PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A mysterious and potentially fatal respiratory illness among dogs is popping up around the country. Veterinarians are keeping a close eye on the disease, and so far there hasn't been a major outbreak in the Philadelphia area.
Veterinarians don't know if the cause of this ailment is bacterial or viral. The symptoms are similar to kennel cough (tracheobronchitis) or dog flu.
"We are seeing symptoms such as coughing — more of a wet cough than a dry cough — sneezing. You can potentially see nose or eye discharge and sometimes lethargy, kind of unwilling to eat,” said Dr. Amber Karwacki with Heart + Paw in Philadelphia’s Callowhill neighborhood.
“Some of these dogs that with this mysterious illness, we 've seen are going towards pneumonia and acute pneumonia which they are dying from.”
Most of the cases have been seen in Oregon, but experts are on the lookout for signs of spread.
"If you are seeing your dogs with respiratory signs, like the coughing or the sneezing or the discharge, you definitely want to take them to your veterinarian for a checkup,” Karwacki said.
“Most likely we are going to want to do some X-rays to see what the lungs are looking like, if we have pneumonia. And in the most severe cases, if you go to your general veterinarian, we are most likely going to refer you to an ER hospital. That way your dog can be hospitalized, get IV support with fluid and medications, and potentially get oxygen therapy if needed."
Karwacki said vets don’t quite know how to treat the illness. “Our usual drugs for respiratory diseases, they aren't quite taking care of this as we feel they should," she said.
While kennel cough lasts a few days, this illness can take weeks to recover from. And vets advise pet owners to keep dogs with respiratory issues away from other dogs for two weeks after coughing stops.