ARLINGTON, Va. — A mysterious dog illness has dog owners across the country on high alert. Dogs that contract the unknown illness do not respond to typical treatments for another known diagnosis, according to the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
"It's kind of presented as three respiratory presentations in dogs. One being a chronic low-grade bronchitis. One being a chronic pneumonia that's not responding to the typical antibiotics and then a severe acute pneumonia where they rapidly decline," said Dr. Kayleen Gloor.
Gloor works at the Clarendon Animal Care Vet Clinic in Arlington. She tells WUSA9 they haven't seen anything out of the norm in Arlington so far.
"We're seeing respiratory disease in dogs, but not at any real different levels than what we would anticipate seeing at this point. But, anytime you have something new and you don't know what's going on it's alarming and scary just because of the unknown portion of it," says Dr. Gloor.
An uptick in these seemingly untreatable cases has been reported in Oregon, Colorado, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Gloor says the best thing you can do is keep your dog away from other dogs.
"Definitely keeping your dogs away if there is known respiratory symptoms with your own pet or other people's pets," she said.
She also says now is the time to make sure your pet's vaccinations are up to date.
"Make sure we're vaccinating for the things that are vaccine-preventable like Bordetella, parainfluenza, influenza. While no vaccine is perfect it definitely reduces their risk of disease and the severity of disease," says Dr. Gloor.
Cases of the unknown illness reported to the Oregon Department of Agriculture typically result in chronic mild to moderate inflammation of the trachea that lasts for 6-8 weeks or longer, and is minimally or not responsive to antibiotics; chronic pneumonia that is minimally or not responsive to antibiotics; or acute pneumonia that rapidly becomes severe and “often leads to poor outcomes in as little as 24-36 hours.”
Symptoms of respiratory illness in dogs usually include coughing, sneezing, nasal and/or eye discharge, and lethargy. Owners whose dogs have these symptoms should consult their veterinarian, the Oregon Veterinary Medical Association (VMA) says.