Shield Up 63: Winners Don't Do Parks

Love this community!!!

Hey guys! Great podcast as always - could you post a link to any studies/sources on that leukemia bit? Not doubting the validity, just interested in reading more about it and Google isn’t giving very good results upon searching. Either way, thanks for being awesome and for keeping us all sane during these crazy times!

The Ritz

Just a note for Gav and whoever else has pets and is worried about going to the vet. (N.B. I am an emergency veterinarian in the UK). Emergency provision of veterinary care has been designated as an essential service by the government so vets are recognised as key workers and they will still be open and see patients. However, they should not be seeing any ‘routine’ appointments such as worming or vaccinations (for anyone who is worried about their pet’s vaccination being due, you can be three months overdue with both cats and dogs before you have to restart a full course, so there is some leeway :)). Vets will see emergency cases, i.e. severe illnesses needing timely intervention or those that are at high risk of deteriorating and getting worse if not treated (eye issues would definitely qualify). They will also see anything causing significant pain or discomfort or significantly impacting welfare. As a result, veterinary clinics should be less busy than what you are used to, so if your vet is following the rules, you should not end up in a waiting room full of people. Many vets have furloughed most of their staff as well and will only stay open with a skeleton crew to limit the amount of people coming in contact. Every practice will be a bit different but they have all been actively encouraged to maintain social distancing as much as possible to protect member of the public but also veterinary team (as hard as isolation is for people without a garden, being a key worker in the current circumstances is not all that fun, let me tell you… and that’s probably nothing compared to NHS workers). The way we do it where I work is that we will come to the door in full protective equipment and take the pet from the owner (and usually swap dog leads for one of ours to limit the number of potential contaminated belongings we take in) and ask them to wait in their car. We then examine the animal and phone the owner and basically do a phone consultation and decide on treatment, then if the animal is not being admitted in the hospital, we will bring it back to the door with any medication needed. We also dispense longer courses of medication than we usually would so people don’t have to go to the vet as often. This way of doing things is not easy for anybody, but we are trying to do our bit to maintain social distancing. We will let people in the building in case of euthanasias as it is such an emotional moment if they wish to be with their pet. I am not sure what individual vets will do, they might not all have the same arrangement as my place of work, particularly in London where many people might not have a car to wait into, but it’s just an example to illustrate how seriously vets are trying to adhere to the social distancing rules. If people are concerned about whether their pet needs to see a vet or not, many places (including out of hours services) also offer initial video consultations to help you decide whether you need to go and see a vet or not. Also if you have symptoms of coronavirus (or someone in your house does), make sure to let your vet know. They won’t refuse to see you, but they’ll be able to take extra precaution to protect themselves and their staff. Also if you can get someone who is not from a symptomatic house to bring your pet, this would be better as well (and there’s very little risk to them as long as they wash their hands and maintain social distancing, see below). Finally (damn it’s a long comment, sorry…), I just wanted to point out that there is no evidence that COVID-19 can affect any species other than humans. It is confusing as coronaviruses are a family of many different viruses and some of those will infect cats, for example, but those do not pass onto people at all. There is a lot of fear-mongering out there, so it is important to know that pets are not getting or passing COVID-19 on. The virus could potentially live on their fur / collar, etc for a short while as it could on any surface, but it won’t infect them. For several weeks, some veterinary laboratories have been analysing all samples they’ve received from animals with respiratory diseases for COVID-19 and haven’t found a single positive sample yet. So pets are safe and essential to our mental health during lockdown. :) Sorry for the long post, but I hope this is useful for some people, especially if worried about their animals.

Sekiei