ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – People with pets may want to think twice before boarding theirs pups as a mystery respiratory illness impacting dogs spreads across the country.
Dr. Ana Ortiz at Pet Paradise Animal Hospital in Apopka said she and her staff are working diligently to learn more about the upper respiratory virus making dogs sick.
“It seems to be severe signs and not just a little, you know, regular cough,” Ortiz said. “And they can have fevers and it seems to linger a lot longer when you have pneumonia, and you don’t know what you’re treating. Typical antibiotics don’t seem to be effective with this.”
Ortiz said they have not encountered any cases of the virus, but said they are doing everything they can to protect their patients.
“We like to wipe down all the surfaces that could come in contact with the pet, including not only the table but also the floor,” Ortiz said.
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Ortiz said there are some symptoms they watch out for.
“Any kind of coughing, any kind of discharge from the nose and eyes or anything like that, it’s going to be important for us to continue to monitor and then we take our precautions, isolation and so on,” Ortiz said.
Unfortunately, for pet owners, this illness comes with more questions than answers which is why some local businesses like Bark Orlando are taking extra precautions.
“We started doing wellness checks in the lobby so basically we’re looking for the symptoms upon arrival,” said Bark Orlando owner, Kiersten Benitez said.
Benitez said they’re also playing close attention to any possible symptoms while dogs are staying Bark Orlando.
“If we were to hear anything, even if it’s just a minor cough, they had something in their throat, they are put up,” Benitez said. “And we do have to contact the pet parents and they do have to go home.”
On top of wellness checks, Benitez said they’ve upped their cleaning processes and are limiting the number of dogs they accept for boarding.
“We’re doing deep, deep cleans every day before we were, you know, setting those aside for certain days of the week,” Benitez said. “But now it’s every day, deep, clean, over and over.”
Benitez said their priority is keeping everyone’s dogs healthy.
“We’re doing our best,” Benitez said. “I mean, it’s scary for a lot of the business owners in this type of business. And, you know, our whole business is dogs, and we have to make sure that they’re healthy.”
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