An animal hospital at the Vermont-New Hampshire border is warning dog owners about a new contagious respiratory illness detected in New England.
Veremedy Pet Hospital, which has locations in White River Junction and Woodstock, this week emailed clients an alert about the disease, which appears to have originated in kennels in southern New Hampshire.
“It may be spreading to other parts of New England, including our area,” Veremedy wrote. “At the moment, the causative agent has not been found, and we have had reports of affected dogs testing negative to all the usual canine respiratory diseases.”
Linda Waite-Simpson, the executive director of the Vermont Veterinary Medical Association, wrote in an email that she had not been notified by the state about the disease. “It may be an emerging situation and they just haven’t notified us yet,” she said.
Dr. Brian Collins, a senior lecturer at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine, said dogs who contract the disease “are requiring more intense treatment than what they would typically expect from some of the more common respiratory diseases,” including hospitalization. He equated the severity to canine influenza.
The vast majority of dogs have recovered from the disease, he said, although it has been fatal in rare instances and its overall mortality rate remains unknown.
Collins said the disease resembles kennel cough and pneumonia, with symptoms like coughing, sneezing and lethargy. While respiratory diseases pop up from time to time, he said they are not “generally something of this severity.”
In an Aug. 24 statement, the Veterinary Emergency Center of Manchester in New Hampshire said it had seen 250 cases of the illness, 75% of which required hospitalization. While some dogs seemed to have acquired the illness from a boarding facility, others appeared to have contracted it from contact with another dog in a lower-density location.
According to Cheryl Catrambone, the executive director of the New Hampshire Veterinary Medical Association, “If people are concerned, they really shouldn’t be bringing their dog to public places that have other dogs.”