Do Pets Get Covid-19?

Do Pets Get Covid-19?

by | HA! Covid, HA! Staying Healthy

Can My Pet Get the SARS Virus and Develop the Covid-19 Dis-ease?

Nowadays, veterinarians are often asked whether pets can get Covid-19. The short answer is yes, they can contract the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, so far none have developed serious symptoms or died of Covid-19. Regardless, there are still some precautions to take if you are sick.

So far, all the animals who have tested positive for SARS have been in contact with an infected guardian. It’s therefore best to minimize contact with your pet(s) if you’re sick or have tested positive.

Ask someone else in your home to be the primary caregiver for your pet for two weeks. If you live alone, you can reduce the chance of your spreading the virus to your pet by using a few simple steps:

  • Avoid face-to-face contact with your pet and try to avoid coughing or sneezing on or near them.
  • Wash your hands thoroughly before contacting your pet, and use a fan to keep the air circulating to reduce viral exposure when you are near.

To help you recover as quickly as possible from viral-associated symptoms, it’s very helpful to still have the comfort and healing support your pet can give you. Whenever possible, interact with your pet outside, where the fresh air and natural ventilation decrease risk of transmission.

Can Pets Give SARS to Each Other?

Although it’s possible that pets can transmit the virus to each other, it hasn’t been proven. Whether this occurs depends on the amount of viral shedding, which determines how much of the virus they can spread.

The quantity of virus shed is like the dose of a drug. The higher the “dose” of virus, the more likely an exposed pet will get sick from it. This is like the increasing chance of side effects from higher doses of a medication. This viral dose relationship is also true for human-to-human as well as for human-to-pet transmission.

Any living being’s immune system will get overwhelmed if there are too many viral particles to guard against.

Can I Get Covid-19 From My Pet?

Despite taking every precaution, you may still be wondering if an infected pet can transmit Covid-19 to you. Fortunately, there’s been no evidence of animal-to-human transmission.

Now What?

Pet parents are starting to socialize and dogs are playing with their friends again. Gradually increasing exposure and developing natural “herd immunity” is very important this summer and fall. In all circumstances, follow the public health guidelines for social distancing, wearing a mask when you’re out, and not touching your face until you’ve sanitized or thoroughly washed your hands.

In addition to avoiding the virus, there’s much more you can do for yourself and your pet! In the coming short blogs and a series of video interviews with scientists and pet professionals, we’ll explore what these are, why they work, how to use them to help keep you healthy.

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This article is part of the series of Vitality and Balance related articles. If you enjoyed it, consider reading these posts: “Fatal Viruses And One Health”, “Internal Balance & Covid” and “One Way to Re-Connect Nature and Veterinary Medicine”.

 

Fatal Viruses and One Health

Fatal Viruses and One Health

by | HA! Covid, HA! Staying Healthy, HA! Vitality and Balance System

The information on this blog is primarily about using HA! for animals. However the same scientific data that is used here for animals can be applied to people.This is the essence of One Health (OH) as described in the prior blog.

For example, did you know that there’s nothing “special” about this virus? As with the coronavirus that causes Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP), the virus does not cause serious illness. OH information “translated” from other sciences describes it thoroughly.

The major difference in the current pandemic is that MDs are not used to treating such a widespread and potentially fatal virus. However, veterinarians deal with serious viruses like parvo, distemper and rabies almost every day.

For example, there is currently a rabbit virus, which is not a coronavirus, that can kill up to 80% of exposed bunnies. This is a scary situation for people who raise rabbits and fortunately, the mortality of SARS-CoV-2 is less than 3%.

 

However, SARS-CoV-2 does not have this same effect. It does not cause Covid-19 in most people. The disease results from an inappropriate immune response from an imbalance in the body. The result can be pneumonia, cytokine storm and respiratory failure.

Covid is very similar to FIP. Most people and pets that are exposed to these coronaviruses do not even get sick. This has been studied intensively for many decades by veterinary scientists such as Dr. Niels Pedersen at UC Davis in CA.

Scientists can learn from Dr. Pedersen who has been curing FIP with a remdesevir-like antiviral for many years.

This is a critical time in history and we can use OH-based science to improve the outcome and to decrease our fear of the unknown.

 

This article is part of the series of Vitality and Balance related articles. If you enjoyed it, consider reading these posts: The One Health Paradigm – Helping Re-Connect Us All and Internal Balance & Covid.

Fatal Viruses and One Health

One Way to Re-Connect Nature and Veterinary Medicine

by | HA! Staying Healthy, HA! Vitality and Balance System

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An increasing body of research is showing that pets, people and the planet are all interconnected.

This interrelationship is called One Health and helps scientists “translate” vital new information from one field of study in another.

Here’s a quote from the One Health roadmap to health:

Holistic pet care
 “The current fragmented framework of health governance for humans, animals and environment, together with the conventional linear approach to solving current health problems, is failing to meet today’s health challenges and is proving unsustainable.

In the conventional model, advances in healthcare depend increasingly on intensive interventions, technological developments and expensive pharmaceuticals.

There is an ever-growing disconnect between human health, animal health and environmental and ecosystems health. Gains in human development have come with often-unrecognized negative consequences that are damaging to ecosystems.

… A paradigm shift is urgently required to de-sectoralize human, animal, plant and ecosystem health and to take a more integrated approach to health.”
This shift to One Health (OH) facilitates using human health information for the welfare of companion animals.

2020 is the year when OH can help doctors, patients, scientists, activists and any human being concerned about health to focus on the balance between science, nature, and healing to help everyone survive and thrive.

This article is part of the series of Vitality and Balance related articles. If you enjoyed it, consider reading these posts: “Fatal Viruses And One Health”, “Internal Balance & Covid”, “Do pets get Covid-19?“, and “One Health Medicine“.

Internal Balance and covid?

Internal Balance and covid?

by | HA! Covid, HA! Foundation, HA! Staying Healthy, HA! Vitality and Balance System


Holistic pets balanceHave you ever had an intuitive sense that your pet is sick, but your vet says that your pet is fine because the exam and tests are all normal.

Regardless, you know that something’s wrong.

Pet parents know their companions better than anyone, and can sense the earliest stage of dis-ease.

Holistic veterinarians, “believe” that they may be detecting a subtle energetic imbalance.

Internal balance is the ability to maintain a relatively stable internal state, also called homeostasis or equilibrium, that persists despite changes in the world outside.

Now is the best time in history to learn more about balance because staying balanced helps pets and people stay healthy and at ease.

Imbalance, or dis-ease worsens resistance to germs like viruses.

For example, scientists are discovering that internal imbalance predisposes people to get sick from the coronavirus.

Sophisticated science is able to describe the genetic, molecular, and cellular factors that make up balance. Here is a recent research article describing how it seems that the individual, or “host”, response to the virus causes severe symptoms, including cytokine storm.

holistic health for pets

Be on the lookout for the next articles that dive a little deeper into exactly what it is about balance that helps keep pets and people healthy.

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This article is part of the series of Vitality and Balance related articles. If you enjoyed it, consider reading these posts: “Fatal Viruses And One Health”, “Do pets get Covid-19?“ and “One Way to Re-Connect Nature and Veterinary Medicine”.