Welcome to Morningstar Animal Hospital...

Morningstar Animal Hospital is a state of the art, full service animal hospital offering the best of modern medicine and cutting edge technology, integrated with acupuncture, herbal therapy, laser therapy and more.

The mission of Morningstar Animal Hospital is to practice high quality, integrative medicine to best promote the health and well being of your pet. We take into account medical history, current problems, diet, personality, living situation and state of mind in formulating a plan to optimize health.  The treatment/wellness plan for your pet may include Western Medicine, Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine, Western Herbal Medicine, or any combination thereof.

Respiratory Illness in Dogs

We have all seen the recent news stories about a serious respiratory illness in dogs causing cough, pneumonia and sometimes leading to death.  Much of the severity/frequency of the disease is being augmented by the media, however there has been some reported uptick in respiratory disease in dogs beginning last summer (2023).  Here is what we know:

Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease Complex (CIRD) is seen commonly in dogs, primarily in those with frequent or intense exposure to other dogs, such as day care, boarding or play group situations.  This can be caused by multiple organisms, both bacteria and viruses, and is usually a mild, self-limiting disease similar to a cold going around human day care facilities.  We have PCR testing available to check for the common pathogens and if bacteria are involved, or if the cough is getting deeper and turning into pneumonia, we may treat with antibiotics.  Less severe cases usually do not need antibiotics.

There has been an increase in cases involving coughing in young, otherwise healthy dogs with the cough lasting longer than usual, sometimes up to months.  These dogs are testing negative on our PCR tests, leading to speculation of a new disease, however to date nothing has been identified. Most of these dogs respond to symptomatic treatment and go on to recover.  The most important thing is to get your dog in to the vet so that appropriate treatment can be started.

How do we prevent this? The best way to prevent any communicable disease is through prevention. Make sure your dog is up to date on our available vaccines for respiratory illness. Avoid interaction with dogs you do not know, as their health status is also unknown. Make sure your groomer/kennel/boarding facility is taking preventive measures with extra cleaning (very likely they already are!) and so on. It is very similar to the preventive measures we all became accustomed to during COVID.

As more information becomes available, we will keep you all updated.