After two solid years of COVID-19, it would have been easy to scroll right past the first reports of monkeypox in the U.S. back in May. What’s a stray case of an obscure viral infection next to the once-in-a-generation pandemic we’ve all been living through?
Unfortunately, this is the part where we ask you to start paying attention. Monkeypox was recently declared a public health emergency, and as of mid-August there has been one confirmed canine case: a four-year-old Italian Greyhound in France that reportedly developed symptoms about 12 days after its owners did. We have a fair amount of guidance on how people can protect themselves, but far less has been said about what this means for our pets.
Yes, we know, this is one more worry on an already long list. So take a breath, give your dog a scratch behind the ears, and read on. Here’s a calm, practical guide to keeping your pet safe and knowing what to do if they get sick.
What we actually know about monkeypox in pets
Before anyone spirals: there have been no confirmed cases of monkeypox in domestic dogs and cats in the U.S. or the U.K. What we do know is that animals can catch the virus. A study published this month in The Lancet documented evidence of human-to-dog transmission for the first time.
This isn’t entirely new territory, either. In 2003, a cluster of people in the U.S. caught monkeypox after handling pet prairie dogs that carried the virus, which was, at the time, the largest outbreak of its kind outside of Africa.
According to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), vets believe the virus can enter a pet’s body the same way it enters ours: through the respiratory tract, the eyes, the mouth, or broken skin. That could happen through direct contact with an infected person, prolonged face-to-face contact (think exposure to respiratory droplets), or even contact with contaminated surfaces.
As with people, the incubation period in animals runs roughly seven to 14 days. During that window, an infected animal generally shows no symptoms and isn’t contagious. Once they are contagious, though, animals can pass monkeypox to people, and people can pass it to their pets through close contact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
How to keep your pet from catching it
The single most important rule: people with monkeypox should avoid contact with animals, and people caring for exposed pets should not also be the ones cuddling them.
If you have symptoms but have not been in close contact with your pet since those symptoms began, your pet can stay home, just isolated from other animals and people, for 21 days after your most recent contact. Disinfect your home after you’ve recovered but before your healthy animal comes back.
The same logic applies to a pet who has been in close contact with a symptomatic person, whether that’s you or someone else. Vets generally prefer to keep that pet in your home rather than shuffling them elsewhere. The CDC makes an exception, though: if the people in the household are immunocompromised, pregnant, caring for young children, or have a history of atopic dermatitis or eczema, it’s safer to ask a friend or family member to look after your dog in a separate home for 21 days after your most recent contact.
So does all of this mean we should be keeping our pets at arm’s length just in case? Not at all.
“Worrying about anything that could sicken both you and your animal is entirely fair, particularly while the data on how this virus acts in dogs and cats is still so new,” says Dr. Mara Chen, DVM. “That said, as long as your pet hasn’t been around anyone with monkeypox, there’s no cause to cut back on the cuddles. Go on as you always have.”
How to tell if your pet has monkeypox
Here’s an important wrinkle: the signs in animals can look different than they do in people, according to the AVMA. Where people most famously develop a rash that progresses through several stages, pets most commonly show fever and swollen lymph nodes, though they can develop a skin rash too, typically starting on the face before spreading to the body.
Other signs worth watching for include lethargy, decreased appetite, nasal or eye discharge, bloating, or coughing.
The number to remember is 21. Call your vet if your pet shows any of these symptoms, or if you know they’ve been in contact with someone confirmed or suspected to have monkeypox within the last 21 days. Veterinarians confirm a diagnosis through laboratory testing, but even a negative result is useful: if your pet is feeling unwell, they may have something else going on, in which case the vet trip was time well spent anyway.
What to do if your pet is infected
Because there have been no confirmed cases in domestic dogs and cats in the U.S. or U.K., there’s no specific approved treatment for animals yet. If your pet does test positive, the guidance is the same isolation playbook: 21 days at home, or in someone else’s home if the people in your household are at higher risk.
To care for an infected pet safely, the AVMA advises wearing personal protective equipment such as gloves and a face mask, plus clothing that fully covers your skin. Afterward, remove and wash that clothing immediately, and wash your hands with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand rub. Use a dedicated, lined trash can for any potentially contaminated waste, and never leave or dispose of that waste outdoors, where wildlife could be exposed. Bedding, food dishes, and anything else the infected pet has touched should also be disposed of to keep the virus from spreading.
What not to do
A couple of hard nos:
- Do not surrender, euthanize, or abandon a pet over potential exposure or even a diagnosis. This is not a reason to give up your animal.
- Do not wipe or bathe your pet with chemical disinfectants, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, hand sanitizer, cleaning wipes, or any industrial or surface cleaner. These can seriously harm them.
What the years since have taught us
In late 2022, the World Health Organization began phasing in a new preferred name for the disease: mpox. The change was made to reduce stigma, and you’ll now see “mpox” used across CDC, WHO, and AVMA materials, with “monkeypox” retained as a recognized synonym for a transition period. The guidance for pet owners didn’t change with the name.
The good news for worried pet parents is that the original French case has remained an outlier, and the strongest evidence on household pets now cuts reassuringly.
In 2024, the CDC published a One Health investigation in Emerging Infectious Diseases that did the exact test worried owners would want. Between July 2022 and March 2023, investigators swabbed animals and surfaces in the homes of confirmed human mpox cases. Some swabs came back positive for mpox viral DNA, including samples from four dogs and one cat. But when the lab looked closer, it could not grow any live, infectious virus from those samples, and the vast majority of the positive animal swabs (about 82 percent) also amplified human DNA. In plain terms: the pets had picked up traces of their sick owners’ virus on their fur, the way a doorknob would, but there was no sign the animals were actually infected. As of that reporting, no case of mpox infection had been confirmed in a dog or cat during the global outbreak.
That is a meaningful update to the story that started with one nervous Italian Greyhound. It does not mean the precautions are pointless, contaminated fur is still worth keeping away from vulnerable people, which is why the CDC still advises infected owners to limit contact with pets while contagious. But it does mean the nightmare scenario, pets as a hidden reservoir spreading mpox back to people, has not shown up in the data.
For now, the message is the same one we’d give about most scary headlines: stay calm, stay informed, and call your vet if you notice symptoms or know about an exposure. Otherwise, keep the snuggles coming. We could all use them.
References
- Seang, Sophie, et al. “Evidence of human-to-dog transmission of monkeypox virus.” The Lancet, vol. 400, no. 10353, 2022, pp. 658-659. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01487-8/fulltext
- “Monkeypox (Mpox).” American Veterinary Medical Association. https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/one-health/veterinarians-and-public-health/monkeypox
- Morgan, Clint N., et al. “One Health Investigation into Mpox and Pets, United States.” Emerging Infectious Diseases, vol. 30, no. 10, 2024. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/30/10/24-0632_article
- “Mpox in Animals and People: One Health Approach.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/mpox/about/mpox-in-animals.html
- “WHO recommends new name for monkeypox disease.” World Health Organization. 28 Nov. 2022. https://www.who.int/news/item/28-11-2022-who-recommends-new-name-for-monkeypox-disease
