Should we be concerned for our pets?

[RhodaCamel]

I’ve been following the unraveling of this virus since it first came to light and up until last week hadn’t given this question much thought but seeing that it’s a zoonotic disease, should we worry? I have found a few articles, some saying yes, others no so have no idea.
My family and I caught the awful swine flu back in 2009 which again was a zoonotic virus and I remember several pets getting the disease also.
I am a dog walker and have a dog myself, of course I practise good hygiene around them and will continue to do so but I am a little concerned as this is a novel virus new things are emerging all the time.

At the moment, no, no evidence that domestic pets can either suffer from or contract covid19.

WSAVA will update on this page as more information becomes available
wsava.org/news/highlighted-news/the-new-coronavirus-and-companion-animals-advice-for-wsava-members/

Someone explained it as - we have lived in close contact with domestic animals for a long time, so generally humans are pretty resistant to most of their bugs. But, we haven’t co-evolved with species like bats and pangolins, so have less resistance to theirs when they jump species and evolve. Not sure how that pans out in reality but seems to make a bit of sense.

That sounds encouraging.
I’ve been worried about my pets on two accounts.
Firstly the worry of them catching it (I have three dogs, all fairly old - 8, 10 and 12). The younger ones both have health issues. However if there’s no evidence they can get it that’s reassuring.

Second worry is what happens to them if anything happens to me!
My adult DDs have agreed to take them. Our two rescue dogs would be fine and perfectly happy with DD1. But our middle dog whom we’ve had since a puppy, pines away and deteriorates rapidly every time I go away. DH and I went away for 5 days at half term. The DDs had her and she was unrecognisable when I got home. Hunched over, depressed, refusing to eat, walking on 3 legs or refusing to walk at all (she has an old ligament injury that seems to be fine now 99% of the time until she gets depressed). I know she was well looked after and much loved by the DC who kept in constant contact over her. We decided we can’t go away again without her whilst we still have her.

I honestly think she would die of a broken heart without me. It’s a huge worry.

I thought there had been a case of a dog catching it? Or was that a hoax/found to be wrong?

I think someone demonstrated the virus being present in a dog’s nasal cavity - not the same as the dog suffering from the disease or being a specific vector for it.

I’m concerned should we get infected and
poorly enough to need hospitalisation who would look after the pets.

musicposy you’ll just have to not get ill! 😷

If anyone is genuinely worried that they don’t have friends/family members that could take their dogs if the worst happens - several charities have schemes you can pre-register your pets for them to rehome in the event of your death:

www.dogstrust.org.uk/get-involved/wills-legacies/canine-care-card/

www.cats.org.uk/what-we-do/catguardians

www.rspca.org.uk/whatwedo/care/homeforlife

www.battersea.org.uk/support-us/legacies-memory/forever-loved-service

www.nawt.org.uk/pet-care-card

Cinnamon Trust also have a foster network for temporary care whilst elderly pet owners are in hospital
cinnamon.org.uk/cinnamon-trust/

In some circumstances (I think perhaps if you are already in contact with adult social services or in social housing) if you are hospitalised then your local authority may have legal responsibility to ensure your pets are looked after, usually putting them into private boarding. Although reading this it may apply more widely politicalanimal.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Keyfactspetsofpeoplehospitalised-3.pdf

If you can afford to pay for private boarding yourself might be worth looking into how this could be arranged urgently should you need it.

Perhaps if anyone thinks they would need to rely on their local authority fulfilling their responsibility to ‘protect property’ wrt care of pets should they be hospitalised - it might be worth contacting your LA beforehand to clarify how this would work - and put up a notice near your front door, so any paramedics/HCPs attending you at home are made aware there are animals in the house that will need care arranging for, who to contact etc (this would go for people who do have friends/family that could step in as well).

My concern is if they decided pets were carriers and did a mass cull. That would be heartbreaking.

There is a clip on YouTube (I’ll see if I can do a link but I’m fairly useless!) it’s of a wonderful young lad in, I think, the Wuhan area, he has special permission and he goes to all of the apartments that people have abandoned and feeds the cats and dogs who have been left by their owners in these apartments. What a lovely human being.

I think that’s incredibly unlikely in the UK personally. I know there are reports online of culls in China but do not believe these were evidence-based (the culls/threats of culls, not the reports of them).

It seems sensible to prepare to have enough food/litter etc to keep your pets indoors with you if you are self-isolating/home unwell though.

Aw how heartwarming Rhoda.

Oh and any medications your pet might need as well!

www.theguardian.com/world/video/2020/feb/14/catman-of-wuhan-the-man-rescuing-pets-abandoned-amid-coronavirus-outbreak-video

that's a link to the pet rescuer!

Everything from a reliable source seems to suggest pets are not at risk. There are other types of corona virus that affect pets though but that's a different virus.

I'm mostly concerned about who would look after my cats if I ended up in hospital especially at the moment as it seems everyone testing positive is forced to go into isolation in a specialist hospital unit for two weeks even if they are not that unwell. I live alone... I imagine nearby friends would help unless they were unwell themselves of course.

I would be more worried about neighbour's attacking or poisoning my cat through fear than them actually contracting the virus.
Not much i can do about that other than put her out the back door rather than the front.