Can a dog who has had kennel cough in the past, catch it again

Yes.  My friend's dog had it twice in a year.

Yes it is possible to catch kennel cough more than once as it is simmilar to a cold in humans with  a great number of different strains.

Yes - there are many different strains and the vac doesn't cover all by any means.

Is it just bad luck then or can something be done to build up the dogs immune system to help fight these germs i.e garlic and fenugreek

Hi
In my view the 'bad luck' lies in encountering those people with dogs who have Kennel Cough and who are inconsiderate enough not to confine them to home barracks whilst they are infectious. :-(  I guess if a dog is down it will be more susceptible to any infection going, so if you feel/know your dog has a weak immune system then anything you can do to build it will only be goodness. 

Of course it has to be remembered like with colds that we pick up, a dog may be infectious before it shows any symptoms, or symptoms may be so mild the owner does not notice or understand their significance.

apparantly Kennel Cough is rife in the midlands at the moment.

I live in Scotland in a small vilage up untill recently had not seen a sniff of kennel cough before untill some inconsiderate person brought his infected dog into the village and my neighbours kenel full of 6 working gundogs went dowwn with it which meant he had to keep all of them right away from his 3 9-10 week old pups of which one of them is off to foreign pastures in the near future.

One of my dogs showed symptoms of something took her to the vet and with out doing a through examination on her declared that she had Kennel cough and was put on a 5day course of Trimacare.  Now I am not sure if this is a antibiotic or not but the vet gave me enough tablets to do all 5 of my dogs.  I had a gut instinct that the pup who is 8 months was not suffering from KC and had most probably scrapped her mouth and throat on something she was chewing on a day or 2 before but now after 5 days of being on these pills all symptoms have gone.  I had a couple of shows booked at the weekend and had to miss them.  The only comment I have is I wish my OH had let the vet diagnose what my dog had wrong with her and not opened his big mouth after all we pay enoug for and on vet consultation fees

I wonder if people know what kennel cough sounds like?

i once had a 8 week old mongrel pup from Battersea dogs home who picked up kennel cough - sounded like whooping cough!

Now have a 2 year old border Collie who is very tired/sleepy and exhuasted, after 1 week started to gag when pulling on the lead- sounded like he had something stuck in the back of his throat and tried to cough it up- gagging sound (His cough was only once a day or once every other day) i was more concerned about his lack of energy (not being ignorant but i had no idea my dogs gagging was kennel cough)

i was also told that the name kennel cough is given to a group of virus :- Bordetella bronchiseptica, Canine parainfluenzavirus, Canine adenovirus types 1 and 2,canine herpesvirus, reovirus and mycoplasma which are treated by a course of antibiotics

For Brainless
Yes, I do appreciate that there is an incubation period (I believe it can be up to 2 weeks) - my comments are directed at those individuals who KNOW their dogs have KC and still persist in exercising them loose in public areas.

For ClaireyS
Yes, I am in the Midlands - hence my strong feelings on this matter at the moment.  A while back I was in a local country park when I spotted a dog walking acquaintance;  we both waved and I sent my dogs over to greet.  She very quickly put herself and her dogs the other side of a gate, shouting in explanation the her one dog had KC!  She then proceeded to walk around the park whilst I went home in disgust. 

Actually, there's not much risk of dogs passing on KC when they're in open spaces - it's confined or enclosed spaces which should be avoided.

VETS -i bet thats a great place to pick up KC !
lol

Yep - if people suspect their dog has KC they should wait outside until the vet can see them, not in the reception area.

when 3 of my 5 had kennel cough in December, one of the one's that wasn't affected was due her booster, and I didn't take her in to the vets. We waited outside in the van til the vet was ready, and then the vet said she didn't want to give the booster anyway as she was fighting KC and she didn't want to knock her immune system...

incidentally, of my 5, it was the 2 neutered bitches that DIDNT go down with it......any connection??? hmmmmm

oh, and the vets said benylin was suitable to give the dogs (other cough syrups are available)

theres a big outbreak in the glasgow area at the moment.
trimacare is an antibiotic, Kennel cough is a viral infection so these dont do much for that, they protect against secondary infection that could be caught whilst the immune system is down somewhat.
theres an incubation period of 7-10days and dogs are also infectious for up to 7 days after the last symptom.
Kennel cough is generally very easy to diagnose, a vet will have heard it many times and its quite distinctive. it can be alarming for people who have never heard it as it sounds almost as though something is stuck in the animals throat, this is what owners usually call the vets with.
tixylix childrens cough med is also ok to give, and most dogs love the taste!

I joined a new dog club and was dismayed to hear many dogs had been off with Kennel Cough and sure enough a week later my dog has it despite having been vaccinated.

The people at the club were saying the vet said just to isolate their dogs till the coughing stopped but my vet said that's wrong and it can be weeks! She also said  many people think their dog has managed not to catch it despite beingin contact with other infected dogs and so go about their normal routine but they shouldn't as they could be carriers?

Confused me a bit because I thought it was passed in droplets when the dog coughed?

kennel cough is such a nightmare to try and control, and ignorant owners do not help.
dogs are actually infectious to other dogs for 7-10 days before they show any symptoms, so if your dog has been in contact with a kennel cough dog it should be kept away from other dogs just incase, because potentially they are infecting other dogs before theyve even coughed once! it is passed via aerosol but not just when actually coughing.
dog are also then infectious for several weeks after the last cough but most people go with 7 days.

so basically, almost impossible to control in areas with a lot of dogs! the strain going around glasgow just now is the viral one, which i dont think the vaccine covers against. the problem with it is, like our cold virus, theres loads of different strains and the vaccine just protects against common ones. hope your dog feels better soon, try some tixylix kids cough med, my one loved it when he was coughing!

The vaccine is pretty much a waste of time in healthy dogs as it doesn't cover all strains(off hand is it 2? out of numerous?), all mine have had it at some point and been offered anti biotics which i have politely declined as there is no point unless as said secondary infection is evident..

I have kept mine in and gave them benylin to ease the cough which is the best way as its the fluid they can't get rid of that causes the secondary infection..