my dog had kennel kough for a while but his coughing has seemed to carry on,when he gets excited or runs outside he just coughs as if hes got some sort of hairball,many thanks

It may be a secondary chest infection, see a vet and you can ask him about the scabs while you are there  :)

As Isabel has quite rightly suggested, a visit to your vet is needed :)

You do need a vet. if the dog is also losing weight and the scabs are sores this could be something a bit more serious than just kennel cough or a skin condition. please go soon.

Early november last year Travis produced a cough which was worse when excersising took him to the vet who said he had kennek cough was told by vet to leave him alone and give him some benalyn cough mixture he made no improvement over the following days took him back the vet said the same thing again.Three days later was getting worse also by this time had slight loose stools.Phoned the vet said carry on with the cough linctus.Not happy went to another vet he did bloods and took a stool sample ,poor Trav had heart worm needless to say I have now changed vets,Trav recovered well with a 10day course of antibiotics and panacur.
After my experience dont ignore a cough

Heartworm, in this country, and treated by panacur? If the dog has survived after the symptoms were so advanced, you have been extremly unlucky for the dog to have been bitten by the mozzie in the first place (unless he has been out of the country with you) and exceptionally lucky for a 10 day treatment of panacur to have killed them, and that the dog is still alive. Did you have to report this condition to anyone? I thought panacur only sorted the normal worms (tape and round) guardia and lungworm, and that an extremly strong chemical treatment had to be given to a dog. I must read up more on heartworm, I'm obviously not keeping up to date with worms!

I found this article about heartworm because like you I didn't think it was a major problem in the UK. A timely reminder to us all to prevent our dogs eating slugs and snails.

Thanks for that link JG, the ones I'v just been searching through don't mention this, nor the slugs and snails bit. Certainly something to keep a watchful eye over. is anything else going to pop up to affect our dogs, i ask myself!

The vet told us Trav could of picked it up by eating slugs or snails ,at the time he was 8months old and tried to eat everything,the vet also asked if he ate grass we said yes and he said he could even catch it eating grass which a slug had been on,he said there was a greater risk of a dog catching it in the Wales area,there you go we had to live in Swansea.
The vet explained to us he sees quite a few cases a year,but he did not mention us having to report it to anyone.Travis made a great recovery thanks to a vet who knew what he was looking for.Travis now has to be wormed with panacur every 2months as the vet says he is more prone to get them again

This is a worrying tale and a reminder to us all that worming is important and not always apparent from the output when something is amiss.  Glad to hear that he is recovering well.
I think you might be being a little unfair to your first vet though ;) common things are common and are therefore always to be treated first and your second vet has really rather benefited from the firsts vet's elimination process and has now picked up all the "clever" awards that first vet may have claimed on his next move

Wouldn't exactly say that the first vet saying carry on with the cough medicine three times really consititutes an elimination process Isabel. :)

Kennel cough symptoms can last two weeks or more. 

But it doesn't sound like that much time had passed when the second vet was consulted and decided more tests were necessay.

If a client changes because he is not happy to continue conservative management I doubt a second vet would opt for the same :)

Just as well in this case. :)  Personally, I would have asked the first vet about other possible causes if I was not happy with the way the dog was progressing but maybe the poster wasn't happy with this vet for other reasons and was ready to change anyway.

So would I :) But I think I would have given a dog suspected of Kennel Cough 3 days to see how it went too.

I new my dog his cough was getting worse as the days were going on he went from a playful pup to being very lethargic I knew it was something more than kennel cough,I felt my first vet thought I was just overreacting,why did not he try the tests the second vet did by doing this he would have earned himself more money and kept a client.
I have 3 children and our GP says if in doubt check it out.
I wish this first vet had the same attitude

Young dogs can be very ill with kennel cough too, posters have lost dogs to this condition.  With hindsight we know now the condition was not kennel cough but if it was and your vet had asked you to pay for unnecessary negative tests we have had posters who would have complained about that! :)

Yep dogs of any age but especially youngsters and oldies can die with KC.  You should never allow them to exercise too much as this can exacerbate the problem making them worse.

Hope your dog gets better soon from whatever the problem is.

I would have paid for the tests as I said earlier ,I know my dog I knew he was getting worse ,I have seen a dog with kennel cough,Travis had been coughing for 3 days before we visited the vet so by the time he seen the second vet he should have been improving not deterioating

Travis had his heartworm in early November he is fine now it did take him a good 6 wks to get back to normal and gain weight he had lost but is in tip top condition now

Well I'm very pleased he's sorted.  It sounds a very nasty condition and its certainly something I shall be more aware of in the future :)

I'm really pleased for you too, its a shame that the first vet didnt do the blood tests though. To me, he sounds very remiss not to at least check for something else. You were very wise to go for the second opinion, its just as well that vet was more on the ball and thorough. I hope your dog continues to improve, and there are no long lasting effects.

I'm sorry, but I'd be livid if I took my dog to a vet who ran the whole gamut of tests of all the possible alternatives (at huge cost to me) rather than first treat for the most likely possibility.

Even my doctor doesn't run blood tests (on the NHS) if I go to him complaining of a cough!

Maybe so JG, but living in an area where the second vet was aware that heart worm has been a problem before, i would have expected the first vet to have at least given it consideration. This is where good local knowledge comes in to play. I am well aware of what kennel cough is like, having had two with it myself, the young one was about 14 weeks at the time.

Like Calmstorm, I'm not sure Panacur is indicated in the treatment of heartworms.  From what I've read, a heartworm infestation at the level where symptoms will show is at an advanced stage and requires careful and complex treatment, with two separate approaches using some rather nasty sounding injectable drugs.

Benylin can cause loose stools.

And I agree JG, that if they ran the tests in the beginning then we'd be reading posts from people complaining about large vet's bills, when their dog "only" had kennel cough which "got better by itself after 3 weeks."

I'd read that too, Lillith, from the panacur details it dosent mention heartworm, unless the treatment for lungworm has the same effect? I also read that it takes some strong drugs to clear them, and has to be slowly so as not to kill the dog by the treatment with dead worms causing a blockage. If the dog is on the mend, i guess it must have worked. I still feel, though, that with local knowledge of heartworm being in the area that a precautionary blood test for that would have been in order in this case, I'm sure if the circumstances were explained to the owner, no owner would mind paying a bit extra just to be sure. I know i wouldnt, and at the end of the day the dog could , or rather would, have died if the second vet had not been on the ball. I do agree with both you and JG that you have to treat what it appears to be, and give the treatment time to work before investigating deeper, but this dog had been ill and getting worse, not better, over some period of time.There are times you have to expect a large vet bill if the dog is ill but not showing classic signs, thats part of ownership, for which a lot of people are insured anyway. Its just as well he went for the second opinion, and that the second vet didnt just run with the KC option, which would have been the obvious choice.

Heart worm may be in the area but I expect kennel cough is too and would be by far the most obvious cause.  Kennel cough can be symptomatic for a least 2 weeks so like the others I would have been rather put out if he had suggested we run tests for all the other possible lesser common causes at that stage.  I have no doubt that at some point these would have been instigated but of course the new vet, being presented with a case that the owner was not happy to continue conservative management with, stepped in.  If nothing had showed up and it was simply Kennel Cough we may have got a completely different posting about the wastefullness of investigations :)

If you would have been put off paying for tests for a more serious problem thats your right isabel, but I would far rather have a simple test to rule out the posibility of a potentially fatal condition that whilst is not over common is a possibility in the area. I would rather have egg on my face and a big vets bill than risk the health of my dog. As neither you or I were there at the consultations, we cant say what the vets weres thinking, nor why a test was required that covered this condition, but thankfully it was carried out and it was successful in its diagnosis, giving a well dog.

There is a heart worm that seems to be most common in the South East that one of my former pups picked up from eating snails.  The treatment for this was Panacur.  She was very lethargic and listless.  She gets Panacur every month now as she is still a snail eater.

My GR was terrible for eating snails when very young but thank goodness, he has grown out of it now - yuk!

Oh no, my 11 1/2 week old GR is a snail eater !!

Probably most puppies go through that stage Maria!  Used to make me feel quite sick to hear them being crunched up - a couple of times, I didn't realise what it was he had and actually tried to get it out!

I feel like I am being victimised here I only posted my experiences to try and give someone some advice It was my decision to see a different vet and I am glad I did,I did not choose the panacur treatment for Travis or the antibiotics my vet did ,when told Travis had heartworm I trusted this vet completely so did not think to ask is this treatment going to be as nasty as humanly possible,before I post from now on I will think before I type

>I feel like I am being victimised here
>is this treatment going to be as nasty as humanly possible

I have no idea why you feel like that - you've taught us all that heartworm exists in parts of the UK which previously we were unaware of. Why on earth would that make you feel victimised?

Definitely do your best to stop him/her doing it, Maria.

Researching a bit more, I think I'm seeing evidence that various parasites can infest the heart and lungs.

"Heartworm" can be due to infestation by "Dirofilaria immitis" and I thought that's what Curly's vet had diagnosed, which requires the nasty drugs and for which Panacur is not indicated.  However, infestation by "Angiostrongylus vasorum" is referred to as "heartworm" on one site and "lungworm" on another.  This latter parasite responds to treatment with Panacur and I think I'd be right in saying this one is more common in the UK than the former and can cause a slight cough as the worms migrate.

Curly, none of this was in order to get at you - I personally was trying to understand how a dog with such advanced "heartworm" that it had a cough - suggesting congestive heart failure according to sites talking about "Dirofilaria immitis" - was cured by 10 days of Panacur.  However, if your dog was infested by "Angiostrongylus vasorum" - sometimes dubbed "heartworm" and sometimes "lungworm" that would explain, for me, why the Panacur worked.

This is the trouble with not being a vet.  You get confused about stuff.  There's just no subsitute for talking to the organ grinder! :-D

Any news, Robinho?

Curly, I too am grateful for the information :)
Our SP puppy is very interested in slugs & snails, and because the thought of her eating one disgusts me, I do try to stop her going near them!
A miniature poodle we had once started eating one she'd brought in - it must have been a nasty one because she spit it out :p

Curly, you did well letting us know about your dog! You are very lucky that the vet was on the ball and was able to think out of the box and cure your dog, which is coming on well still? its an awful worry when they are ill, take care :)

Thankyou all very much ,hope to speak to you all again soon