I have only quickly glanced at these papers. Only sharing because at least some of these look to be in peer-reviewed journals and related to ME/CFS. All written by the same author. "There has been a growing suspicion, by pet owners and some vets, that chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) or a condition with a signs and symptoms very much like CFS occurs in companion animals, specifically, to date at least, in mammals. Far from being "just tired" this illness affects the brain, immune and endocrine systems causing a wide range of dysregulations and impairments. Italian veterinarian Walter Tarello had been seeing a condition much like CFS in a number of different species. He and his veterinary assistant wife both became ill, and were diagnosed by their physician as having CFS. When the treatment protocols they tried fail to work (as is usually the case, the etiology, organs and systems affected in CFS patients varying widely), they decided to do the blood tests on their own blood that they have been doing in their animal patients who had the same or similar symptom complex. The following articles contain information on CFS in animals and Dr. Tarello's findings." Cats Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) in 15 Dogs and Cats with Specific Biochemical and Microbial Anomalies. Walter Tarello, DVM, Perugia, Italy. Comparative Immunology, Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, 2000, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Paywall link) Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) in Cats: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment of 7 Cases. Revue de Medecine Veterinaire 2001, 152: 11. (Non-journal PDF link) Dogs Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (C.F.S.) in a Family of Dogs: Diagnosis and Treatment of 3 Cases. Walter Tarello, DVM, Perugia, Italy. Accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed online journal, Vet OnLine. [I can not find any journal called "Vet Online"](Non-journal web link) Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) Associated With Staphylococcus Spp. Bacteremia, Responsive To Thiacetarsamide Sodium In 7 Dogs. Revue De Medecine Veterinaire 2001;152: (Non-journal PDF link) Horses Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in Horses: Diagnosis and Treatment of 4 Cases. Walter Tarello, DVM, Perugia, Italy. Published in Comparative Immunology, Microbiology, and Infectious Diseases (2000) Volume 23 N. 4. [Abstract from CIMID (2001) Vol. 24, No. 1] (Paywall link) A Case Of The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome In A Horse From USA Examined In Dubai (UAE). Accepted for Poster presentation at the Third International Clinical And Scientific Meeting: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a serious legitimate diagnosis. Sydney, 1-2 December 2001. (Non-journal web link) Other species Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) associated with Staphylococcus spp. bacteremia, responsive to potassium arsenite 0.5% in a veterinary surgeon and his co-working wife, handling with CFS animal cases (Comparative Immunology, Microbiology & Infectious Diseases 24 (4) (2001) pp. 233-246. (Paywall link) Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome Associated with Staphylococcus spp. Bacteraemia Responsive to Thiacetarsamide Sodium in Eight Birds of Prey. Journal of Veterinary Medicine, Series B 48 (4), 267-281 (Paywall link) Link to webpage listing these papers.
I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that pets and other animals can experience PEM, and I don't think it'd be impossible to determine if they were. For example, you might have a dog that seems kind of tired all the time, but still walks around the house a bit. You go and take it for a jog with you. The rest of the day it acts the same as before. But the next day and for a week after, it is even more sluggish, spending much more time hidden away, lying down. And this same pattern repeats with every jog. How hard it would be to get reliable information from an intermediate party (the owner) is another question. Edit: Also, it was hard enough for me to make the connection that my intense fatigue was from a workout two days prior. Owners making this connection spontaneously may be a very rare occurrence. I wonder if they make step counters for dogs.
It was discussed on the ME groups at the time and some patients even went to see him when he was still in Italy. Personally I did find it interesting as I got a cat just before I became ill. The cat needed to be re-homed (and there was a dog which went somewhere else) as the previous person they lived with had become too sick to look after them. I never really thought about it at the time until a doctor asked me about pets and then tested me for 'cat scratch fever'. P.s. I think that there is another recent thread here on the same Vet
Thanks, yep. Chronic Fatigue: The forgotten epidemic revived by Long Covid. Gatekeeper Press. 2024 Sep 5. [Book]. Walter Tarello
Pretty sure they do. I’ve seen pet activity monitors. And there seems to be a growing number of pets being prescribed antidepressants too…
This is where sickness behavior might finally yield some relevance. I can think of a number of contested human diseases that could plug and play here, potentially.
But....nothing to suggest mice with ME? As apparently positively loads of them have ME, so a study of pets with ME symptoms should have found loads of 'em. You'd think that in observing pets with ME symptoms they'd have looked at one pet which is stated to have ME, that is used in research to try and determine mechanisms and possible treatments for ME, they'd have looked at mice. Not doing so is surely like deliberately not looking in hospitals when studying injured people.
Back in the early 70s we lived on a farm near a German family farm in Germany. They had a dog named Kiki that I played with and he was covered with several live ticks. I recall he had difficulty walking for long periods of time.
In many regards, dogs are the canaries in the coal mine. If I recall correctly, the way Canada estimated the spread of Lyme was through tracking canine (wolves?) migration routes. We all project. I am convinced my rescue dog is labouring with tick-borne diseases. Unfortunately, any diagnostic limitations you can ascribe for human testing pretty much holds true with dogs and cats. Frequently when I'm just spit-balling, bartonella creeps into my considerations - even more so when veterinariens are involved. It presents a lot like ME/CFS. As does Lyme. It's those pesky subjective symptoms what will get you every time. No one believes us. So I feel for the cats and dogs and the like.
I think I’ve posted about this before, so forgive me if this anecdote is familiar, but my cat - who was seriously ill with cat flu when he came to me as a kitten 12 years ago but appeared to make a full recovery - has always seemed both more rapidly fatigued than other cats and to experience post-exertional malaise. I have often wondered if he has always been so low-energy because of sharing his life with me, or if he has a post-viral syndrome. When I first took my cat to a vet as a sick kitten, I was told that cats can develop lifelong fatigue after contracting cat flu and that this is well known to vets who have been in practice for many years. The vet clearly thought I was nuts for taking on a kitten with cat flu. Over the years I’ve asked other vets about it - none with as much clinical experience as that first vet - and I’ve received varied answers from “yes, that’s right” to “absolutely not”. The most well known cat flu, FVR, is caused by the alphaherpesvirus FHV-1.
