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Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/covid-linked-heart-inflammation-cats-dogs-rcna4319
Covid linked to heart inflammation in cats and dogs
As cases surged last winter in the U.K., vets saw an uptick in myocarditis cases in pets.
Nov. 5, 2021, 5:04 AM EDT / Updated Nov. 5, 2021, 6:35 AM EDT
By Kimberly Hickok
Late last year, as the coronavirus surged across the United Kingdom, Dr. Luca Ferasin and his colleagues started noticing an uptick in patients with symptoms of myocarditis, or heart inflammation.
The condition is a rare side effect of the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines, most commonly seen in men under 30. It can also be caused by infection with the virus itself.
But these patients weren’t humans; they were cats and dogs.
“These were dogs and cats that were depressed, lethargic, they lost appetite,” said Ferasin, a veterinary cardiologist at The Ralph Veterinary Referral Centre in Buckinghamshire, England. “And they had either difficulty breathing because of accumulation of fluid in their lungs due to the heart disease, or they were fainting because of an underlying abnormal heart rhythm.”
Before December, about 1.5 percent of pets referred to The Ralph were diagnosed with myocarditis, he said. But in the period between December and March, that number jumped dramatically, increasing to 12.5 percent of pets with confirmed myocarditis.
Ferasin and his colleagues later found out that many of the pets’ owners had either tested positive for Covid or had symptoms of the disease within three to six weeks of their pets becoming ill. That information, coupled with the fact that the timing coincided with the surge in cases driven by the alpha variant of the virus in the U.K., prompted the researchers to test the pets for SARS-CoV-2...
Covid linked to heart inflammation in cats and dogs
As cases surged last winter in the U.K., vets saw an uptick in myocarditis cases in pets.
Nov. 5, 2021, 5:04 AM EDT / Updated Nov. 5, 2021, 6:35 AM EDT
By Kimberly Hickok
Late last year, as the coronavirus surged across the United Kingdom, Dr. Luca Ferasin and his colleagues started noticing an uptick in patients with symptoms of myocarditis, or heart inflammation.
The condition is a rare side effect of the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines, most commonly seen in men under 30. It can also be caused by infection with the virus itself.
But these patients weren’t humans; they were cats and dogs.
“These were dogs and cats that were depressed, lethargic, they lost appetite,” said Ferasin, a veterinary cardiologist at The Ralph Veterinary Referral Centre in Buckinghamshire, England. “And they had either difficulty breathing because of accumulation of fluid in their lungs due to the heart disease, or they were fainting because of an underlying abnormal heart rhythm.”
Before December, about 1.5 percent of pets referred to The Ralph were diagnosed with myocarditis, he said. But in the period between December and March, that number jumped dramatically, increasing to 12.5 percent of pets with confirmed myocarditis.
Ferasin and his colleagues later found out that many of the pets’ owners had either tested positive for Covid or had symptoms of the disease within three to six weeks of their pets becoming ill. That information, coupled with the fact that the timing coincided with the surge in cases driven by the alpha variant of the virus in the U.K., prompted the researchers to test the pets for SARS-CoV-2...