My boxer, Glazby has recently started coughing quite badly when we are out on walks.  It is only when we are outside, it doesn't affect him in the house.  He cough is very chesty and is generally followed by a great deal of hacking and some white foamy slobber is sometimes coughed up.

Is this something to worry about, would you advise a trip to the vets or do you think it might just be the cold weather tickling him a bit - I know that sometimes the cold air hits the back of my throat and makes me cough!!

It really does sound bad and is continuous on our walk - I try to make sure that he doesn't run about too much as it seems worse when he gets excited (as boxers do!!)

Some advice or reassurance would be appreciated guys!!

Thanks from Hayley & Glazby  xx

Hi Hayley
I would ring the vets and tell them about it , my two have just finished coughing after 2 courses of antibiotics and anti-inflammatry injections it was the dreaded Kennel cough. Ebony picked it up from a show and of course passed it to Zak, oh and forgot about the bottle of Benylin which helped loads.

It does sound like how Zak was only Zak was sneezing aswell.

Ella.x.

hi do you all vacinate against kennel cough .can you catch a dose of it even if you vacinate.like children can get a mild dose of childrens illnesses even if they are immunised ....just curious

I've never vaccinated against kennel cough, and luckily my dogs have never caught it.
:)

Hi, my two dogs have had  Kennel Cough  picked up from a show about 10 days ago, they had exactly the same cough as you are describing! they are on antibiotics and childrens cough mixture! it really is a nasty sounding cough, you cant mistake it!  :-(
If theywere laid quietly they didnt cough but if they started playing or jumping around it set them off again. If your dog does have Kennel cough it is avisable to keep away from any other dogs and im afraid that means no walking , Kennel Cough is highly infectious.
My vet put therm on antibiotics but i am not convinced they help,not sure how long exactly they need to be isolated from other dogs once the coughing stops? Mine havnt coughed now for a few days, there are some very knowledgeable people on this site who might be able to add there advice. Hope the coughing stops soon.!

Thank you both, I'll make a call into the vets in the morning - definitely better to be safe than sorry.  I can't think of when he could have come into contact with another dog last to have caught it.  Does it have to be caught from another dog or can it begin as an air-born infection etc?

Poor boy - I was quite embarrassed at lunchtime whilst walking him as people were really looking at him!!

Remember when you take your dog to the vet to be checked out for the Kennel Cough
Please keep your dog in the car until the vet calls you in for your appointment.
As otherwise you could possibly take the infection into the waiting room and infect the other
dogs ...

Unfortunately there's an awful lot of kennel cough about at the moment, there's an awful lot of absentees at
the Boxer breed champ show over 70 dogs last week.

When you enter shows it says on the declaration that you sign that you shouldn't take dogs that have contracted or knowingly exposed to
infectious or contagious disease during 21 days prior the show.
Just wish that people would not be selfish and take coughing dogs to shows :(

I am dosing my crew up with liquid garlic but if KC's rampant chances are mine will probably get it eventually
as mine are also shown :(

I don't show Glazby - he is purely a pet which is why I can't think of how he could have Kennel Cough, I can't remember the last dog he came into contact with, it must have been a while ago.  This is why I was wondering if KC can be caught like an air-borne virus or something?  I really don't know....  :-(

I'll keep him in the house now until I've spoken to the vet. 

Thanks for your advice though - I'll keep you posted.

Hayley & Glazby.xx

A friend of mine, who is a vet, once told me that antibiotics are useless for kennel cough because it is a virus and it doesn't clear up any quicker. She said the best treatment is childrens cough mixture. All antibiotics do is bugger up the rest of the dogs system and cost you a fortune at the vets. :-O

Boxers suffer from serious heart conditions too, many of them are symptomatic coughing bouts, especially when excited or during exercise.  Go to your Vet ASAP to rule this out.  Hope he is ok.
Dawn.

At the begining of the year I was working at house where the next door neighbours dog had kennel cough. He said he was walking him on the lead and not letting him in contact with ither dogs. I always thought you could get Kennel cough from dogs sniffingwhere other dogs had been. I got home and put my clothes straight in the washing machine before I went anywhere near my two!!!!! Was I right???
Lea.

Glazby could have been walked in the same place as another dog which also had Kennel Cough (KC)
or come into contact with another infectious dog. It might not have been intentional as some dogs are infectious
before they actually start coughing. Even sharing a water bowl can pass infection on.
Your dogs can even get KC at dog training classes or even from the vets waiting room when someone brings
in a coughing dog and doesn't realise that it's kennel cough that their dog has, they think the dog has got something
stuck in it's throat etc. My own vet has a polite note on their door asking that any coughing dog be kept in the car and
not in the waiting room until the vet calls them for their appointment.

KC is much like the viral human cough/colds so I'd guess it would also be air-borne too.
Garlic which is supposed to have natural anti-viral properties
and is supposed to be good for treating coughs/colds and also as a preventative..

Dawn is correct that some coughing can be down to heart conditions, which would need a consultation at your vet
and if they were concerned a referral to a vet that specialises in cardiology.
Also in the older veteran dog it can also indicate lung problems/tumours but this would need to be verified by vets and xrays.

Hope Glazby is soon better :)

Good morning all and thanks for your replies.

Glazby went to the vets on Saturday morning and has been given a course of antibiotics for KC and also some sachets for his food just so that the vet can rule out lung worm.  I was a bit concerned about this as his worming programme is completely up to date - he's never been so much as a day overdue for it.  However, the vet couldn't get a proper listen at his heart as he was making too much noise (chugging and snorting) to rule it out.

He is pretty certain that its KC but thought that if he treated for both just to be on the safe side (probably just wanting to charge me a bit extra)!!  ;-)

I've also purchased some children's cough medicine which he apparently loves and seems to be helping!!!

I kept him in the car until we were called into the surgery and have been told to keep him at home for the next week - not a happy boy at all, though to be honest he's sleeping a lot more at the moment - maybe a mixture of the medicine and feeling a bit run down.

Fingers crossed he'll be back to his usual bouncy self very soon!!  :-)

Thanks again everyone.

Hayley & Glazby..xx

My two have recently got over KC.  One had it quite mild, but the other one was hacking like mad.  His cough lasted about eight days, I just gave him a childrens dose of Benyln.  Don't over exercise while he is coughing, just keep him warm and comfy.

I picked mine up at an obedience show, only know that as a friend who had only been there and nowhere else had it too.  Unfortunately I heard my neighbours dog coughing last week and had to tell her she probably caught it from mine.

I believe the incubation period is three weeks where they can be infectious.

Sandra

Yes, good news Glazby is feeling better!!  :-)  I got home from work yesterday afternoon to find that he had very carefully pruned one of my indoor plants for me - just very carefully snipped off each leaf and left them in a neat pile at the base of the plant!!!

A bit of gardening therapy obviously helped!!!  :-)

My boy has had a very very slight cough for the last few days - so slight that we hardly noticed at first. He just sounds as if he has a "frog in his throat" 2 or 3 times a day, and he has coughed up a small amount of phlegm and been slightly sick a couple of times. Otherwise he's absolutely fine, eating well & playing quite happily. I know there's kennel cough around, but this seems so mild, could it be? I don't want him to have antibiotics if he doesn't really need them. His mum who lives & sleeps with him is absolutely fine with no symptoms whatsoever.

Well, we've been to the vet's this morning and he agrees Luke has a very mild case of kennel cough - and we've emerged with a bill for £92.80!! Thank goodness we're insured.
He probably picked it up at training classes, as the trainer did warn us last week that there's a lot around at the moment. One of the downsides of classes which I hadn't really thought about.....is it wise then to have the kennel cough vacs if the dogs are attending classes - but that only lasts for 6 months... This seems to be my standard emoticon at present.....:( :( :(

I think the issue with something like the intranasal is that it doesnt protect against all variants of KC

Does anyone happen to know why its needed every 6 months- surely once its in their system they should start to build up immunity ?

£92.80???!!!  We paid £66 for Glazby - £20 vet consultation and then a course of antibiotics and the worming sachets made up the other £46 and I thought that was expensive!!!

Hope your dog is feeling better soon.  Glazby is now well on the mend, not coughing anymore but we still have to finish the course off.

Hayley.xx

£21.50 for consultation, £9.07 for Rimadyl injection, £4.08 for Oxycare tabs and £58.15 for 5 Rimadyl tabs!!! I've just been reading about the side effects of Rimadyl on here and now I'm not happy about using it - the dog's perfectly OK in himself. Help!! again!

hi in ireland they now have a 12 month vacine for kennel cough.but only the larger vets have it at the moment.

KC is air-born and Ilways thought when the dog was coughing it wasn't that contagious but was contagious before coughing, We use benelin and thats it for KC when we get it here.