ASK THE VET: Get dogs flu vaccine, but keep them away from mushrooms

It’s August, and a couple of things are going on in the veterinary world in Colorado Springs at the moment.

First, we finally have a vaccine for canine influenza, a highly contagious respiratory disease that affects only dogs and causes a hacking, honking cough that often lasts two to three weeks. Although the disease is rarely fatal it can be a major nuisance, and because it is viral, there is very little medication that improves the situation.

We had two major outbreaks in this city last year around July and August, and again from about November to February. Our outbreaks were so big that the vaccine’s developers came to Colorado Springs to use our strain of the virus in creating the vaccine.

In order for the vaccine to work optimally, the initial dose needs to be boostered in two to four weeks. I would strongly recommend it for any dog that is going to be boarded, and many kennels are making the same recommendation. The traditional “kennel cough” vaccine required by most kennels protects against a bacterium called Bordetella, which causes identical symptoms. Unfortunately, a Bordetella vaccine provides absolutely no protection against canine influenza, which is, by far, the most likely cause of infectious respiratory disease in the Springs.

You need to do a little planning so you can get the initial flu vaccine and the booster in before any boarding stay, but it isn’t a bad idea to have your dog vaccinated whether you are planning to board or not. During the height of the outbreaks last year, I was seeing up to five new cases a day, and many of them had no exposure history beyond being walked in a park where other dogs go.

Although we haven’t seen canine influenza at the levels we saw last year, I am just starting to see an increase in the number of cases coming into the clinic. Are we on the edge of another outbreak? I don’t know, but at least now we can offer some protection.

On another front, we are seeing more cases than usual of possible mushroom toxicity. August is the traditional mushroom season in this area, and with the unusually large amount of rain we have been getting this summer, there is a particularly large crop.

This is making mushroom hunters rejoice, and dogs are some of the most dedicated, yet least discriminating mushroom hunters I know. As they greedily scarf down every fungal fruiting body they can find in the yard, they are picking up both the edible and not-so-edible varieties. Fortunately, the Destroying Angel Aminita and Deadly Gallerina species that can be fatal if ingested do not tend to live in this area, but we have plenty of species that can seriously upset the gastrointestinal tract or have dramatic neurological effects.

Mushrooms will pop up just about anywhere, and they will appear overnight where there were none the day before. Accurate identification of mushrooms can be difficult, so it may be in your best interest to make a daily sweep through the yard and remove any  you see, just to be on the safe side.

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Anne Pierce is a Colorado Springs veterinarian and co-owner of High Plains Veterinary Hospital, a Colorado Springs small-animal clinic. Reach her at petdocs@highplainsvet.com.