The dog showed problems of the stuffed nose and difficulty breathing and the condition deteriorated over the next weeks. The owners Mahoney and his wife Allison reside in New York had to euthanize the dog on July 11 after it started vomiting blood clots, urinating blood, and could barely walk.
The family had a tough time to confirm that it was infected by the novel SARS-CoV-2.
"Without a shadow of a doubt, I thought (Buddy) was positive," Mahoney said who couldn’t get it confirmed because vets were closed due to lockdown.
Even as people are concerned about pets contracting the virus and most testing supplies were being conserved for human use anyway. One of the clinics in the area confirmed the infection and also detected that the family's 10-month-old puppy, which was doing well has in fact developed virus antibodies.
It was later found that the dog was also had lymphoma which raised the question whether animals, like humans, with pre-existing conditions, can be susceptible to the novel coronavirus.
The family couldn’t get any confirmation due to the lack of enough data about the virus in animals, beyond the fact that infection appeared to be rare.
"We had zero knowledge or experience with the scientific basis of COVID in dogs," Robert Cohen, the vet who tested Buddy, told the magazine.
The family said neither city nor federal health authorities were keen on tracking Buddy's case. By the time they decided to do a necropsy, Buddy had already been cremated. According to the information from the World Health Organization pets likely do not often transmit the virus to their owners.
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