Symptoms like Covid in humans: There’s a mysterious dog fever in the US

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A mysterious respiratory disease is affecting dogs in at least 14 US states. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has urged veterinarians to report cases as labs try to identify the pathogen without success. Researchers don’t even know whether the disease, which can be fatal, is a virus or bacteria.

Symptoms include a cough that can last four to six weeks. According to the Reuters news agency, the cough could be ‘mild bronchitis or pneumonia’. In some cases, pneumonia developed within 24 to 36 hours.

So far, there is little evidence that the fever can be transmitted to humans. But the American news portal TMZ talks about a veterinarian in Iowa who noticed that the owners of the sick animals had recently contracted Covid. According to the doctor, the dogs’ symptoms were similar to those of humans.

Covid drug Paxlovid

The doctor reportedly noted that the affected dogs looked exactly as they did when he spent nine days in intensive care after a coronavirus infection.

In a last-ditch effort to save a seriously ill dog from seemingly certain death, veterinarian Doug Swain of the Lyman Vet Clinic in Griswold decided to prescribe the Covid-19 drug Paxlovid to the pooch. Within days, the bulldog recovered with inflamed lungs and coughing up blood.

Since then, Dr. Swain has prescribed the antiviral pills to other animals with severe cases of the mysterious disease. There is currently no official treatment method. “Laboratories across the country are working overtime,” according to TMZ, “to determine the cause of the disease.”

Source: Blick