There has been a lot of media attention to a "mystery" respiratory disease affecting dogs, and many pet owners and rescues are understandably concerned. But is it as mysterious or dangerous as it is being reported?

To answer this question, we have invited Dr. Jeanette O'Quin, Associate Professor at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. O'Quin has training and experience in public health, infectious disease management, and outbreak response and presents us with an educated perspective on this important issue.

For our shelter friends, Please visit the Association of Shelter Veterinarians website at https://www.sheltervet.org/resources/guidelines for assistance in maintaining as healthy a population as possible.

Hi and welcome to the Animal Welfare Junction.

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This is your host, Dr.

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G, and our music is written

and produced by Mike Sullivan.

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Today's guest is Dr.

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Jeanette O'Quinn.

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She's an associate professor

at The Ohio State University

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College of Veterinary Medicine.

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Welcome to the Junction, Dr.

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O'Quin.

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Thanks for having me.

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Can you start by letting people know

what is your background and what

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you do at the College of Vet Med?

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Dr O'quin: Yeah, I, I've been

a veterinarian for 30 years.

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That's a little hard to say out

loud, especially on a podcast.

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Um, but most of my career I

spent in small animal practice

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and animal shelter medicine.

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I took a detour into veterinary public

health for several years where I worked

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for the Ohio Department of Health.

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And then I came to Ohio State

where I teach all of those things.

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I spend a lot of my time, um, teaching

infectious diseases and small animal.

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uh, medicine, outbreak response,

um, zoonotic diseases, which can be

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transmitted from animals to people.

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Um, so basically small animal

population health and welfare.

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DrG: So we are here today because we're

going to discuss this respiratory disease

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that is getting spread through the media

as a very scary, mysterious illness.

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And I have been receiving a lot of

questions from both shelters, , the

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community, and even some veterinarians.

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about what's happening, what's going on,

and there's so much mixed information.

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So I wanted to try to get to the bottom of

what we know, what we don't know, and what

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we need to do to do better for the dogs.

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So I know that this disease started

in Oregon is where it first , the

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first cases started being seen.

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So do we know what kind of disease is?

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Is this a virus?

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Is this a bacteria?

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Is it both?

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Dr O'quin: Well, we don't know.

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There's a lot that we don't

know about what's causing this.

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Um, but what we do know is it

causes very similar signs to a lot

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of other viruses and bacteria that

cause respiratory disease in dogs.

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So I think it's really important

to kind of take a step back and

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look at, look at what we do know.

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We have outbreaks of respiratory disease

in dogs that are popping up in different

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states in different areas of the country.

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And, and honestly, this is

something that we're used to,

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something that happens all the time.

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We see cases sporadically, we see

outbreaks sporadically, especially

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associated with population settings.

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Locations where dogs are living in groups

or staying in groups for periods of time.

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And, um, what we don't know

about this mystery illness

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is, is it really a mystery?

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Or are we seeing, outbreaks like we

always do of a variety of different

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pathogens, different viruses and

bacteria that are causing this?

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It may be something that we don't see as

commonly, but we are very well aware of

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, or there may be something new in the mix.

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We really don't know at this point.

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DrG: Is this something that we should

be treating, since we don't know,

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with the same concern of risk of

respiratory disease as we do for things

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that we know about, like kennel cough?

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Dr O'quin: Absolutely.

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In fact, I would consider

this kennel cough.

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Uh, the signs are exactly the same.

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We'll see the coughing,

sneezing, maybe fever, lethargy.

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They're just listless and tired.

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And unfortunately, a small

percentage of kennel cough cases

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do progress and become more severe.

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So we may actually develop

pneumonia and even death.

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Fortunately, this is not very common.

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Um, but this is exactly what we're

seeing with this, this mystery illness.

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So, I really don't think there's

anything to panic about or anything

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to be overly concerned about.

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This is something that veterinarians

have a lot of experience dealing

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with and managing in our patients.

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And treating that.

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And the way it's transmitted is the same,

the way we manage it, it's the same.

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DrG: You know, I was looking when I

was researching, I saw that there was a

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similar outbreak last year, and it was

unknown what, what really caused it.

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And I remember when I was in practice

at my emergency clinic about four or

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five years ago, there was something

very similar and animals were going

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through the same thing as far as

like very, very acute, very rapid

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developing respiratory symptoms.

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And then there were some animals that were

succumbing to the disease, were developing

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pneumonia and getting really sick.

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So this could potentially be a

similar disease complex than what

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we have been seeing in the past?

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Dr O'quin: Yeah, absolutely.

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Absolutely.

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Very similar.

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And like I said, just a minute ago,

there may be, we may not actually

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be seeing an outbreak of one thing.

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We may be looking at outbreaks of

multiple different things and we're

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just connecting them because we're

all able to talk to each other

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about them so much more readily.

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So we, we, we really don't know.

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But yeah, it, it looks, it's in, in

my mind, this is kennel cough and

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that's, that's how we manage it.

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DrG: What are the ways that these

diseases are going to be transmitted?

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Dr O'quin: So these respiratory disease,

all of them, not just whatever may be out

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there right this minute, are airborne.

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So when dogs cough and sneeze.

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They transmit virus or bacteria

through the droplets and in the air,

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and that's how other dogs get exposed.

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So really, the greatest concern when

you're spending a lot of time around a

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lot of other dogs in close proximity.

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DrG: I know when the outbreak that I saw

several years ago, I remember a family

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that had multiple dogs and everybody got

sick and one of the dogs did die from

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it, but it was a dog that was elderly.

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So is it something to think about

that there are going to be some dogs

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that are more susceptible than others?

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Dr O'quin: Definitely.

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Um, you know, what we're hearing

from the cases out there right now

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that are being reported is that, you

know, any dog can get sick with this.

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And that makes sense, right?

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But those that have more severe outcomes

are, are likely dealing with other

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issues, other health issues as well.

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So they may be sick with something

else, they may have a disease,

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they may be older, something that

makes their immune response not as

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robust as we would like it to be.

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DrG: From what I have read, it

says that dogs tend to go from

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normal to being pretty sick in only

about two to three days, so it's

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something that occurs really rapid.

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Do you know about how long it's lasting

and how these dogs are being treated?

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Dr O'quin: So, that's a great question.

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This, um, this short onset, two

to three days, tracks with many

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other causes of kettle cough.

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Um, how long it lasts

really is quite variable.

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Some of them are recovering in a

week, two weeks or so , even less

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in some cases, but they're feeling

a lot better much faster, but they

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still have a little bit of a cough.

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And then some cases are

lasting a couple of weeks.

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And that's, that's one of the things

we're hearing most often with this is that

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it's lasting longer than they expected.

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And there can be a lot

of reasons for that.

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One, there's some individual variability.

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So maybe we're just hearing about

the ones that are lasting longer.

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We're not hearing as much about those that

are, that are resolving really quickly.

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Um, but also how much damage does

this virus or bacteria cause?

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So if it causes damage in our respiratory

system, it takes a little while for

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that to heal, even when the pathogen

is not there doing anything anymore.

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And so those cases can kind

of last a couple of weeks.

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We also may have secondary infections.

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So this is when you have an infection

that weakens your response, and makes it

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much easier for other causes of disease to

come in and set up their own infections.

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And so we may have these like

super infections where there's

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more than one thing going on.

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And so you could be getting better

for one thing and then get get

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something else and something else.

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Um, we see this a lot, especially in

population settings like shelters.

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DrG: I think as humans, we can kind of

relate, right, because we'll get sick,

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we'll have like a cough, we'll get

whatever disease, and then we feel great,

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but we still have this nagging cough that

will last for a week, two weeks, a month.

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So the cough is just a symptom of

the irritation , but it doesn't mean

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that you actually are sick, that your

pet needs antibiotics, that it needs

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antivirals, that it needs anything else.

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So.

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Comparing this to humans, actually,

how likely is it that these

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respiratory complexes of animals

can affect humans or other animals?

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Dr O'quin: The ones that we know

about, very, very unlikely.

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They're, most of them we are

very confident are not going

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to cause any human cases.

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There's only one that we have some concern

about, in those who are immunocompromised,

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and that is incredibly rare as well.

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So, as far as general daily concerns,

really not not a concern and that's

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we're not seeing any human cases

associated with these or any cat cases

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associated with these that are being

reported and looked at right now.

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So yeah, wouldn't

wouldn't have any concern.

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I mean, no more concern than is the normal

small rare level of concern that we should

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always have just to keep ourselves safe.

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DrG: And one other thing is, like,

not every animal has extensive

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testing, right, so, uh, you know,

if we, if we see somebody coughing

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because of everything that's happening

right now with COVID , everybody

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immediately assumes that it's COVID.

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So it doesn't mean that it is.

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You could have the flu, you

could have something else.

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So could this be, you know, some of

these cases just be something regular

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that is affecting animals that are

just simply not vaccinated to protect

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them from the diseases that cause

kennel cough, including influenza.

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Dr O'quin: Yeah, absolutely.

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Um, so kennel cough, which again

is caused by, um, any of a number

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of viruses and bacteria that we're

aware of is the, it's the most common

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respiratory infection that we see in

dogs and we see it all the time, right?

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I'm sure you saw it a lot in practice.

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We all do.

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Um, it's the common cold for

dogs and, um, everything that we.

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You know, no for humans

really applies here as well.

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So crap.

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What was your question?

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DrG: Uh, if this can do something like

that, we know already, and it's just

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affecting animals that are unvaccinated.

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Dr O'quin: I didn't think

that was your question.

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Where was I headed?

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Um,

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we can do all that again.

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There was two things

that I wanted to mention.

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One was how similar was

the human condition.

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And then the other one was.

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What did you ask?

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It wasn't about vaccines.

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It was about,

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DrG: I said, test.

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I said, not all animals

have extensive testing.

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Could this be something that we know that

is like influenza or that is affecting

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animals that are just simply unvaccinated?

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Dr O'quin: Yeah, absolutely.

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And it can be all of all

of the things, right?

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Kennel cough, right, which has many

causes, viruses, bacteria, several

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that we know about out there, some

of which we test for, and some of

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which we don't routinely test for.

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But honestly, this is the most

common infection, respiratory

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infection that we see in dogs.

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So most of the time when they come in,

this is an uncomplicated infection.

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We're seeing exactly what we expect

to see , and we know how this

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is going to typically resolve.

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We don't test for that.

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So we don't test to see what specific

bacteria or viruses is active here

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because we know the treatment is the

same for all of these conditions.

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It's very similar to people, right?

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When we go to the doctor, um, they don't

typically do a whole panel of tests to

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find out what viruses or cold, right?

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They might test for flu or something,

but we typically are not like running

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a panel to see what's going on.

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And that's, that's exactly what,

um, we as veterinarians do.

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Now we may run that then if we have

something that's outside of the

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ordinary, what we expect, or if they're

not resolving, they're not getting

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better with time or specific treatment.

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The other issue is people are

people say a lot like this is a new

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thing because we're not finding it

on the tests that we're running.

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So a small percentage of the what are

presumed to be cases are being tested.

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There's a lot of reasons

why we might not find it.

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One, we don't test for everything.

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that can be causing these signs.

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Sometimes some of those

tests aren't very good tests.

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They're not as reliable.

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They're still the best we have,

but they're not as reliable with

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what information they give us.

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Um, also, when are we testing?

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If we test very early in the

infection, we're more likely

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to find what the cause is.

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But when we test later in the infection,

even a week or more later, we may not

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We may not get a positive test because

what started it isn't there anymore,

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and the body is just responding to

the damage or maybe there's another

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pathogen there that's come in

secondarily and we may find it and

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then presume that it started at all.

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So there's, there's a lot of, a lot

of challenges with testing it's not as

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simple as like, Oh, tell us what it is.

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DrG: Yeah, this is I mean, it's the

same in everything that we do, right?

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Like even like stool samples,

whether it be toxicology, it

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doesn't matter what it is.

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If we don't know what we're looking for,

it makes it that much harder to find it.

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Right.

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There have been some people that

because of COVID are wondering

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if this could be COVID and how

likely are dogs to get COVID.

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So what are your thoughts on that?

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Dr O'quin: So that's a great question.

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And they have tested the cases

that get tested for COVID

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and they haven't found it.

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We do know that dogs can become

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infected, but it's pretty uncommon,

um, and typically not causing

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issues with the dogs at all.

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DrG: If an owner has, you know, a

pet owner has a dog that is coughing

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and that has some nasal discharge

that is perhaps acting a little bit

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lethargic, off food, what can they do

if they suspect that their pet may be

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sick with this respiratory complex?

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Dr O'quin: Well, I think the first

thing is to call your veterinarian,

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let them know what your concerns

are and get an appointment so

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that your dog can be evaluated.

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They'll be able to do an examination

and assess what they think this is.

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Is it viral?

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Is it bacterial?

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And then treat according to that.

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I think it's important for people to

realize because another thing that I hear

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frequently with this outbreak is that

it's not responding to normal treatments.

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Um, and I think that's, really the fact

that viruses don't respond to antibiotics.

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Viruses don't ever respond to antibiotics.

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So that's doesn't mean that this illness

is, you know, any different than any of

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the other viruses that we're dealing with.

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And I think that's a really

important thing to understand.

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There are treatments that we can do.

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Basically, we provide comfort and

support, make sure that they're

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getting enough to drink and eat, and

occasionally cough suppressants or

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anti inflammatories, just like we

would take if we had a virus, right?

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We're not treating that virus.

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We are treating the body's

response to the virus.

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So I think that's really important to

understand, but so the veterinarian

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will, you know, examine and decide are

antibiotics warranted in this situation

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or not, or do we need to do other

other types of care and then monitor.

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And that's really important.

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How are we responding for getting

worse and worse than maybe bacteria

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have come in secondarily and now

antibiotics are warranted so things can

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change over the course of an illness

that might might mean that we need

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to alter our treatment and response.

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DrG: What can owners do

proactively to protect their pets?

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Dr O'quin: I think one of the most

important things is to make sure that

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they're current on their vaccines.

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Um, and some of those vaccines are going

to vary based on what kind of activity

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you have around other, other dogs, right?

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So if you're boarding, if you're going

to dog parks or dog shows or things

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like that, you may definitely want to

have Bordetella and parainfluenza,

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which are common causes of kennel

cough or respiratory disease complex.

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I think that's the most important thing

is to make sure your pets are current.

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Is it going to protect

them against everything?

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No, but it is going to protect

them against the most common

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causes of respiratory disease.

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DrG: I think it also may, even if they

get it, it may not make them as sick.

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Would that be a fair assumption to make?

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Dr O'quin: Um, yeah, for some of those

vaccine preventable diseases, absolutely.

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Even if it doesn't prevent it,

it will reduce the severity and

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reduce the duration, for sure.

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DrG: Should this be affecting

Holiday travel plans.

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So should people just change their

plans all of a sudden, like not board?

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Or what can they do to ensure

that the facilities that they're

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boarding their animals are

going to be as safe as possible?

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Dr O'quin: That's a great question.

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I think if if you're in an area

that's not reporting a lot of cases

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of respiratory disease, I don't think

we need to make any changes at all.

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And what we're doing, including

here in Ohio, which we're not

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reporting any any cases right now.

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So if you're looking for a boarding

facility, again, you don't need to

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avoid them, especially if there's

no, you know, cases being reported

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in your area of respiratory disease,

not just a mystery disease, but

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of canine respiratory disease.

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But talk with your boarding kennel,

find out how the animals are housed.

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Do they have an isolation area where

they take animals if they do become

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sick during the, um, their stay there?

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And what do they do if that happens?

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Are they contacting veterinarians

and follow in the owners

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and then following up?

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So I think those are really

important things to know.

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Make sure that your dog is

vaccinated, but make sure that

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the boarding kennel requires

vaccination for all of their dogs.

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DrG: I think something actually

that you just said made me think

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of, you know, it, that if an

animal gets sick, it gets isolated.

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I think it's something that people

don't think about when they are leaving

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their animals boarding is leaving an

emergency contact, leaving veterinarian

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information and leaving permission

to treat if they cannot be reached.

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Because I know when I was working in

an emergency, we would get animals

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brought in by either a boarding facility

or the person that was pet sitting

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or a family member, and we would say,

hey, these are our recommendations,

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this is what needs to happen, and they

would say, well, we can't make that

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decision because we're not the owner,

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and then we couldn't

get a hold of the owner.

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So if you're traveling and you're leaving

your pets behind to leave everything in

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writing as far as what can be done, what

cannot be done, leaving some form of like

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financial, like whether it be money, a

credit card, some information for whoever

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is taking care of the pet to be able

to seek medical assistance if needed.

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Dr O'quin: That is really great advice.

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Really great advice.

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DrG: So what can veterinarians do if

they suspect a patient has this problem?

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Dr O'quin: I believe veterinarians

are always very diligent in their

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exams and assessing what's going on

and what treatments need to occur.

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I don't see the treatments as

really different from how we treat

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respiratory disease complex or

kennel cough and in other cases.

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I think the only thing that I would

do differently right now is be

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more likely to send out testing.

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And I think that would help us a lot.

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I know there was a shelter in

California that had an outbreak

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of respiratory disease in their

dogs, and everybody was like, Oh,

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no, it's this new mystery disease.

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And it ended up being strep zoo

and mycoplasma, which are pathogens

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bacterial that we're quite familiar with.

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Unfortunately, we don't like

to see them in shelters.

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But, you know, there are often common

causes that are going to explain this.

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And I think that's what we really

need to do is And start looking at

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these a little bit more closely.

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Is this something we're familiar with?

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Are we not finding, um, an answer?

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In which case, you know, send it

off to the National Diagnostic

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Labs for additional testing.

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DrG: And these are respiratory panels

that are readily available already, right?

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It's not something new.

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Dr O'quin: Yeah.

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So the, yeah, the basic testing that we do

is, is readily available for veterinarians

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and can send client samples out, and

it's a pretty quick turnaround too.

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So usually within a couple of

days, you're going to know what

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the results of those tests are.

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I do think it's important to note

that there are more things that cause

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respiratory disease in dogs that we,

um, we don't test for everything.

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So if we don't find an answer,

it just means that it wasn't

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the ones that we tested for.

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There are several things

that we know about.

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They're just not common enough, or

we don't have a test developed for it

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that's just readily

commercially available.

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DrG: We work with a lot of shelters,

and some of our shelter partners

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are just freaking out over this.

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So they don't want to, they want to

close intakes, they don't want to do

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any spay neuter with dogs, they don't

want to do anything because they're

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just concerned that this thing is

just going to wipe out all the animals

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at the shelter, and then it's going

to get the whole community sick.

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How, how likely is that?

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What should shelters be doing,

and should they be, I mean, should

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they be changing their practices?

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Dr O'quin: Yeah, so that's

a, that's a great question.

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Shelters are ever vigilant

for infectious disease, right?

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Because we are housing animals in

group settings, not necessarily

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all together in one room, but

there's a lot of animals in the same

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building sharing the same airspace.

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And so disease can

transfer pretty readily.

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So we're ever vigilant for that.

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And I think that we just

need to maintain that.

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If we're in areas where

we're not seeing an outbreak.

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I don't think you need to

change what you're doing at all.

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We should be monitoring daily

more than once daily to check

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every animal for potential signs

when we see signs of potentially

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infectious disease that's contagious,

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we need to move them into an isolation

area so that the other rest of the

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population is protected from that.

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They're not going to be exposed as

heavily as they would be if that

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dog was coughing right next to them.

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So the same basic disease

control measures that we take.

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Vaccination on intake, monitoring for

disease, isolation of sick animals.

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That's what we need to do.

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And if we have something come up,

especially something that looks a

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little bit unusual, we need to test

for that to see what we have going on.

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If you're a shelter and you're in

the middle of a community that's

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experiencing an outbreak like this,

right, you need to be, um, do the same

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things, but maybe even more vigilantly.

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So they may decide that incoming

animals need to go in a specific area.

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And kind of cohort groups

through the shelter so that

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we can reduce the exposures.

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But other than that, it's the same, right?

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Cleaning and disinfection,

monitoring, isolation,

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vaccination, and just be vigilant.

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DrG: So I know that there

is a great resource that

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shelters can be using, right?

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A guide that can help them

along, among all this stuff.

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Do you want to let shelters know about

how they can get more information on how

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to take care of their shelters better?

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Dr O'quin: Yeah, so the Association of

Shelter Veterinarians has guidelines for

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standards of care and animal shelters.

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It's quite a mouthful, but it

provides guidance for shelters in

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all areas of managing the health and

welfare of the animals in their care.

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Really recommend that every

shelter download that it's a

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free download from sheltervet.

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org.

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There's a lot of really good

information guidelines to help develop

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protocols for these kinds of things.

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And then the other thing that it does

is provide resources with much more

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detailed information in textbooks and a

variety of university websites where more

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details can be found on these issues.

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DrG: I'll make sure to share the, the

link to the guidelines on the episode

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information because I think that there's

a lot of shelters and especially rescue

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groups, smaller rescue groups, that

they don't see themselves as a shelter,

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but they still have high population.

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So it may help them as well.

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Dr O'quin: There's one more thing that

I think shelters should be really,

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really aware of and working very hard

to, um, to address this issue because

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it's really common in shelters.

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We need to avoid overcrowding.

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When we have more animals.

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Um, then our shelter should be

holding and that's whether you're

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counting cages, you also need to

be looking at the staffing levels.

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There's a lot of things that go into

the what's your capacity for care.

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But when you're at near or over

your capacity for care disease

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outbreaks are much more likely.

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And so one of the best disease

control measures we have is to make

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sure that we're not overcrowded.

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DrG: Yeah, and we are seeing that,

you know, as the pet overpopulation is

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increasing and shelters are becoming

overcrowded, those are some of the

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things that we need to really consider,

just because we're, we're saving them,

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or we think that we're saving them,

but if we could be making them sick

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and having them suffer needlessly.

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Ohio State has not seen any

cases through the community

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clinic or the emergency clinic.

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Is that right?

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Dr O'quin: Yeah, that's right.

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I've talked with our, um, our frontline

staff and our ER doctors and they

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haven't seen any cases that they thought

were unusual or, unidentifiable.

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DrG: Excellent.

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Well, I think that this has been really

great information, and I'm hoping that

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people have learned about it, you know,

it's not saying, no, there is no risk

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that your pet can't get sick, but it's

understanding that this mysterious

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illness may not be that mysterious after

all, and just because we hear about

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some animals getting sick and animals

dying, you know, like the cases in

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Oregon, it's like 200 animals were sick.

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Well, do you know how many animals,

how many dogs there are in Oregon?

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Way more than 200, right?

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So percentage wise, We think that it's

a huge number, but it's not, it's a

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small percentage compared to all the

dogs that, that are in the state.

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So, we need to be cautious, we need to

protect our pets, we need to vaccinate,

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shelters need to, uh, do proper practices,

but in the end, we just gotta make sure

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that we're not scaring everybody and that

we're not getting scared into paralysis.

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Dr O'quin: Right.

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Absolutely.

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If, if this is something new and there's a

small chance that it is, if it's something

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new, it presents and is managed exactly

the same as a dozen plus other viruses and

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bacteria that we're already familiar with.

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So I think the veterinarians are

well prepared to handle this.

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DrG: Well, thank you so much, Dr.

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O'quin for being here and sharing

your wealth of information and

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for everybody that's out there.

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Thank you for listening

and thank you for caring.

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Dr O'quin: Thanks so much.