A dog virus spreading in Dublin is very rarely fatal – with most dogs recovering well without any medical attention, according to Pete ‘The Vet’ Wedderburn.

Recent weeks have seen Dubliners warned of a dog virus outbreak that can cause vomiting, diarrhoea and can be dangerous for older or weaker dogs.

On The Pat Kenny Show this morning Pete The Vet said there appears to have been a surge in severe gastroenteritis.

He said around one-in-five cases are caused by an ‘enteric coronavirus’ – however, the virus is not new and is totally different to the COVID-19 coronavirus.

“Some vets are reporting positive results on an antigen test in the faeces to that particular virus so it does seem likely that this apparent outbreak is caused by a bit of an upsurge in this virus,” he said.

“But there is nothing new about it. We see this virus every year and we have seen it for decades; it is well known.

“Likely all that is happening is, because of lockdown, more people are walking dogs within five kilometres, you are seeing a bit of a concentration of dogs meeting each other and so the virus is doing the rounds more than normal.”

Dogs dressed for Christmas in Dublin City Centre, 24-12-2020. Image: Sam Boal/RollingNews

He said fatalities linked to the virus are “extremely rare.”

“Most dogs show no signs at all but the usual sign is that dogs vomit, have diarrhoea, become quite dull and they don’t want to eat their dinner,” he said.

“They don’t have a fever and some patients have minimal clinical signs at all.

“The main worry is that sometimes the diarrhoea starts to include blood and sometime then dogs really get very dull and they need to the vet and they need to be rehydrated – because dehydration is probably the biggest problem we see.”

Elmo the Yorkie dog enjoys playing ball with owner Deirdre from Dublin in Merrion Square, 30-04-2020. Image: Sam Boal/RollingNews

He said there is no need to rush to the vet if your dog “misses breakfast and has one vomit.”

“Most mild cases recover spontaneously,” he said. “If your dog does that you can just fast him for 12 hours then give him bland food and a lot of dogs go on to get right back to normal very quickly.

“Other dogs are more serious so you should do a basic triage yourself to see if you need to go to a vet when your dog gets sick once. You don’t really need to in most cases.”

He noted that it would be incorrect to make too many comparison with the COVID coronavirus.

“That is a buzzword we all have in our heads just now so our ears chirp up when we hear that and we think of lots of bad stuff,” he said. “This is relatively minor disease.”