Are dog illnesses like heartworm or fungal pneumonia contagious by air?

In general upper respiratory infections are contagious and it would probably be best to keep them separated until the puppy is no longer contagious. You may want to keep them separated longer since your dog will need to be exercise restricted after the heartworm treatment injections for 6 weeks. If the puppy has been receiving treatment through a veterinarian you should be able to obtain records and this could help determine how long the puppy might be contagious.

Heart worms can be detected through a blood test that can be done at a veterinarian’s office. Heart worms are transmitted by mosquitoes...a mosquito harboring a life stage of the heartworm will transmit it to a dog by biting it. It is not passed from dog to dog through casual contact. Heartworm disease is easily prevented, so if your veterinarian can test your dog and he is negative....there are a number of heartworm preventative products available through your veterinarian. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach

I am sorry to hear that your dog is coughing. There are so many reasons for chronic cough such as allergic bronchitis, pulmonary hypertension, heartworm disease, enlarged heart, fungal infection, parasites, and cancer. To answer your question heartworm is transmitted by mosquitoes only and can not pass through people. Also, there is no answer to how long it takes for a cough to resolve. It completely depends on what is causing the cough. I would highly encourage you to consider a follow up appointment with your veterinarian soon. X-rays, bloodwork, and a fecal exam may be recommended to help determine the diagnosis and best treatment plan. Best of luck and thank you for using Pet Coach.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. I'm so sorry to hear about Brandy. Lymphoma is not in any way contagious and would be no risk to your maltipoo. However, if we're not sure about the diagnosis, I will just say that there are a couple (uncommon) infectious diseases that can cause large lymph nodes. And these diseases CAN be contagious sometimes. Talk to your vet if you have concerns but my guess is that your maltipoo will be perfectly safe interacting with Brandy. Best wishes to you all.

Cancer is not contagious, not at all. You may be thinking of canine transmissible venereal tumour, but it's not common at all. The presence of it in the US is less than 0.5%. Now if the dog had this, then yes it's contagious but I highly doubt the dog has this because it's so rare. Cancers like pancreatic cancer, mast cell tumors, liver cancer, etc are not contagious.

Heart worm disease is transmitted by mosquitos. This is by far the biggest concern for diseases spread by mosquitos that we see in dogs. Dogs are quite resistant to developing disease from west nile virus, so while they can technically become infected, they don't get sick. Dogs do not get malaria from mosquitos. There is another form of malaria that affects dogs that is spread by ticks. Ticks can also transmit a number of other diseases to dogs, including lyme disease, and many other diseases. Here is a website with a lot of great information on what diseases your pets can get from mosquitos and ticks: http://www.cvbd.org/en/mosquito-borne-diseases/ Talk to your veterinarian about a monthly heart worm prevention, as well as flea/tick control measures. These are important parts of your pet's healthcare! I hope that helps you! thanks for asking PetCoach!

The dogs cannot directly spread heartworm disease between each other. However, mosquitoes can bite your newly adopted dog and if they bite your other two dogs, they could transmit heartworm disease. Make sure your other two dogs have been heartworm tested recently and are receiving heartworm prevention every month without fail. If you do those things, there should not be an issue. :-)