Kennel cough??

[willhegofirst]

We have three dogs, age 10 yrs 5yrs and 4 months. The middle one has had a cough for a week now, have taken procortions in case it's kennel cough, she, other than the cough is her normal self. Neither of the othe two ar showing any symptoms, today we took them out onto the hill behind us, not much chance of meeting any other dogs, we were out an hour including her chasing after the sent of a hare, not one cough. The only other thing the cough coincides with is us having new windows fitted to the house, is its possible she is allergic to something the fitter is using? We will contact the vet this week to seek advise. Any thoughts though.

 

[Bellasophia]

I would agree with you to take the dog in to the vet as she's been coughing for a week now...there are so many possible causes to a cough..
http://www.vetstreet.com/dr-marty-becker/why-is-my-dog-coughing
If it is kennel cough she may need antibiotics..,it could be worms,even a grass seed in the throat..best to let the vet have a look.

 

[Amicus]

Coughing is very unusual clinical sign of an allergic disease in dogs, (dogs generally go itchy). Coughing could be lots of things, viral, bacterial, grass seed, heart disease, retching sounding like a cough etc etc

Hope it's something straight forward or self resolving. : )

 

[Umbongo]

Kennel cough is a very distinctive hacking sort of cough and very infectious, so would not think it was this if your other dogs are not affected? Although the incubation period can be up to 2 weeks. If it is kennel cough not really much you can do apart from take precautions to prevent spread of infection to other dogs. A course of antibiotics may be given in the event of consequent respiratory infections. Definitely agree that a trip to the vets is in order as it has been going on a few days now. A cough could mean anything for example: lungworm, heart failure, bacterial, viral, foreign body etc. Allergies do not usually show themselves as coughing - so would be unusual to be this reason.

 

[Clodagh]

They really don't need ABs for kennel cough, if it does go on I'm not saying don't go to the vet but it is a virus, so if the dog is generally healthy it will pass.
We gave ours benilyn the time they had it, but if the other two haven't caught it it does seem unlikely. Ours coughed until they retched, not just the odd dry cough.
(Sorry, Bellasophia but am very anti AB use ifd it can be avoided).

 

[{97702}]

They really don't need ABs for kennel cough, if it does go on I'm not saying don't go to the vet but it is a virus, so if the dog is generally healthy it will pass.
We gave ours benilyn the time they had it, but if the other two haven't caught it it does seem unlikely. Ours coughed until they retched, not just the odd dry cough.
(Sorry, Bellasophia but am very anti AB use ifd it can be avoided).

Agree with this about the ABs (very sorry Bellasophia, I don't mean this to be seen as an attack on you, it definitely ISNT meant that way!) - kennel cough is viral, so ABs have no effect, rather like a human taking ABs for a cold. My dogs have managed to get kennel cough without ever coming into contact with another dog, I gave them honey for their sore throats & although it knocked them back for a few days they got through it fine

 

[Bellasophia]

A simple case of kennel cough will often self resolve and can be helped by children's cough mixture,honey etc...however there are two types of kennel cough..

Viral kennel cough is commonly caused by the parainfluenza virus, adenovirus and canine distemper, . BACTERIAL kennel cough is commonly caused by Bordetella bronchiseptica. For both viral and bacterial kennel cough, dogs will continue to be contagious for up to 14 weeks after symptoms have resolved.


Antibiotics
For kennel cough that is a result of Bordetella bronchiseptica bacteria, antibiotics are sometimes used. Many mild infections will resolve without antibiotics, but for more serious infections, or infections that have progressed to pneumonia, antibiotics are necessary. The most commonly prescribed antibiotics for kennel cough are doxycycline and trimethoprim-sulpha.

Antihistamines and Corticosteroids
Antihistamines and corticosteroids are often prescribed to make dogs with kennel cough more comfortable by reducing their immune reaction to irritants in the respiratory tract,eg . Temeril-P is a commonly prescribed combination antihistamine/corticosteroid .

Prevention
The cheapest form of treatment is prevention. Keeping your dog away from infected animals will keep him from acquiring kennel cough. Sometimes, this is not possible. If you spend time in a dog training class, or board your dog for periods of time, he is likely to be exposed and should be vaccinated, according to Vet Info.



Read more :
http://www.ehow.com/about_6628428_treatment-cost-kennel-cough.html

http://www.petairapy.com/canine-cough-kennel-cough-in-dogs/

 

[Alec Swan]

Bellasophia, an interesting and informative post, thanks!

With the last litter of pups that I bred and considering that there were dogs locally which had had KC, I asked my vet about vaccinating the pups and her exact words were that the vaccine was 'Better than nothing, I suppose, but only just'. Her feelings are that the current vaccines are unreliable, are known to occasionally have unpleasant side-effects and that vaccinated dogs 'seemed to her' to be just as at risk as those which were unvaccinated. The thing that put the lid on me having the pups treated was that the vaccine is 'live' and as my OH has rheumatoid arthritis, so she cannot risk coming in to contact with any animal which has been so treated. I don't pretend to understand the cause and effect of it all, but that was the advice that I was given and I followed.

In the '60s and as a very young man, I worked for a short while in the Battersea Dog's Home. There was present and we lived with it, a viral form of cough and the bulk of those dogs which came in, and ALL puppies contracted what ever it was. We never re-homed puppies, they were all PTS. There were a good few adult dogs which didn't survive either. Every morning the kennel blocks were treated with a fog gun of chemicals of some sort, but it didn't seem to make any difference. I suppose that now the BDH will have found an answer to it, but then it was endemic.

I've never had a dog with Kennel Cough, thankfully.

Alec.

 

[Bosworth]

have you had any of your dogs vaccinated recently. I had my whippet vaccinated, just the normal annual injections. and strangely my bedlington started to show kennel cough symptoms about 5 days later. I phoned the vets and was told it was a live vaccine and so my whippet could have transmitted it to my bedlington. My whippet showed no symptoms and my bedlington recovered after about 10 days.

 

[Bellasophia]

)When I vaccinate my dogs I never have the bordeteilla vacc,nor Lyme vacc nor the leptospirosis vaccine...we follow the Jean Dodds protocol and just give the core vaccines every three years.I would only give the kennel cough vaccine if the dogs had to go in kennels...it is a short lived vaccine and also has a narrow spectrum of coverage.The same is true of the leptospirosis vaccine and new research suggests that some sight hound breeds and (my own personal breed) the mini schnauzer show genetic intolerance of this vaccine.
Dr Dodds is now saying not to vaccinate after the puppy booster shots...titer ,but don't vaccinate unless the antibodies are low for a particular disease.
For me ,the three year window gives me reassurance thAt I'm not over vaccinating,but I'm not in a country that would support total non vaccination after puppy shots...so we err on the side of caution.

 

[{97702}]

Wouldn't ever bother vaccinating against kennel cough as there are so many strains - that's a really interesting article Bellasophia, thanks for posting

 

[willhegofirst]

Spoke to the Vet this morning, they think it's more likely to be lungworm, which we had treated her for last Friday, she is going in for anti-inflammatories tomorrow morning, so we will see what they think once they see her, I feel her cough has not been as bad this afternoon which is typical.

 

[Bellasophia]

Thanks for the update..I hope it's not lungworm as it is sometimes difficult to get rid of it. Will you let us know how she gets on?
http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/health/pet-health-information/lungworm/

 

[willhegofirst]

Well by last night she had stopped coughing all together, the vet has advised worming for lungworm every month for four months, and of course return her if she starts coughing again or displays any other symptoms.