April 04--Five dogs in the Chicago region have died from complications of canine flu between January and March, authorities said Friday.
And a survey of local veterinarians has revealed that more than 1,000 cases of canine infectious respiratory disease have been diagnosed in recent months.
As a result, the Cook County Department of Animal and Rabies Control issued a warning Friday that pet owners should avoid dog parks, group dog training facilities, doggy day care businesses and other areas where dogs can congregate.
Dogs can be contagious, even if they are not showing symptoms.
"We've had a lot of calls to our office, asking, 'What is going on?'" said Dr. Donna Alexander, the county's animal control administrator. "We have veterinarians calling us saying we are seeing this."
Because of the uptick in calls, animal control sent out questionnaires to local veterinarians to try to determine how many dogs could be affected, Alexander said. The results of those surveys show there is an outbreak that could take a few weeks before it subsides.
Dogs with canine flu typically have a persistent and lingering cough, fever, runny nose and suppressed appetite. They may be lethargic or severely depressed, Alexander said. The condition is treatable, but it is more severe in dogs under the age of 1, over the age of 7, and dogs with compromised immune systems.
Although the illness is highly contagious in dogs, it cannot be transmitted to people.
"We are encouraging people to go see their veterinarian to see if they should start the canine influenza vaccine," Alexander said. "It's not effective immediately, so owners must try to keep dogs away from doggy social functions. Even dog-friendly areas: You enter at your own risk (because) there is a lot of nose-to-nose contact going on there."
On Thursday, PetSmart announced it was closing its PetsHotels in the South Loop, Lincoln Park and Evanston to protect dogs from the illness.
"Because of the highly contagious nature of canine influenza, we have made the decision to proactively close these three PetsHotels out of an abundance of caution," Dr. Robyn Jaynes, a veterinarian and director of services quality assurance for PetSmart, said in a news release. "The key to minimizing the spread of this virus is isolating and treating pets that are showing symptoms, while limiting the exposure of healthy pets to other dogs."
lbowean@tribpub.com
