This Vet Is Giving Dogs COVID Meds in a Desperate Attempt to Save Them From Mysterious Illness

As the mysterious illness affecting dogs continues to spread across the U.S. with no treatment in sight, one Iowa veterinarian decided to give dogs a popular COVID-19 drug intended for humans: Paxlovid. 

Doug Swain, D.V.M., a veterinarian at Lyman Vet Clinic in Cass County, Iowa, told KCCI 8 Des Moines, that he noticed dogs with the mystery illness have owners who have reported being ill with COVID recently. The symptoms, he observed, are similar to COVID-19.

"I had COVID and spent nine days in the ICU myself," Dr. Swain told the local news outlet. "When I see these dogs, I think about how I looked."

For now, there’s no treatment or cure available and the disease is resistant to antibiotics. Symptoms of respiratory illness in dogs include coughing that can last six weeks, sneezing, nasal or eye discharge and lethargy. Some cases of pneumonia progress quickly, making dogs very sick within 24 to 36 hours. 

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, the illness among dogs have been reported in at least 14 states.

When Cash, a bulldog, was struggling to breathe with inflamed lungs and was coughing up blood, his owners brought him to Dr. Swain’s clinic. The vet diagnosed Cash with a severe case of respiratory illness. 

As Cash’s health worsened over the next few hours, his owner, Ryan Knowles, thought he was about to lose his beloved pet. 

In a last-ditch effort to save the dog, Dr. Swain decided to give Cash Paxlovid — an antiviral pill that’s typically given to humans within five days of noticing  COVID symptoms. 

"It's like, 'Why not, what do we have to lose?'" Knowles told KCCI 8. "From everything we've read or heard, it's kind of a death sentence if we don't."

Cash, Knowles says, recovered within days and began to seem more like himself. Since then, Dr. Swain has continued to prescribe Paxlovid, which is not in shortage, to other dogs with severe cases of the mysterious illness. 

As experts continue to learn more about the fast-spreading pet illness, labs across the country have been sharing their findings as they try to pinpoint the culprit.