Does your dog need a sick day?

When to keep your dog home

We all hate it when a coworker shows up sick. They’re coughing, sneezing, and generally spreading their illness to everyone around them. At least we humans can steer clear when someone looks like they’re transmitting the plague, but dogs aren’t so lucky.

Various infectious diseases, parasites, and infections can spread from dog to dog when they are out in social situations. It’s important to keep your pets up-to-date on their vaccinations to not only keep them healthy, but also their dog community at large. Like humans, some dogs are immunosuppressed due to medications, illness, or age, so it’s even more imperative to vaccinate your dog if they’re healthy enough.

Common infectious issues include distemper, influenza, parvovirus, parasites like ticks, fleas, mites, (and the diseases they can transmit like Lyme disease), tapeworms, and hookworms. Kennel cough is also highly contagious, as are fungal infections like ringworm and bacterial infections like Brucellosis.

If your dog is exhibiting the following, it’s best to keep them home:

• Runny eyes and nose
• Unusual sneezing
• Cough
• Fever
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Lethargy
• Weight loss

If symptoms don’t improve in a few days or include more extreme symptoms like jaundice, seizures, or neurological differences, then take them to your vet immediately.

Aside from keeping your dog up-to-date on vaccines, receiving regular check-ups, and applying parasite treatments when needed, if you fear that they’ve come in direct contact with something infectious, then clean toys, plus food and water bowls with a bleach and water solution thoroughly. If the infected dog was in your home then wipe down surfaces and clean, or even steam clean, floors, as some diseases are spread through dirt, urine, or feces that can easily embed into carpet.

So be mindful and make your best friend take the occasional sick day when they need it, and be on the lookout for those symptoms in the other dogs that they’re interacting with as well. If we all work together, more dogs can stay happy and healthy.

Refer to our healthy pets section for more information and contact us if you have any questions.