Dogs with Flu, Cats and Ferrets, too!

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Yes, dogs get the flu!  By now you've probably heard or read the reports of pets getting H1N1 (the first one I saw was around Christmas).  It seems that they are catching it from their owners.  And, it's not just dogs.  Cats and ferrets have gotten H1N1, as well.
From what I've seen, there needs to be some educational efforts made about this danger.  We're being inundated with instructions on how to wash our hands and other common sense disease-prevention practices, but the information we really need is not being spread around.  When you wake up feeling crummy, how do you tell whether it's even serious enough to see a physician in the first place?  If you find out you actually have the flu, do you know how to protect your dog from it?  What symptoms should you watch for?

And that's not all.  I think most pet owners are familiar with the idea of zoonotic diseases-- that is, diseases humans can get from their pets.  Vets certainly have enough pamphlets on this in their offices.  But we don't think about the possibilities of infecting our pets, who just love to lick our hands whenever possible.  We also don't stay current with animal versions of everyday human illnesses, such as influenza that they can get that is not the same as any flu that hits humans.  To make a good start, I think that every pet owner should visit the Center for Disease Control's website on canine influenza, especially people whose pets are often in contact with other animals (my brother-in-law belongs to a group that meets regularly at our local dog park, for example, and it's a busy place).  There is a vaccine for canine influenza (this is the H3N8 strain).

When you have a pet with a chronic illness (a dog with diabetes, perhaps?), even mild infections can become serious in a hurry.  The best advice I was ever given came very soon after Tony was diagnosed with diabetes.  Oddly enough, it came from one of my students, who had a part-time job at an animal clinic.  She told me that after she had gotten a puppy, she picked the brains of everyone at the clinic on every topic that occurred to her.  One of the senior vet techs told her that she should set aside a little time each week to give the dog a little massage and "examination" to have a way to tell if something had changed.  From that point on, I did that, and caught several problems early on.  Of course I totally missed a few serious problems that either came on suddenly or were not really visible.

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