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Are you a practitioner on taking the seasonal flu prevention vaccines and the like? With the cold weather around (or when it gets cold for you, depending where you live), the flu season starts with it and both people and dogs can fall prey! Dogs can also become a target the same way it hits people - lethargy, fever, runny noses, aches and pain, so it's important to keep a eye out for unusual behavior in your pet!
The question in this post is regarding whether to vaccinate your pet to protect them against the influenza, or not?
According to experts, the answer to that will remain dependent on lifestyle. Canine Influenza is considered a precautionary vaccine much like what humans can take, it's recommended when a pet is staying at a daycare or kennel where it comes into contact with foreign conditions and company...prevention is recommended if your pet is regularly exposed to other pets whose medical history can't be verified, in enclosed situations such as a dog park.
Nowadays, boarding facilities encourage such prevention vaccines to lower the risk of outbreaks, the same applies to dogs doing dog shows as they sometimes travel, and live in areas of a country where it is considered to be epidemic. Canine flu isn't fundamentally different to human flu - signs to look for are lethargy, abnormal quantity in food ingestion, runny eyes and nose, fever, coughing and really every other not run of the mill behavior. At early stages, it might be mistaken for kennel cough, but the flu will usually last longer. By itself it isn't life threatening and requires simply supportive care and attention to help the dog recover as quickly and to feel as comfortable as possible while the symptoms last. While normally we just have to let the sickness run it's course, it's important to keep them feeling good and recover as much as possible so it doesn't turn into a pneumonia. If the flu develops into a pneumonia, the situation becomes much more serious and may require hospitalization or more intensive treatment.
5 comments:
What fascinates me is the origin of these diseases, and how long it's taken us to find it (or how long it's taken to adapt to dogs)!
Vague Raconteur, I have only an amateur understanding of actual biology, but if I remember correctly, the flu can mutate heavily mutate in a very short period of time, so dogs will always be affected by it -- just like humans!
Influenza is perhaps one of the most diverse sicknesses we've come across.
Didn't know pets could get flu vaccines.
I agree, pets should be vaccinated, particularly on this cold weather :)
actually really good to know any new stuff. sometimes i only rush like hell to veterinary
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