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ARG Kennel Cough

Kodee

Well-known member
So can a dog who possibly picked up kennel cough at the vet and was sick 2 wks... pick it up again? Kodee got put into an exam rm clearly marked DO NOT ENTER TILL DISINFECTED at the vets. She had low energy, i day tiny throw up, off food and play for about 2 wks. Thought to be low grade kennel cough since she was in contact with it. Come forward she is my bouncing trouble finding happy puppy again.

I am out on a walk this morning and start to pass a woman with a small dog. She is holding her dog tight and moves to let me pass and says HE has a cough so i dont want to get to close. I pass go around the block (my only route till legs better) and who do I see passing my house and going straight up the street. Great, your dog has a cough and you just walked it clear around my neighbourhood. I heard her tell another dog pass the same thing as her dog RAN WITH ITS NOSE ON THE GROUND.

Face it, its a boy, boys like to mark while on a walk - alot. What are the chances of picking it up AGAIN in an outdoor environment? As easy as when at the vets and kodee sniffed the floor of the infected room? Part of me things oh this is silly, my lab never in 15 yrs picked up coughs etc.. on walks.
 
Unfortunately chances are fairly high that she could pick it up again. Especially with a weakened immune system from a previous dose. There are about 41 different strains of 'kennel cough'. Even if she has a bordetella vaccine the chance is still there to catch it. Bordetella covers about 14 of the more common strains of kennel cough. Unless both dogs Kodee was in contact with had the same strain as she did previously I'd be watching for signs and symptoms.

I hope your girl misses the bug!
 
Unfortunately chances are fairly high that she could pick it up again. Especially with a weakened immune system from a previous dose. There are about 41 different strains of 'kennel cough'. Even if she has a bordetella vaccine the chance is still there to catch it. Bordetella covers about 14 of the more common strains of kennel cough. Unless both dogs Kodee was in contact with had the same strain as she did previously I'd be watching for signs and symptoms.

I hope your girl misses the bug!
I'm thinking puppies are more prone to it maybe? I find it so odd our lab never had an issue except for at 6mth spay she too picked it up from the vet office (different vet). Oh well :xfngr: it wont happen this time! I dont get the vaccine as my dogs are boarded etc.. I should have just gutted up and told her she might think about keeping her dog in her yard or on her own front lawn till he was better. Where are some peoples heads!
 
I agree, some owners are so irresponsible! Puppies are definitely more prone to it. I hope your girl misses out this time.

I did end up getting Zoey's bordetella but it was a hard choice. I don't board her, but I do take her almost everywhere with me, and we're at the dog park everyday. I also want to eventually send her to doggy daycare when I go back to work. It doesn't make her immune to it, it just makes me a bit more comfortable.
 
I always thought the dogs had to be in close proximity over time, eg boarding kennels etc to get it.... but I could be way off on that. Even though my dogs never get boarded, we always get the kennel cough vaccinations and with Beau going to puppy school it does give me a feeling of confidence.

Did the vets put Kodee into a room that was not supposed to be used until disinfected? I'd be :swear: furious!!! Did I read this wrong? I'm gob smacked.
 
Did the vets put Kodee into a room that was not supposed to be used until disinfected? I'd be :swear: furious!!! Did I read this wrong? I'm gob smacked.
Kodee is actually starting her next level of classes 2 wks after her spay - I am debating getting it for that. I never gave my Lab this shot and she had no problem with neighbourhood walks.

It wasnt the vet herself. The door was clearly marked with an 8.5x11 paper in thick black marker, caps, underlined words NO ANIMALS ALLOWED till room DISINFECTED. It wasnt even the vet assistant you meet with first, it was one of the office staff. The door was closed, she opened it and Kodee ran in, as my shoulder was level with the door I saw the sign and pulled her leash back and asked about it. She apologized... I asked the vet how contagious it could be... she crinched and said very. Guess she was right. Kodee never got a cough - so it was suspected due to other symptoms to be low grade, minus cough and that does not happen often. But you never know it was also just after her 2 wks period being allowed to walk the neighbourhood and go the the park. Maybe that silly woman I saw today, is still nursing what she thinks is a cold :confused:
 
Well I sure hope they don't/didn't expect you to pay vet bills for a disease Kodee got from their surgery grrrrrrr. Poor little mite!
 
Unless Kodee had been totally quarantined from all dogs in the previous two weeks or so, she could easily have picked up kennel cough anywhere if not vaccinated (the incubation phase is at least two days but up to two weeks). If anything, vets tend to use disinfectant generally anyway so most vets, even with sick animals going in and out, are going to be healthier environments than say, boarding with someone who boards dogs that are in and out, and doesn't require kennel cough vaccines (mine picked up mild KC twice in that sort of environment; so I vaccinate now as the vast majority of KC cases are caused by the ones in the vaccines. Recently when I had boarded my dogs in a place that did not require the vaccine at that time, KC came in with an apparently healthy dog that developed symptoms by that evening, swept through and affected *every single dog* except my three -- who were vaccinated. Which alone kept the dogs comfortable and healthy, and saved me about €200 in vet charges and medications). I often bring one or the other of my dogs along when I have rescues in to be checked by vets -- so we are talking very regular visits to the vet over a couple of years now, usually without KC vax at the time -- and I've never had a single illness arise out of those visits or had a rescue get ill from the vets, but I have from home boarding. So vet exposure is always possible, but this is a very comnmon virus that could be picked up anywhere, even from your own clothes after petting a healthy dog in a park that might have been exposed to the virus and have it on its coat.

KC is highly contagious and IS airborne so can stay out in the environment. Any contact with any infected dog or in its vicinity risks infection for a dog, but so does contact with clothes, cats, guinea pigs, bedding, groomer's waiting rooms and equipment... all can carry KC... and a dog can remain contagious for a couple of weeks AFTER it seems to have recovered! And note that it is felt that many to most dogs get KC as a result of ALREADY having some other minor virus(es) that have already weakened the dog's immune system and made it susceptible to KC -- they don't generally just get exposed to KC and then get KC (just as we don't get colds from exposure to every person with a cold). The reason dogs in kennel situations often get it is that the multi-dog environement and stress makes them more succeptible. A brief trip to the vets would be a lot less likely to cause an infection than many other day to day environments *if* the dog is susceptible.

Most dogs that get KC will have it work through pretty easily on its own or with some mild medication to relieve symptoms (as with colds, there is nothing that 'cures' it) but I have seen many really ill dogs from it, coming primarily from pounds/shelters/boarding kennels where it will sweep through a whole kennel -- and while most dogs manage it well there are always a couple, especially puppies, that get really, really sick. Puppies are at higher risk of it developing into pneumonia. Puppies are particularly susceptible -- just as children are - to illness -- because their immune systems are untested and relatively unformed. NB: some breeders such as Laura Lang (Roycroft) believe it is *good* for puppies and for dogs to get out and about, incuding to vets, precisely to help build up their immune systems. If puppies are not exposed to the real world, there's a good argument that their immune systems ultimately are less robust and less able to handle any kind of assault on it. She takes puppies out regularly and says she has never had any problem in doing this).

This is a useful list perhaps of things that will weaken a dog's ability to fight off kennel cough itself (because these things affect the thickness of the mucus in the dog's throat/nasal passages that defend against infection):

shipping stress
crowding stress
heavy dust exposure
cigarette smoke exposure
infectious agents (viruses such as reovirus, adenovirus, parainfluenza virus, and even the distemper virus can be initiating infections)
Cold temperature
Poor ventilation

My guys have only picked up KC twice and both times, when unvaccinated at the time, and it was little more than a mild cold in symptoms and it went away on its own in about a week. Most of the time it will be more a hassle than a serious problem so that might influence whether people vaccinate (if it isn't required).
 
You brought up two interesting things Karlin. First Kodee was very sleepy and off food for 2 wks not one. When you mentioned that, I remember our lab with K.C. was wracked with cough but jump back into shape pretty quick versus Kodee's apparant low dose K.C. minus the cough was out longer. She had her last set of shot 2 wks before and then that night her rabies. Odd after every shot session she was always really tired for about 4 days. I dont know maybe she picked something else up from the sounds of it - but thankfully she is back to her zippy self and learned to dig a HUGE HOLE IN MY GRASS TODAY WHICH DID NOT IMPRESS ME MUCH :mad:

The other point you made was about groomers... my lab I never took for that sort of thing but I imagine with Kodee and the longer hair I may be in for that about once or twice a yr to clean up a trim between my giving her baths. So if she has those, is doing the training sessons for the next bit plus face it alot more dogs are off to daycare these days than when I had my lab - maybe I will discuss vaccinating her at her spay appointment next wk since originally I passed on it.
 
Well I sure hope they don't/didn't expect you to pay vet bills for a disease Kodee got from their surgery grrrrrrr. Poor little mite!
$64 for that lil consult :( but then again she spent like 1/2 hr with her, called me the next morning to check on her and then again 3 days later, so I cant really complain as at least she was on top of it and stayed that way till I said Kodee was goofing about again.
 
Grrrr, I'd be annoyed. But taking up on what Karlin has said, I guess you probably can't prove that Kodee got KC at the vets, but still I would have thought decency would have dictated that if they let her into an infected room & she got sick after that, that they would wear responsibility for it. Evidently not! Grrr.
 
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