Coronavirus precautions for pet-owners: What you need to know
Health officials are issuing coronavirus guidance for pet owners.
It’s important to know that there are different types of the coronavirus. Some cause illness in people, while others make animals sick.
The CDC is aware of a small number of cases of animals getting the coronavirus after being in close contact of a person who’s a carrier.
While there’s no evidence that pets can spread the coronavirus to other animals or people, a local veterinarian urges all to take steps to prevent it from happening in the first place.
Veterinarian Tyler Bird says most coronavirus cases are species specific and rarely go between species.
“Cats actually have their own version of coronavirus already that they get somewhat routinely,” said Dr. Bird.
But the strain of the coronavirus people have now doesn’t seem to be getting house cats sick.
“There haven’t been any case examples of cats getting it at this time,” said Dr. Bird. “And cats, you know, their physiology is completely different from tigers so the fact that a tiger can get it doesn’t necessarily mean that a cat can get it.”
There have been just a couple cases outside of the US where dogs have tested positive. But they didn’t show any clinical signs.
“So they haven’t had a runny nose, cough and those types of things and it didn’t appear that it could be transmitted to humans from that dog, so they’d be considered a dead end host,” said Dr. Bird.
But he says there’s still a lot that we don’t know about the virus and how different animals could be affected by it. That’s why he’s urging you to avoid being around pets if you’ve had a known exposure to someone with the coronavirus.
“Better safe than sorry and try to limit your contact with them just like with other people.”
That means if you’re out for a walk and see a really cute dog, you probably shouldn’t pet it.
“I would probably avoid it for now until some of this stuff blows over, just to be safe, because you know you have to be able to get close to the owners too to be able to do that.”
Even though there’s no evidence to suggest pets can spread the coronavirus to people, the CDC suggests practicing hand washing and good pet hygiene to minimize the spread of germs
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