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Kennel cough is not a serious disease in most healthy dogs, however it is extremely contagious …

Another disease outbreak this week in our local area, luckily it is not half as serious as the myxomatosis epidemic I wrote about before, this time its kennel cough. For the last week or so we have had about five or six new cases each day. I often think the best name for this disease should be ” dog flu ” as it is a bit like human flu which spreads round offices and schools each winter. Kennel cough is not a serious disease in most healthy dogs, however it is extremely contagious and will rapidly spread around the dog population. As its name suggests it causes coughing that can go on for a week or two, it tends to occur in the summer months. I guess it is called kennel cough as once one dog in a kennel is affected the disease would rapidly spread through all the rest of the dogs there.

This is a very easy disease for a vet to diagnose, there will be a persistent deep cough which is such that the owners may think something is stuck in the throat, there will be spasms of coughing which may finish by the dog bringing up a bit of phlegm. There may or may not be a history of the dog having been in kennels and usually a number of dogs in the same locality are affected. The disease can be caused by a number of viruses and bacteria whose names I will not bore you with but they enter the body by inhalation and then cause irritation to the windpipe which then results in the cough.

There are treatments which will make your dog better quickly, these are usually antibiotics with perhaps some cough linctus as well. If the disease was not treated then it is likely it would self cure in about two weeks. In my view it is better to use antibiotics as in a small number of cases the infection can spread to the chest and cause complications. There are other drugs which act directly to suppress coughing but these are only used in exceptional circumstances.

There are a few things you can do yourself to help, you should keep the dog in a warm environment, reduce exercise for the duration of the disease, try and avoid situations where your dog will bark as this will make the situation worse and use a harness instead of a collar and a lead when you take the dog out for a walk.

If your dog has this disease please be responsible, while he is coughing he may infect other dogs while you are walking him so please avoid other places where you might meet other dogs.

Prevention is easy, there are several vaccines available which can protect your dog against the different viruses and bacteria which can cause kennel cough. Many of these are traditionally given as drops up the nose but some are available as injections as well. I have to say though that there are a number of causes of this disease and a small number of dogs can be fully vaccinated and still get this disease, the vaccine is effective in the vast majority of cases though.