Over the Summer, Oregon reported the case of a dog with unfamiliar respiratory symptoms. Veterinarians looked into the symptoms, and started running into additional cases. 

Mainly in dogs, experts are calling it “atypical canine infectious respiratory disease”. Symptoms include, but are not limited to: chronic mild to moderate tracheobronchitis which is inflammation in the airways and can be immune to antibiotics, chronic pneumonia not responsive to antibiotics, rapid breathing, difficulty breathing or wheezing, fever or weight loss.

Doctors researching have found a possible cause for the illness. “The pathogen is ‘a funky bacterium’,”  said Dr. David Needle. “It’s smaller than a normal bacterium in its size and in the size of its genome. Long story short, it’s a weird bacterium that can be tough to find and sequence.” Needle also mentioned that like humans, dogs have many harmless bacteria, and likely this ‘funky bacterium’ evolved from a microbiome in dogs. 

Experts cannot be fully sure if this unknown germ is what is causing the illness across 14 different states. A way to take precautions is to vaccinate your dog, keep a close eye for any allergy-like symptoms, and keep them healthy. The pathogen cannot be grown in the lab so it is unsure which medications can hurt it. For now, it is a start.