Chatham, VA – It’s that time of year again, to get your flu shot, and it turns out, it may be time for your dog to get a flu shot too.
Dr. Lisa Shorter with the Chatham Animal Clinic says they haven’t had any diagnosed K9 influenza cases in the area, but she has seen some dogs with flu-like symptoms.
They carry the dog flu vaccine, but she says they haven’t made it part of the routine protocol just yet. Still, she says there are some cases where she absolutely recommends the dogs get vaccinated.
“Animals that travel a lot, that are exposed to a lot of other animals, that board a lot; that’s where I think is the real niche for this vaccine at this point in time,” she said.
Dr. Shorter says she fully expects that canine influenza will become more prevalent in this area. She says one to five percent of dogs with the flu do die.