Is your dog coughing or barking?

It might seem like all your friends have the flu right now. And while of course we feel compassion for our two-legged friends when they are ill, those warm feelings don’t equal the concern we feel when our quadriped friends are sick — as seems to be happening a lot right now, with an epidemic of canine flu, or canine influenza virus, spreading across the nation. 

Canine flu is, according to the ASPCA website, a new disease that is affecting dogs. It’s very similar to the human flu. Symptoms include coughing, sneezing, fever, mucus, difficulty breathing, lethargy and fatigue. You know the drill; you’ve been there, too. 

But of course if you get sick you can just take some medicine and go to bed for a couple days and watch Netflix or read mysteries. Probably those options are less available to your dog. And of course it’s like that old joke about how horrible it is to have a sore throat if you’re a giraffe; it’s bad enough when my little human nose is stuffy, just imagine how a dog feels when it’s big old nose is clogged up and leaky. 

The first thing you need to do if you suspect your dog is ill  is to segregate him or her from any other canines, so the disease doesn’t spread. Next step, of course, is a trip to the vet. 

Apparently this flu virus is very easy to treat if it’s caught early on, so don’t delay. A few dogs have already died from the canine flu, but that seems to work the same way it does with humans: It’s not necessarily the flu that is fatal, it’s the secondary diseases that can accompany it, such as pneumonia. 

It’s the secondary diseases that might require antibiotics. For the plain old canine influenza, the treatment is similar to what you would do if you had a bad cold yourself: eat well, get a lot of rest, stay hydrated, avoid contact with other members of your species. The canine influenza virus does not spread from dogs to humans. However, it started originally as an equine flu and then spread from the horses to the dogs.  

This seems to be a disease that spreads when dogs are living together, in kennels or shelters. According to an article on the Centers for Disease Control website, it was first discovered in around 2004, among racing greyhounds that were living in a kennel in Florida. 

There is a vaccine now for canine influenza virus, but it’s apparently only being used in areas where lots of dogs have been infected. If you want to know more, as always, call your vet.