Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease Complex (CIRDC)

All right, so My name is Dr. Lara. I'm here at Heron Lakes Animal Hospital. And today the topic of the video is going to be canine infectious respiratory disease complex. I know it sounds like a mouthful, but it's not as intimidating as it sounds. If you stay tuned, we'll get into what it is, how we can potentially diagnose it, how to treat it, what the prognosis is, and others. All right, Canine infectious respiratory disease complex. So there's been this big hoopla about this particular condition that's been going on. And so what is it? It's honestly a description of some. Some symptoms. So those symptoms could be coughing, they could be sneezing, they could be eye discharge, it could be nasal discharge, just to name a few of the different symptoms that you could see. It could be not feeling well, a decreased energy level, decreased appetite. And so down in South Florida, we've seen an increase in these particular cases, so much so that the Miami Dade County, I think, was looking at shutting down the dog parks to reduce the spread of this. Now, initially, when I heard about this, and, you know, based on what they were doing, I thought that they were doing this because it was something that was actually a canine virulent influenza outbreak. When I researched it, at least based on the research that I've done, it's just kennel cough. And so kennel cough is something that is, again, a description of particular condition or symptoms that are caused by a multitude of different organisms and or viruses. And so whenever we go ahead and we vaccinate dogs for Bordetella, that is one of the organisms, 9 to 11 organisms, or viruses that can cause the symptoms that we see. So, honestly, when I saw what it was that they were describing, I thought it was pretty much like an exaggeration. I initially was concerned that it was maybe kind of like. Like I said, that virulent influenza. We do have two forms of influenza in dogs. We have a parainfluenza, and then we have influenza as well as a virulent influenza. Now, virulent is spelled V I R U L E N T. And it looks kind of close to violent. And so that's how I remember the difference. The virulent ones can cause dogs to die. And so when I thought it was the virulent influenza that they were, you know, making this big uproar about, I was like, oh, yeah, you know, it could potentially be kind of equivocated or similar to what Covid was like when it first came out. And when I did that research, I realized that it wasn't. And so then I was kind of, I guess, I don't know if the word is disappointed, but it was just something where I, I didn't think that it was something that really was as concerning as it seemed they were making it to be. And so for me, what I ended up doing was I did end up, I did take some precautions initially and then afterwards, I mean, my dogs are going to, my, my one dog, Raven is going to dog parks, still interacting with other dogs. And it's not something that I'm concerned about just yet. Now it's possible that it could change and maybe some. There's something that comes to light in regards to the virulent influenza being a more significant player in this particular outbreak of patients with kennel cough or canine infectious respiratory disease complex. Now the way that we typically go ahead about diagnosing these is we will use a swab that goes in the back of the throat, in the nose or in the eye. Typically we'll go ahead and get some swabs from areas where we're seeing some discharge and then they'll look for some sort of nucleic acids. Don't think about eating the cat food, ginger, sorry. So that kind of material, either RNA material or DNA material, looking for evidence of either the viruses and, or the bacteria or microorganisms. For the most part. When we have patients that are experiencing some sort of infectious respiratory disease complex, the most common treatments that we will use will be torbitrol or hydrocodone. Those are both controlled drugs. You're not going to be able to get them without going to your veterinarian. And they are used primarily as a cough suppressant. The other medication that we will typically use will be doxycycline. Doxycycline is an antibiotic that also has anti inflammatory effects on the airway. And so it's a two for one in regards to having anti inflammatory effects as well as going ahead and helping us with some of the microorganisms that do respond to that particular antibiotic. Now the catch that you have to be aware of is with a, with the younger puppies, if they do happen to get this or they do end up getting on doxycycline, if they are on too high a dose for too long a period of time, it is possible that they could develop enamel defects on their adult teeth. So just a word of caution. Usually I only have my patients on the antibiotic for about seven days. And whenever I put any of my patients on antibiotics, I will normally go ahead and put them on a probiotic to go ahead and help replace some of those good bacteria in the GI tract that we're killing with the doxycycline. The killing of the bacteria in the GI tract is not specific to doxycycline. Whenever I put my patients on any antibiotics, I typically will do that just because we. There's some data that's coming out. It's probably been coming out now for years, but it hasn't garnered ton of momentum. Behind it, at least in terms of general acceptance in the medical community, is that the GI tract is going to be actually the base of our immune system. So I do think it is important to make sure that we support the immune system in any way that we can. Probiotics being one of those things that we would do when we have patients on antibiotics. If you guys found this video helpful, please give us a thumbs up. Really helps with the YouTube algorithm. You have questions about it, leave it, leave it in the comment section. And if you know somebody who really needs to see this video, please share it with them. We, we'd really appreciate. We're trying to help as many pets and people as possible. Thanks for watching and have a blessed.