Kennel Cough or Pneumonia?
So I adopted a dog from an animal shelter on Friday and the shelter was incredibly disgusting. I am working with a rescue group to help get him adopted and she gave him bordatella on Saturday. He started coughing yesterday and it was just white foam, but is has persisted today and is now a yellow/greenish color phlegm he is coughing up. He also will not eat or drink and is very lethargic.
I plan on taking him to the vet tomorrow, but are there any suggestions I can do to help make him feel a little better tonight? Also do you think that because she gave him the bordetella on Saturday, this could be a reaction from the vaccine and now his body is just showing temporary signs of kennel cough? Or could the virus/bacteria been dormant in his body? Or could it be pneumonia?
Thanks!
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Tagged with: animal shelter • bacteria • bordetella • greenish color • Kennel Cough Treatment • pneumonia • rescue group • signs • vet • virus
Filed under: Kennel Cough Vaccine
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I have worked in the kennels at a vet for about two years now, and from my experience with dogs who have kennel cough, the dogs don’t usually cough anything up. From what I’ve seen and heard, the kennel cough is a very dry, repeated coughing. Since your dog came from an animal shelter and kennel cough is highly infectious, it wouldn’t surprise me if your dog has been infected. Take him to the vet to get checked out for sure.
Hope it all goes well!
Aside from the hacking cough, your dog will appear generally healthy, with a good appetite. He’ll simply suffer through it–but obviously if he could voice a preference, he’d choose to not be ill in the first place.
http://dogtime.com/kennel-cough.html
I have basically the same situation going on. I adopted my dog 8 days ago and the very next day he started coughing. The vet put him on meds for kennel cough but he didn’t improve. He was lethargic, didn’t want to eat and had yellowish eye discharge and would occasionally cough up white foam. Because he hadn’t improved, I brought him back to the vet today. The vet decided he didn’t have kennel cough. Kennel cough is usually a dry, "honking" cough. Dogs can develop secondary infections, but kennel cough alone doesn’t usually cause lack of appetite, lethargy, etc. It’s usually just a cough. One way you can test for kennel cough (and vets do this as well) is by rubbing the front of your dogs throat near the trachea. If it’s kennel cough, irritating the trachea will cause the dog to cough. If it’s something else, the dog probably won’t cough.
I think our dogs have similar symptoms, and when kennel cough was ruled out my vet was concerned that my dog had distemper or pneumonia. He did a blood test for white blood cells and my dog’s white blood cells were slightly elevated. Apparently, this means he probably doesn’t have distemper. Which leaves pneumonia. These could be possibilities for your dog. On the bright side, my vet gave me different meds and my dog has dramatically improved and it’s only been 8 hours. He’s finally eating again, his discharge is gone and he’s barely coughing.
Have you tried getting your dog to eat canned food? It might be easier if his throat is irritated. My vet recommended Robitussen DM at night to help my dog’s coughing (I don’t know how the dosing for a dog works though). I was also told that I could run the shower and keep my dog in the bathroom for 15 minutes at a time. The humidity helps with the congestion.
I hope your dog feels better soon!