Can a dog catch a cold from a cat?

If my cat has the corona virus, can my dog catch it?

• I got my kitten in july of 2009 and he had always been very sickly. After taking him to the vet, we found out he has the corona virus. The problem is, I have a dog that pretty much thinks he's it's father or something. So my question is, can my dog catch what my kitten has?

• Answer:

  It depends on the type of coronavirus (see below) There are rare cases in which it can be transmitted, but for the most part, it is a feline virus. I'm sorry to hear that your kitty has it. The second biotype of FCoV is the one that causes FIP. It is believed that most clinical cases of FIP arise through the emergence of this virulent virus strain by mutation during an existing infection with the relatively avirulent common ‘enteric' biotype. A smaller number of FIP cases involve viruses that arise through recombination between FCoV and the closely related canine coronavirus (CCV), which suggests that CCV is occasionally transmitted from dogs to cats. Whatever their origin, FCoVs of the FIP-causing biotype do not appear to be commonly transmitted in nature and usually die out with their host. However, the occurrence of outbreaks of FIP in individual colonies of cats suggests that direct transmission of a FIP-causing biotype is occasionally possible.