Is bordetella vaccine a good idea?

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#1
I don't like getting Aidan vaccinated when it isn't useful or required by law.

I have a friend who is a reputable breeder. Aidan and I will be visiting her for 2-3 weeks. She is going to a very large dog show with some of her dogs about a week before we arrive. I have been advised by a mutual friend to get Aidan vaccinated against bordetella in case her dogs pick it up at the show.

There is no way Aidan is going to give kennel cough to the breeder's dogs because he hasn't been around other dogs at all during the last few months, but that may be the actual reason for the advice given. The mutual friend is always antsy about Aidan because he is a different breed (SCWT) than the other dogs, which isn't sensible, IMO. Maybe it's because he isn't a show dog and the mutual friend thinks show dogs are more important because they aren't just pets.

Note that I would never bring a sick dog to the breeder's house -- I have no desire to pass on diseases to her dogs. I realize they are valuable and there are a lot of them.

Aidan will be in the house with me during our visit, but of course he will play with the other dogs, including the house dogs. Some of the dogs are elderly, and there are a couple of puppies around 4 months old. He will also spend time in the kennel and the training room with me.

I want to protect Aidan. The breeder's dogs don't need to be protected from him -- he is a healthy dog and the other dogs are healthy, too. Do you think I should have him vaccinated?

Are there other vaccinations he should have before we go, like parainfluenza?

Aidan is going to the vet for his annual checkup on the 16th, and we are going to the breeder's house on April 19. I can make a vet tech appointment so he can be vaccinated on Monday.

I don't want to make a bad decision just because I've got my knickers in a knot about intimations that Aidan is an inferior dog because he's just a pet, not show quality, and the "wrong" breed.

Aidan and I are visiting our breeder friend so we can take care of her, her house, and her dogs while she is recuperating from surgery. The mutual friend is going too, and she is nagging me about this vaccination.

Thanks for your advice!
 
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Emily

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#2
Hey there,

I work in daycare/boarding and have for a few years now. We require the Bordatella vaccine for dogs that go into groups (so any daycare or boarding dog). Honestly? I think it's next to useless. Dogs STILL get kennel cough even after having the Bordatella vaccination. "Kennel cough" refers to the symptom of a dry, hacking, gagging cough which can be caused by multiple pathogens, most of which are NOT covered by the Bordatella vaccination.

I do not vaccinate my personal dogs against Bordatella, ever. They go to training at outside kennels, they also assist in the classes I teach and come to work with me at a kennel. We go to dog shows as well. My corgi got KC once as 7 month old puppy from my work; she coughed/gagged for a few days, I gave her honey in hot water for her throat, and within 3 days she was back to normal. MOST cases of KC are self-limiting, meaning they get better on their own. Complications can develop, like pneumonia, but that is also true of the common cold in humans.

So, in short, I personally would not vaccinate my dog for Bordatella if I were you. The illness is short-lived and harmless most of the time, and the vaccine is not very effective at preventing the illness. I haven't seen any averse effects in dogs that are vaccinated for it but I also haven't seen that it's effective enough to even be worth the money you pay for it.
 
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#3
It's not a horrible idea, but it wouldn't be horrible not to do it. I think of it like a flu shot - it may protect against one specific infectious cough, it's not going to protect against every infectious cough out there. But, it IS very good at protecting against bordetella specifically and I do think it's done a very good job on a population basis of reducing bordetella's incidence in kenneling and other communal situations.

And I am also old enough to remember the days before bordetella vaccine existed, when "kennel cough" meant WEEKS of a hacking cough that kept everybody in the house awake after EVERY time the dog boarded or went anywhere communal. So I always chuckle a little bit when people talk about how mild it is - yes, it is very rarely life threatening. But man, it sucked a LOT for the dog and for people too. And I very, very rarely see that severity of symptoms in a vaccinated dog these days (although I have seen it a handful of times in unvaccinated dogs).

One of the vaccine companies will do a free respiratory panel if a dog vaccinated for bordetella with its product gets a in infectious cough. We do it frequently for our clients, and I have never seen one come back positive for bordetella. Most of the things it DOES come back for cause a much milder course of disease than even bordetella does. So I suspect that a lot of these untested, very mildly coughing dogs that people are judging what bordetella is like on don't actually have bordetella. If everyone stopped the vaccine everywhere for some reason, I suspect we'd be back to the "old days" pretty quickly, when it was pretty much just a given that your dog was going to walk around coughing and keeping you awake for two weeks after coming home.

Anyway, the bottom line is that it's not a life-altering decision. Do it, or don't do it. I do it as needed for boarding.
 

Emily

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#4
And I am also old enough to remember the days before bordetella vaccine existed, when "kennel cough" meant WEEKS of a hacking cough that kept everybody in the house awake after EVERY time the dog boarded or went anywhere communal. So I always chuckle a little bit when people talk about how mild it is - yes, it is very rarely life threatening. But man, it sucked a LOT for the dog and for people too. And I very, very rarely see that severity of symptoms in a vaccinated dog these days (although I have seen it a handful of times in unvaccinated dogs).
Hmm, experience with both vaccinated and unvaccinated dogs who caught it from the same outbreak has not lined with this for me. *shrug* I keep hearing that the vaccines makes it outbreaks "milder" though. However, the most severe case we saw at work was a vaccinated dog who did have the aforementioned test perform and did not have Bordatella. She was sick for weeks with "kennel cough." You have more experience with it than I do but I guess what I've seen just doesn't line up.

So I suspect that a lot of these untested, very mildly coughing dogs that people are judging what bordetella is like on don't actually have bordetella.
Well... yeah. lol. That's why I noted that the Bordatella vaccinated does not prevent "kennel cough" as "kennel cough" is a symptom and not a disease. I made no judgements on Bordatella but rather "kennel cough" in general. There is a notable difference between Bordatella bronchiseptica and generic "kennel cough." The latter is not always the former, obviously.
 

crazedACD

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#5
It's not a horrible idea, but it wouldn't be horrible not to do it. I think of it like a flu shot - it may protect against one specific infectious cough, it's not going to protect against every infectious cough out there. But, it IS very good at protecting against bordetella specifically and I do think it's done a very good job on a population basis of reducing bordetella's incidence in kenneling and other communal situations.

And I am also old enough to remember the days before bordetella vaccine existed, when "kennel cough" meant WEEKS of a hacking cough that kept everybody in the house awake after EVERY time the dog boarded or went anywhere communal. So I always chuckle a little bit when people talk about how mild it is - yes, it is very rarely life threatening. But man, it sucked a LOT for the dog and for people too. And I very, very rarely see that severity of symptoms in a vaccinated dog these days (although I have seen it a handful of times in unvaccinated dogs).

One of the vaccine companies will do a free respiratory panel if a dog vaccinated for bordetella with its product gets a in infectious cough. We do it frequently for our clients, and I have never seen one come back positive for bordetella. Most of the things it DOES come back for cause a much milder course of disease than even bordetella does. So I suspect that a lot of these untested, very mildly coughing dogs that people are judging what bordetella is like on don't actually have bordetella. If everyone stopped the vaccine everywhere for some reason, I suspect we'd be back to the "old days" pretty quickly, when it was pretty much just a given that your dog was going to walk around coughing and keeping you awake for two weeks after coming home.

Anyway, the bottom line is that it's not a life-altering decision. Do it, or don't do it. I do it as needed for boarding.
I don't vaccinate for it much, just as needed for boarding as well. I agree though there are a few things the cough can be and it's not always just a plain cough.
Some of my dogs got it when I was working at a boarding kennel... we had a little outbreak at the kennel, and my dogs hadn't even been to the kennel in months. I brought it home on my clothes, I guess. It did take like a full two weeks to resolve. Whatever that was, if it was 'bordatella', an elderly chihuahua at the kennel got it, and passed away from complications :(. He was a high stress dog though, barking and pacing in the kennel.

Also, we went to a shelter event, and I think I brought Zoie or something... she was fine, but Soldier caught a kennel cough, that was more like a URI. It was just the coughing for a few days and I was waiting it out but then he went to not eating, lost weight, was lethargic. He went into the vet and got put on antibiotics to clear it up. He wasn't vaccinated, but this possibly wasn't even bordatella, so I don't know.

I guess there's no real point to my stories :p but I don't think there is a simple answer. I don't think I would worry about it too much.
 
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#6
Hmm, experience with both vaccinated and unvaccinated dogs who caught it from the same outbreak has not lined with this for me. *shrug* I keep hearing that the vaccines makes it outbreaks "milder" though. However, the most severe case we saw at work was a vaccinated dog who did have the aforementioned test perform and did not have Bordatella. She was sick for weeks with "kennel cough." You have more experience with it than I do but I guess what I've seen just doesn't line up.
Were those dogs tested to see what they actually had, though? We have occasional outbreaks at local daycares and those dogs' results are often all across the board. Unfortunately we rarely get to test unvaccinated dogs since nobody wants to pay for it.

As a geeky side tangent... For all the criticism vaccine companies take, I love LOVE that they have this program so we can actually accumulate some meaningful evidence about what is going on not only with individual dogs but with outbreaks as a whole. We very rarely see bordetella come back at all, and I think it's likely that the requirement by most boarding and day care facilities for it has done a good job of reducing its prevalence in entire populations of dogs. Which is part of a good vaccine's job - not only protecting an individual but reducing the incidence in a population.

Well... yeah. lol. That's why I noted that the Bordatella vaccinated does not prevent "kennel cough" as "kennel cough" is a symptom and not a disease. I made no judgements on Bordatella but rather "kennel cough" in general. There is a notable difference between Bordatella bronchiseptica and generic "kennel cough." The latter is not always the former, obviously.
I guess my point got lost and it is simply this... even if your dog gets "kennel cough" while vaccinated, you and your dog are likely to benefit from the vaccine because it's probably not going to actually be bordetella. And even though bordetella is medically not a big deal in most cases, it's a real bitch to live with. BTDT many, many times before there was a vaccine available. Comparing what most dogs get these days to what dogs used to get is like... comparing raisins to watermelons.
 

xpaeanx

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#8
This is totally off topic....

I board my dogs or put them in daycare a lot. I hate leaving them at home when I travel(which is fairly often) so a lot of times they'll come with but go into daycare when I have to do non-dog friendly stuff. So we stay current on bord, distemper, & rabies.... But now they are requiring the FLU shot as well. This seems to be limited to CT but it is at a LOT of places there. As if being iffy about bord wasn't enough... Now I have to give that and flu yearly. /Sigh.
 

Fran101

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#9
Overall, I tend to put it in the classification of "meh."

If Merlin had a daycare/boarding person he really loved that required it, I wouldn't think too hard about getting it.
That said, it's not something I think works nor would I get it if there wasn't a requirement for something I felt was worth it
 

BostonBanker

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#10
Overall, I tend to put it in the classification of "meh."
Same here. I do minimal vaccines, neither of my dogs have ever gotten the bordetella vaccine - but if they needed it for something I really wanted them to do, I'd give it.

But now they are requiring the FLU shot as well.
I have heard they are doing that around here as well. There was a huge outbreak of it in our county last year.
 

xpaeanx

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#11
I have heard they are doing that around here as well. There was a huge outbreak of it in our county last year.
Hmmm... I haven't heard a peep about Flu until I tried to use a daycare in CT. Even the vet looked at me like I had 10 heads when I asked for it. :shrug:
 

elegy

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#12
We had a big outbreak of flu here a few years ago and a number of boarding kennels started requiring the vaccine. Now everybody has stopped.

I'm on the fence about the kennel cough vaccine. Mushroom was SICK when he got kennel cough. Scary sick.

Currently the only dog I vaccinate for it is Steve.
 

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