Veterinary experts, including Amanda Cavanagh from Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, affirmed that this mysterious illness is highly contagious and potentially fatal. Symptoms mimic those of kennel cough, such as coughing, sneezing, nasal and eye discharge, and lethargy. Cavanagh noted on GMA that a transition from a dry to a wet cough indicates a more serious condition, possibly pneumonia.
“I would say [there’s been] maybe a 50% increase in the number of coughing dogs we detect,” Dr. Amanda Cavanagh of Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital told Scripps News Denver. Cavanagh stated that the virus appeared to be spreading similar to kennel cough.
"There was just far more coughing dogs coming into the emergency room than in years past," said Amanda Cavanagh, the section head at Small Animal Emergency Service at Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital. While research is still underway, vets are saying the illness is highly contagious, and in some cases, fatal. Most reported symptoms are similar to those of a typical kennel cough, including coughing, sneezing, nasal and/or eye discharge and lethargy.
“Because we have the species diversity, it provides the participating CU residents an opportunity to see a different breadth of practice,” said CSU Professor Khursheed Mama, DVM. “It teaches them how to apply what they know about human patients in a wider environment.”
“The reason we’re doing this is because it will really enable us to give the students training opportunities under supervision of our faculty,” Dean Sue VandeWoude said. “That should better equip them to start their jobs when they graduate more prepared to do the things they’re going to be called upon to do.”
VIDEO: "Instead of that dry cough where the dog felt good, it was now this wet cough where the dog felt sick," Dr. Amanda Cavanagh, the section head of the urgent care service at Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, told "GMA."
VIDEO: "I would say [there's been] maybe a 50 percent increase in the number of coughing dogs we detect," said Dr. Amanda Cavanagh. "We determine these are contagious dogs. They've had exposure, and they could pass it on to other dogs." She said the virus seems to be spreading at social places for pups, like dog parks and doggy day cares.
In laboratory experiments, bats have been dosed with so much virus that their tissues end up chock-full—clocking some 10 million units of Ebola virus per milliliter of serum, or 10 million units of the MERS coronavirus per gram of lung——and researchers were still unable to discern serious problems with the bats’ health. Bats and their viruses have, in effect, struck “an immunological detente,” says Tony Schountz, a bat immunologist at Colorado State University.
Gates Institute member Steve Dow, DVM, is the principal investigator of Colorado State University’s first clinical trial in the use of this novel therapy in canines with naturally occurring osteosarcoma.
VIDEO: Tom Monath explains why he nominated Charles Calisher for the 2023 Walter Reed Medal.