Kennel cough

Infectious bronchitis is a contagious respiratory tract infection of dogs. Like human coughs and colds, it transmits best where large numbers of animals come in close proximity, e.g. in kennels, shows, and training classes! (hence the common term ‘kennel’ cough)

It is caused by a number of different bacteria and viruses, often in combination together, rather than by one specific bug. This means that every outbreak can be different, in both incubation time, severity, and range of symptoms. Sometimes dogs show wet snuffly noses and sneezing, sometimes severe pneumonia is a feature. More typical is the hacking cough, preceded by 12 hours of retching as if the dog is trying to be sick. 

The disease is usually distressing for dog and owner, but is rarely life-threatening in most outbreaks.

A dog can transmit  the disease without currently be showing clinical signs, if it is

  • recovering from an episode of illness.

  • in the early stages of infection before clinical signs develop.

  • incubating the disease, but it’s immunity prevents it from succumbing to the disease itself.

Every year kennels are struck down with outbreaks of kennel cough without ever having admitted a dog that is showing overt signs of disease!

By far the best means of prevention is avoiding contact with other dogs, particularly high-risk situations. However, obviously this is not always practical.

 Avoidance of coughing dogs If your dog has kennel cough, please keep it away from other dogs at least until it has stopped coughing. It may be infective beyond this period, but risk of transmission will be much less if there is no aerosol spread.


Vaccination

As stated above, kennel cough is caused by a number of bugs. Many are covered by routine annual vaccinations. The most important bug that is not  covered by these jabs is Bordetella bronchiseptica, which is protected by a vaccine called ‘Intrac’

'Intrac'

This is an ‘intranasal vaccine’ that is squirted up the dog’s nose. Protection rapidly develops in 4 to 5 days, but is short-lived, lasting less than 6 months.  Dogs soon come to hate having the vaccine squirted up their nose, no matter how gently one tries to administer it.

Wright & Morten therefore suggest that rather than vaccinating routinely against the disease, it should be done on a risk-assessment basis:

If your dog is going into kennels

If your dog is going into kennels, ask the kennel owners whether they require your dog to be vaccinated. If that is a condition of boarding, get your dog vaccinated

If the owner does not require vaccination, ask whether there are currently any problems at the kennel kennels with the infection. If so, then vaccinate.

If there is no kennel cough, particularly if the kennels are not full, the risks of the disease will be  much lower, and the need to vaccinate will be much less. 

If your dog is old and feeble, has had previous serious attacks of kennel cough, or has heart and respiratory problems anyway, seek advice from your vet. As in humans during a flu outbreak, the weaker members of a population are more prone to serious complications, and vaccination may be preferable to the disease risks.

 Training classes:

Dogs that attend training classes regularly over long periods will be at higher risk of contracting the disease, simply by virtue of the fact that sooner or later they will come across a dog excreting the bug/s.  Dogs attending short courses are at lower risk providing there is no disease in the group.

 Action in case of an outbreak

  • If there is an outbreak of kennel cough in the group, all dogs that have shown signs of the disease should be excluded until at least 7 days after all symptoms have subsided.

  • If classes are to continue, all dogs that continue to attend should be vaccinated, and kept away from the group for a further week, to allow immunity to develop. Any new members to the group should be vaccinated at least 7 days before entry. Advice should be given to these people regarding the disease situation.  If the outbreak is confined to a few individuals, the classes should be OK continuing on this basis.

  • If clinical cases in the group are widespread, all dogs should be vaccinated, and the classes closed for two weeks. With an incubation period of usually 5 to 8 days, this will give time for any dogs incubating the infection to show signs of disease and be detected.


Prevention of spread to other dogs in the household:

If one dog in the household has already started coughing, it is probably too late to vaccinate any other dogs. Under these circumstances, it may be worth treating these in-contact animals with antibiotics prophylactically. Ask your vet for advice 

 Homoeopathy

An alternative to Intrac is a homoeopathic ‘vaccine’ more correctly termed a nosode. This requires a minimum of 5 weeks of dosing before initial exposure to risk (one week for boosters).

If you are into ‘alternative’/ ‘complementary’ therapies, this is one more way of minimising the risk of disease. Mike Spicer, based at our Macclesfield hospital is the Practice Homoeopathic Vet




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