A dog adopted earlier this week from a St. Paul animal shelter potentially has come down with canine flu, Animal Humane Society officials announced Thursday.
Test results from the dog, a Shar-Pei mix, came back positive for the H3N2 flu even though it showed no signs of illness before being adopted Sunday from the humane society's St. Paul shelter.
It's the first reported case of dog flu in the Twin Cities metro area, said Janelle Dixon, president and CEO of the local Animal Humane Society. Nasal swab testing was being done to confirm the diagnosis.
Dixon, speaking at an afternoon news conference, said a second dog diagnosed with pneumonia also is undergoing treatment and is being tested for canine influenza.
"We're watching closely," she said.
The shelter dog that fell ill — a male known as Toga during its time at the shelter — "has recovered well and is at home" with its adoptive family, Dixon said.
As a precaution, the humane society isolated all dogs at the St. Paul shelter with kennel cough or similar symptoms and is testing them, too, for the flu — with results expected by 4 p.m. Friday, officials said.
Canine flu was first confirmed in Minnesota in late May, when five dogs contracted it at a training and rescue facility in Detroit Lakes. Fatalities are unlikely, but the flu produces moderate symptoms that can affect a dog for up to two weeks. It doesn't sicken people, nor is it related to avian flu.
