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PARK CITY -- A Park City man says his cat's constant companionship nearly killed it.
Johnathon Lynch knows what the Swine Flu feels like because he's had it.
"Everything hurts on you. So, if you get a chance to get the shot, I recommend it," Lynch said.
He added that it felt like large men jumping on his chest, and even his teeth hurt. But as he was getting better, he noticed his cat, Bloop, seemed pretty sluggish.
"I noticed that Bloop's breathing seemed snappy and sharp," Lynch said.
The veterinarian told Lynch to prepare himself if Bloop didn't make it, because her lungs were filled with fluid.
But Lynch remembered a news story about a pet catching the H1N1 virus and asked the veterinarian if that may be the problem.
"He said, ‘It kind of looks that way in the X-ray. Her lungs are filling up with fluid, I don't know why, out of nowhere.' I said, ‘Well, she never left my side,'" Lynch said.
Dr. Carl Prior put Bloop on oxygen, and then got a swab test from a nearby human clinic.
"We swabbed the cat's throat like you would on a person to check for strep, and that test came back positive for influenza," Prior said. "We sent off some additional tests to Iowa, and they confirmed it was H1N1."
After several treatments with oxygen, steroids and antibiotics, Bloop seems to be her old self again. Prior said she would have died if she hadn't been taken in for treatment.
Prior said Bloops case is a good reminder that sick people isolate themselves not only from other people, but maybe also from their pets.
"It is always a concern when things can transmit from people to animals or animals to people," he said.
He also said it's important to keep sick pets away from other animals.
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Story compiled with contributions from Paul Nelson and Randall Jeppesen.
