Flu Dog Flu? H3N2 & H2N8? Seriously??

[ShadowMan]

Just visited our vet to pick up the next three months of Flea & Tick meds for our dogs and now we're being told that there's a Dog Flu vaccine we need for our mutts to protect them from a highly contagious for of Dog Influenza? Apparently this pretty bad stuff if your fur baby picks it up and can kill them in short order.

Has anyone here heard of this? H3N2 & H2N8 which are supposedly not transferable to humans but damn deadly in dogs. Started around here out on the Left Coast in the San Francisco Bay area and is moving rapidly inland into the Central Valley and south into the L.A. region

It's a two shot basic series, with the shots given a month apart for basic immunization protection. I guess this virus is so easily transferred between dogs that even being in the area that an infected dog has been is enough for your dog to catch it. So much so that now boarding facilities, doggy day care, groomers, etc., are now requiring that your pets are vaccinated for this. WTH?? Dog Flu now?

There are two strains of dog flu, H2N8 and H3N2. The former was first found in racing greyhounds in Florida in 2004, and the strain is believed to have come from a horse flu strain, according to the American Veterinary Medical Foundation.


The latter strain was first identified in the U.S. in 2015 after respiratory illness was detected in Chicago. It likely stemmed from a direct transfer from avian flu in Asia, where it was first discovered in dogs nearly 10 years before, the AVMF said.


“Canine influenza is transmitted through droplets or aerosols containing respiratory secretions from coughing, barking and sneezing,” the AVMA said.


It can be spread via kennels, shelters, dog parks, doggie daycares, dog shows, food and water bowls and collars and leashes. While it cannot be transmitted to humans, dog flu can be transmitted from them — and remain viable, or live and infectious, on surfaces for up to 48 hours, on clothes for 24 hours and on hands for 12 hours.