Dog survives mysterious illness; his owner’s advice to others

WHIO Staff
·2 min read
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A pet owner is speaking out after her dog survived a highly contagious, potentially deadly illness that veterinarians are calling a “mystery.”

“This dog is my life. He’s my best bud. So I always worry and especially as they get older, it’s always scarier as well,” Amanda House told CBS Detroit.

When 7-year-old Tucker began coughing in the middle of September, House originally thought it was just kennel cough.

“When he first started coughing, I immediately kept him from other dogs. We were not boarding we weren’t going to dog parks or anything like that. And we were being very cautious on our walks not to come in contact with other dogs,” she said.

But a month later, Tucker’s cough didn’t let up.

>> Ohio veterinarians prepare for mysterious illness spreading among dogs

“It just wasn’t getting any better and it wasn’t going away. Thankfully, he didn’t have any severe symptoms. Like he wasn’t lethargic, he wasn’t losing his appetite. He never acquired a fever or anything like that,” House said. “It just seemed weird that he was constantly coughing and it had gone on for a month. That was not the case when he had kennel cough the first time it was a week and a half and he was fine.”

At the vet, Tucker’s lab work came back clear, although his cough is one of the symptoms connected to the mysterious illness affecting dogs across the nation.

“They look and sound and everything about them feels like it should be kennel cough type disease, but they’re just not responding like a normal kennel cough would,” Veterinarian Dr. Melissa Beyer said.

And the illness does not respond to antibiotics.

>> Mysterious illness spreading nationwide among dogs

“There’s really no good anti-viral on the market. However, we can support the symptoms sometimes by nebulizing them or giving them some support, fluids, things that they need,” Veterinarian Dr. Mike Hutchinson said.

Tucker is no longer contagious and his vet gave him a steroid to get rid of the cough.

House shared advice for pet owners.

“I think that’s the most important thing is just early detection. So it doesn’t become pneumonia or get worse,” House said.