Dear Dr. John,
About two weeks in the past, my 14-year-old Retriever X developed a persistent hacking cough. I took him in to see my native vet and so they ran bloodwork and took chest x-rays. They decided he had a kind of kennel cough and gave me some antibiotics and a cough medicine. With issues not bettering that a lot, I then took him to a specialty hospital.. The prognosis was just about the identical and no extra medicines got. His vitality stage appears a little bit off. Can kennel cough final this lengthy and do I have to preserve him away from my sister’s canine or different canines since my canine and my sister’s canine have been collectively this whole time. Why did my canine get kennel cough if he’s vaccinated for it and why has her canine not developed the identical cough? V.H.
Dear V.H.,
Kennel cough is a broadly used time period that describes a contagious viral cough in canines attributable to Bordetella bronchiseptica in addition to different strains of varied coughs. It appears as in case your veterinarian did the right workup. If they felt it wasn’t too vital then it hopefully just isn’t. Antibiotics have been in all probability given to stop a secondary bacterial an infection from growing however do nothing in combating any virus. The cough medicine was in all probability one of the best factor in your canine to calm the coughing and hacking.
Since a specialty hospital had nothing so as to add suggests to me that your canine does have a viral cough and all one can do is to supply supportive care making certain the canine continues to eat and drink usually. I’ve seen variations of kennel cough final for 4 months or extra. Even in case your canine was vaccinated towards kennel cough, viral coughs of various strains can nonetheless have an effect on a canine. I can’t clarify why your sister’s canine has not gotten the identical cough apart from her canine is probably going resistant and possibly has antibodies to no matter pressure of virus that your canine has. I believe the 2 canines can nonetheless hang around however maybe preserve them away from different canines for one more week or so in case they’re nonetheless contagious. I might ask your vet for extra of the cough suppressant to provide your canine some reduction.
Dr. John de Jong owns and operates the Boston Mobile Veterinary Clinic.He might be reached at 781-899-9994.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”