Darned Kennel Cough!!

Zoe has it. She spent 8 days in a kennel in a private pen to sleep in, yet she still got it. Any advice??

Did they ask for proof of shot ? No kennel should accept dogs without it/ their bad !

Yes, they asked for proof of all vaccinations, so I'm curious as to how she got it. I'm going .to call them tomorrow to let them know

It's pretty common for dogs to get kennel cough even after getting the shot. Many times it's a mild case, though, so hope she'll be over it soon!

Not much you can do for kennel cough.

nothing to worry about generally...and yeah, they'll get it no matter what you do it seems.

the shot does not prevent kennel cough. It makes it so the dogs do not get it as severe.

Yeah, Lucy was vaccinated and still got it. Luckily it was pretty mild (no loss of energy, we just couldn't take her out in public to exercise her! THAT was fun!)

My friend does in-home boarding and rescue, and ironically the dogs who are vaccinated actually seem to get it more. I believe it's like the flu shot - the kennel cough covers a very small percentage of the strains out there, so it does nothing if the dogs are exposed to one of the other strains.

Meg's never had it, but a foster I had before her did. Basically you let it run it's course. I wound up getting cough meds from the vet for her, because it was keeping both of us up at night.

Bella had Kennel Cough once... we got her the meds from the vet and she was over it pretty quickly.

I know some people say the meds are not necessary but we wanted to try and prevent it from going around the whole house and there really wasnt a way to quarantine her away from all the other animals so we got them.

The cough can sound really horrible though.

I have heard of people steaming up the bathroom and putting the dog in there for awhile to help soothe them... never tried it, so dont know if it really works.

As others said, the vaccine doesn't prevent it but can make it less severe. Often it's left to run it's course, sometimes vets will give cough syrup, occasionally they'll prescribe meds.

If there's no symptoms other than the coughing, I wouldn't worry. It should clear up in about a week.

Good to know ! I've never had it and never even given shots until needed for kenneling , parks etc .

as others have said, patience. it's self-limiting in most cases, and while it's a real pain in the neck (it made luce cough so hard she puked on my pillow), for most otherwise healthy dogs it's not a serious danger.

Mary's son Bronki was terribly susceptible. I don't know if his vaccine was defective or what but he got it anyway. HE would cough so hard at night no one got any sleep. I would take him into the bathroom turn on the shower and prop him up on pillows. IF he laid flat on the ground he couldn't breathe at all I read a book of vet stories where he complained that people would bother him at night because they were too lazy to come into the clinic during the day. I was annoyed when I read it because kennel cough is so much worse during the pm you think things are getting scary worse. He should have known that.

I did hear that the kennel cough vaccine only covers about 50% of the strains out there.

I had all my dogs come down with it after adopting a dog that supposedly was over it but I guess wasn't. Eventually, all my dogs went on medication and one of mine had to give injections daily instead of the pills. He also went into pneumonia. I spent endless nights in a bathroom with the shower going to create steam because of the deep cough.

Try to keep your dog calm and see the vet if the condition doesn't improve. I don't take kennel cough lightly after my experience.

Thanks, everyone. She's been on antiobiotics for 4 days now, so I think that's helping. The coughing seems to be worse when we're outside-- it's pretty darn cold here right now, so that might trigger it. I'm keeping her inside and away from other dogs for the time being.

aw, poor guy! sorry to hear he caught it. hope it's not too bad though. i know as well that the vaccine only makes it milder if they do catch it..would be nice if it could totally prevent it!