Can You Give Your Cat or Dog the Flu?

November 4, 2009 changed the thinking of many in the veterinarian field. That was the day a cat from Iowa was diagnosed with H1N1. For details on this case, please read my article, "Cat Diagnosed with H1N1." Up until that day, many people thought that you could not pass H1N1 on to your pets. But what about another type of flu?

Can you give your cat or dog the bird flu (H5N1)? If you pose this question to a veterinarian, they are probably going to be cautious and say it's possible, in view of being disproved as in H1N1. The problem with these viruses is that they can mutate at any time and have been known to jump species. Most of the documented cases of cats getting the bird flu resulted in the cat eating a bird or raw chicken that had the bird flu to begin with.

Can you give your cat or dog the seasonal flu? To quote an article from Cornell University, "None of the known strains of influenza virus are transmissible between cats and people. But (there is always a but) these viruses are very changeable in nature." Again, we have seen this in the H1N1 virus, but not in the seasonal flu.

Can you give your cat or dog any other virus? To answer that question, I had to do research on Zoonotic diseases. According to the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, Zoonotic diseases are "diseases caused by infectious agents that can be transmitted between (or are shared by) animals and humans." If you have a scientific mind, I encourage you to read this article. The list of these diseases is extensive and there is not enough space here to cover them in depth.

Is there any precautions we can take to keep our pets healthy? As I stated in my article about the cat with H1N1, hand washing is very important. If we touch a sick animal and then touch our own, we could be passing on whatever the sick animal has to our beloved pet. This is so serious that animal shelters recommend that if you volunteer at an animal shelter you should wash thoroughly and change your clothes before touching your pets. If we have been diagnosed with H1N1, we should limit our contact with our pet. And if our pet shows signs of being sick, we should take our pet to the vet. Only a veterinarian can tell can properly diagnose what is wrong with our pets.

Sources:

Cat Diagnosed with H1N1 by Kimberly Mae

http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/news/influenza.htm

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/animalhealthguidelines.asp

http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/pbs/zoonoses