How can pets be kept safe during the pandemic?
Two cats in New York City are the first household pets in the United States to test positive for COVID-19. Pets can contract some illnesses from humans, however during a pandemic, pets testing positive can bring about fear and questions from pet owners about how to keep their animals safe.
Not much information is known about how pets contract, carry and react to the virus since very few animals have been diagnosed with COVID-19 worldwide.
The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has suggestions on how to keep four-legged family members as safe as possible.
One important tip the AVMA suggests one of the ways to keep pets safe during the pandemic is to avoid contact with them if sick, just as one would with other humans. Have another member of the household care for the animals if possible.
With service animals, contact cannot be quite so limited, so it is suggested owners wear a cloth face covering when around the animal, make sure hands are washed before and after contact with the animal and do not share food, hug or kiss the animal. Some pet owners have even crafted tiny masks for their furry friends to wear to help keep them safe, though this effort is likely not necessary.
COVID-19 is primarily transmitted through bodily secretions, such as saliva or mucus droplets in a cough or sneeze, but has a secondary transmission method from touching contaminated surfaces or objects followed by touching the mouth, nose or possibly eyes.
Smooth, non-porous surfaces transmit viruses better than porous materials, and because pet hair is porous and fibrous, it is unlikely that people can contract the virus by petting or playing with pets.
Furthermore, infectious disease experts, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), indicate there is not evidence at this time that suggests animals infected by humans play a role in the spread of COVID-19.
“Human outbreaks are driven by person-to-person contact,” the AVMA says in a COVID-19 Q&A portion of their website.
There have been reports of people across the country abandoning pets at animal shelters out of fear of giving or receiving COVID-19 from their pets, but there is no need for this. With only two pets in the United States ill from the virus, and only suffering mild symptoms at that, COVID-19 illness is not a reason to give up pets that could otherwise stay at home.
Luckily, Perkins County Veterinary Hospital has not seen an influx of animals brought to the shelter.
Dr. Shannon Jensen even has an idea of how they would deal with a possibly COVID-19 positive pet, though the likelihood of that happening is low.
“They would come in with the symptoms just like a human would, and we would probably just treat it like a regular respiratory issue, because they can get other viruses that cause lung inflammation,” Dr. Jensen said. “So we would do supplemental oxygen and antibiotics and probably treat them symptomatically unless we, for some reason, suspect they might test positive.
“We don’t have a standard system that we would go through because it just isn’t happening in animals that much. We would treat them for standard respiratory inflammation, and then go from there.”
Overall, the chance of infecting household pets is low enough that abandoning pets at shelters is unnecessary when social distancing with pets and staying clean can help keep them healthy.