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Ed Yeates ReportingVeterinarians are monitoring the dog flu in the south and southeast parts of the country, but so far it's posing no threat to western states. However, Utah vets are cautioning about another rash of respiratory diseases common to pets.
Like many dogs, Kirby is getting his annual Bordatella shot to protect him when he's in a kennel. Veterinarians like Dennis Law have recently seen an increase in so called kennel cough infections caused by other pathogens not protected by the vaccine.
Dr. Dennis Law, D.V.M., Cottonwood Animal Hospital: "I would say in the last few weeks, last three or four weeks at the most, we've seen a lot of cases."
Unless complications set in, most dogs with symptomatic treatments recover on their own, but a coughing dog sounds pretty bad.
Dr. Dennis Law: "And they cough pretty forcefully and it's almost scary sometimes, but it's like a child with croop, I guess, would be the best way to describe it."
Again, this current upswing in infections is not the dog flu but other respiratory ailments caused by a garden variety of bugs common to canines.
Dr. Law says no need for alarm, just some good common sense, some simple guidelines when you take your animal to a dog park. A contagious dog can infect as many as 80 percent of the dogs it comes in contact with. Not all those dogs will get sick, but they could still pass it on to others.
Dr. Dennis Law: "To be careful, to be cautious, to be courteous. And remember, if your dog is coughing, you're going to possibly expose others to that. Keep it home, keep it isolated until they're over that."
A dog is usually no longer contagious after seven to 14 days.
Again, the American Veterinary Medical Association is keeping an eye on the real dog influenza in other parts of the country. Dogs currently have no immunity against it and for now, there's no vaccine available for protection.
