My Pet World: Dog flu now spreading beyond the Chicago area
"We don't live in a bubble, and our pets don't, either," notes Dr. Jerry Klein, supervising veterinarian at Chicago Veterinary Emergency and Specialty Center in Chicago. The Windy City is where this spring and summer's outbreak of dog flu began.
"I'm not surprised about what's happening," he adds.
Currently, the canine influenza strain, called H3N2, continues to spread across the U.S. It's hitting Atlanta, GA, and Asheville, NC, and has been reported in New Jersey, New York and Florida. It still lingers in the Chicago area. In all, at least 17 states have been affected. Cats can get dog flu, too. However, the reality is no one knows how many pets have been sickened.
Early this spring, veterinarians in Chicago reported seeing an upper respiratory virus which appeared different from typical kennel cough or bordetella. They soon realized the problem was the canine influenza virus, or dog flu. It was first assumed this was H3N8, a dog flu strain seen previously in the U.S.
The strain was subsequently identified as a dog flu seen in Southeast Asia, called H3N2, that had never been seen before in the U.S. No one knows how it got here.
Chicago veterinarian Dr. Natalie Marks says that when dog flu was at its height in her area, some days veterinarians at her clinic were treating 20 coughing dogs. When human flu is at its worst, most doctors don't see 100 cases weekly.
"Now, I know what an epidemic looks like and we were in the middle of it," Dr. Klein says.
Thousands of dogs have been sickened in the Chicago area alone, according to Dr. Donna Alexander, Cook County administrator for the Department of Animal and Rabies Control.
Pinpointing the exact number of pets with dog flu is complicated
The official number of cases can only be determined based on the number of dogs testing positive for H3N2; suspected cases don't count. Therefore, the official numbers may vastly under-represent the real count. For starters, many dog owners decline testing. Also, dogs are sometimes tested while they're still showing symptoms but the virus has already left their system (so the test is negative, even if the dog has had flu).
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