As the spread of the corona virus (COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2) persists, the number of questions raised also expands. One thing to keep in mind is that as of now, the beginning of March 2020, we don’t have all of the answers, we do not have a vaccine and effective treatment is questionable and largely symptomatic.
One thing we would like to urge everyone to do when reading or watching reports about COVID-19…please evaluate your resources and fact check.
While there has been one case of a dog in Hong Kong that tested positive for COVID-19, the significance of this is unclear at this time. There is some thought that the dog was infected from the owner, who is a known COVID-19 positive patient. The dog has been quarantined and is not showing any signs of illness and the other dog in the home has tested negative.*
SARS-CoV-2 is not the same coronavirus strain that is common in cats and can mutate to Feline Infectious Peritonitis and it is not the same strain that causes gastrointestinal signs in dogs
At the time of this post, there is no evidence to support that dogs and cats can spread COVID-19 to people*
Here is a link to the American Veterinary Medical Association COVID-19 information page. This link contains information about how COVID-19 is spread, COVID-19 in humans and animals as well as links to other resources such as the Centers for Disease Control, World Health Organization, World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), FDA, USDA and others.