Dog Health Issues - Kennel Cough

By Alisa M Chagnon

When one hears the term of Kennel Cough, one imagines a horrible disease that affects dogs if they are left in unsanitary conditions at a rundown kennel. The image that this brings up is certainly unpleasant. However, dog owners should be aware of this health issue.

Kennel cough is a lung infection. Any dog can come down with this health issue. Most of the time, a dog will get this type of infection if the dog was exposed to large amounts of smoky air, air which was extremely dusty or a room with poor ventilation. Example may be if a large amount of construction work was being done in a house and brought up a huge amount of dust; a dog left to live and breath in those situations would be a candidate for this illness. If a dog was unfortunate to be in the vicinity of a fire, this would also likely cause a large intact of smoky air and the Kennel Cough may settle in. While some kennels may be poorly ventilated, these conditions can certainly be found at other locations other than a kennel.

This medical problem is an infection of a dog's lungs and will cause a dog to cough severely. The cough will be a dry cough; phlegm is usually not present with this type of illness.
The treatment for Kennel Cough is a strong round of antibiotics for your dog. These must be obtained from your vet. Once your dog has taken the course of medication, the coughing will cease. The recommended method of giving your dog medication is to mix it into their dog food. If a dog resists and eats around the medication, you can ask your dog's vet if you may break up the pill into dust or obtain a liquid version that can be mixed thoroughly into the food.
Other veterinarians opt to give dogs a vaccination to prevent this in the first place. It is a personal decision. The downside to having a prevention shot is that doing so may decrease a dog's defense system.

There are some herbal remedies that are sold; these claim to cure Kennel Cough. However, before using any type of homemade or herbal treatment a dog owner should always check with their vet. The last thing that you want to happen is for the treatment to not work and the infection to grow immensely.

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