It never ends....more reading !!

[kimsbirds]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/15052006/2/xhealth-pets-spread-new-infections-considered-outbreak-planning.html

This just boggles my mind...we vaccinate against common and frequent ailments, but just how far are any of us willing to go?
My dogs won't understand why they can't be pet by a sick family member...my birds won't understand why Daddy can't play when he's sneezing....my cats would get right upset if they couldn't be with my daughter if she were ill.....
What about all of you? Do you vaccinate and isolate endlessly, or do you risk it, however small that risk may be???

Kimmie

[travis]

"In 2003, 37 people in several U.S. states contracted monkeypox - a relative of smallpox - from pet prairie dogs which were themselves infected when they came in contact with imported Gambian giant rats, an exotic pet."

I'm not the expert, and it does seem like things are always possible, but this example is really, really pushing it. I'll always risk it with my dogs, and now with my little Archimedes, although I worry more about him than my labs.

[Bella]

If I am sick I don't let the dog lick my face. That is for his benefit, not mine.

I think people are going bananas.

[jknezek]

Uggh. A limited number of people in the U.S. and Mexico get bubonic plague every year too (no it's not just from an episode of House, it is actually true. The black plague. Imagine telling that to your family...) It lives in fleas infesting praire dogs in the southwest.

You can't protect against everything all the time. I'm only going around once in this life and I'm not going to spend it making myself miserable about the possibility of disease transmission from pets to humans.

I'm also not going to work myself into a panic about bird flu. The media has done its best to scare the heck out of everyone. Now lets wait and see what actually happens.

People have gotten diseases from animals throughout history. It's always going to happen. But I'll be darned if I'm going to quarantine my animals, or myself from them, every time one of us gets a sniffle. The odds of it being anything but a sniffle are almost 0.

In real life, you have a statistically insignificant chance of being struck by lightening, getting the monkey flu, carrying the black plague, or dying from a bird flu. Look both ways before crossing the street. You are much more likely to get run over than anything else...

[Janie]

Uggh. A limited number of people in the U.S. and Mexico get bubonic plague every year too (no it's not just from an episode of House,

Jeremy, :lol....I was thinking "House" when I read that!

I have never protected my 12 year old dog from my illnesses, or any other dogs/cats I've had in my life but I would never share my food with them if I was sick. I did stay away from my birds, as much as possible, for one day when I had the "real" flu in March. My avian vet said that it was unlikely they would/could catch anything from me but to have as little contact as possible until the Tamiflu took effect and that was 24 hours. So, I didn't let them get in my face but I did have some contact and it's hard not to when you are their care giver. I protect my dog from my birds (food and droppings) just as much as I protect them from her. If they drop birdie bread on the floor, I pick it up immediately so that Chelsea won't eat what they've had their beaks on. I vacuum daily so that she won't walk through their droppings. I would rather eat after them than to chance my dog eating after them and visa versa.

I can only imagine how much more reading there will be on this subject in the next few months/years. I dread it!