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“When you’re out-and-out socializing, going for a walk in the neighborhood, that sort of thing, it would be so easy to pick it up from another dog,” Russell said. Although, Russell says it can be difficult to know if your dog has the flu. “It’s so similar to just your common bordetella, kennel cough,” Russell said. There is a difference in how long it lasts. Russell says it can be weeks and sometimes fatal. The virus can last for weeks and potentially turn into pneumonia. “Early on they may be running a fever, which is unusual for just a regular...

A canine flu outbreak has sickened many dogs in the Midwest, and veterinarians are cautioning pet owners to keep their dogs from going nose-to-nose with other four-legged friends. The University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Veterinary Medicine says the virus has sickened at least 1,000 dogs in Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana, and some veterinarians worry it could easily spread to other areas of the country. Recent tests from the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory have identified the strain as H3N2. Clinical assistant professor Keith Poulsen says it's not yet known how effective current vaccines are against this strain, which is believed...

HARTFORD, Conn. -- The state veterinarian has confirmed the first two cases of canine flu in Connecticut. The potentially fatal influenza can cause dangerous respiratory infections in dogs, though there is no evidence that people or other types of pets can catch it. The disease, an equine flu that somehow crossed over from horses to dogs, was first diagnosed last year in racing greyhounds in Florida. It has since spread to dogs in at least a dozen other states. Between 5 percent and 8 percent of cases are fatal. In Connecticut, West Hartford kennel owner Myra Wahl noticed many dogs...

Flu from horses is racing among dogs Ben Harder A highly contagious influenza virus that has killed greyhounds and made other dogs ill may have first jumped to canines from a single infected horse, a genetic analysis suggests. The equine flu that sparked the epidemic appears to have evolved recently to spread readily among dogs. The first signs of the virus' horse-to-dog leap emerged at a racetrack in Florida in January 2004. A respiratory illness there killed 8 greyhounds and sickened 14 others. Virologists identified the cause as an influenza A virus of type H3N8, which had been known to...

A new, highly contagious and sometimes deadly canine flu is spreading in kennels and at dog tracks around the country, veterinarians said yesterday. The virus, which scientists say mutated from an influenza strain that affects horses, has killed racing greyhounds in seven states and has been found in shelters and pet shops in many places, including the New York suburbs, though the extent of its spread is unknown. Dr. Cynda Crawford, an immunologist at the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine who is studying the virus, said that it spread most easily where dogs were housed together but that...

A new, highly contagious and sometimes deadly canine flu is spreading in kennels and at dog tracks around the country, veterinarians said yesterday. The virus, which scientists say mutated from an influenza strain that affects horses, has killed racing greyhounds in seven states and has been found in shelters and pet shops in many places, including the New York suburbs, though the extent of its spread is unknown. Dr. Cynda Crawford, an immunologist at the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine who is studying the virus, said that it spread most easily where dogs were housed together but that...