA approved the first vaccine for this dog flu, which apparently is fairly rampant in the following areas: Florida, New York City's northern suburbs and Philadelphia!! And it is indeed fairly dangerous.

Dr. Cynda Cawford of the University of Florida veterinary school estimates that it is lethal to about 5% of the dogs that contract it, most of them the short-nosed variety that often have difficulty breathing to begin with. Vets believe that the virus is most prevalent in areas where dogs live closely together and that it can be spread nose to nose. "Probably over 10,000 dogs have been infected," says Dr. Crawford. "In a population of 70 million, that's a drop in the bucket."

No word yet on the effectiveness of the vaccine--obviously much too soon for that data, but I might consider it especially if I had a pug or similar breed. If it took out Phoebe for a week, this is tough bug.