Kennel diseases - Page 1

What are the most common kennel diseases?
What tests do you do periodically for your breeding dogs?
Do breeding dogs need periodical vaccinations other than that for a norm./non-breeding  dog?

Thanks
Ibrahim

Kennel Cough - requires an intranasal vaccine, called Borditella. THANKFULLY my kids only picked it up once from the vet, and it only spread between two of my dogs.

That's the biggie that I always worry about. I've never had the horrible misfortune to get a Parvo outbreak because I've heard of some breeders getting hit with Parvo, takes the whole litter. Scary stuff!

Parvo took 9 dogs from a friends kennel a few years ago and it was believed to come from a Dobe that had just been imported from Germany that had been there a few days before for bitework training (2 were over 1 year old that died the rest were pups).

I had coccidiosis come from a bitch that had been imported from Hungary, it got into a few pups and was easily treated.

Almost everything that can be eliminated by keeping your kennels clean and outside dogs away from new pups. I never let anyone else's dogs on the property when I have new pups under 6 months of age.

Kennel cough is managed by vaccination as is most everything else. My vet told me that there are strains of Parvo in Louisiana that are not managed by common parvo vaccine and he has seen it hit older dogs very hard.

I never let anyone else's dogs on the property when I have new pups under 6 months of age.

 I never let anyone else's dogs on the property AT ANY TIME.

This became a really challenging issue when we got our first pup 6 months ago.

In discussion about Kennel Cough, we got information from our breeder, our vet, friends, books and the internet.

Now we were completely confused.  Our vet was telling us something completely different from our breeder.  Books also contradicted each other.  The internet produced 19 quadrillion different opinions, all contradicting each other.  The best advice was from friends who just said to take all the available information and make a decision that we were comfortable with considering risks and possible complications resulting from vaccination.

Friends who were breeders said that they had it in their sale contracts that if intranasal vaccinations were given by owners, this would invalidate the health guarantee in it's entirity.  Our particular breeder didn't go that far, but was strongly against the intranasal as it could produce lifetime bronchial issues and could affect tracking if we chose to try that out.

Once again, we found that there was so much information out there that any decision was going to go against someone's advice in some way.  On top of that we found that trends in vet medecine kept changing over time, which I have to assume is standard similar to human medical information.  Opinions change as more and more studies are done.

Eventually we went with our breeders advice and chose not to get the kennel cough vaccine, but went ahead with everything else.  Our vet was generally ok with this, albeit a bit surprised.  They kept repeating "as long as you know and understand the risks of your decision".

Medical decisions will always be complicated, whether it's for our pets or ourselves.

Beardog that is so awful to hear about the dogs lost to Parvo...It's also a very painful way to die, I have been told by several vets and being as there isn't a cure, you can only treat it, which often doesn't save the dog, only makes them more comfortable.

WildBill, every vet/owner has their own method of protecting their dogs, for some it's avoidance. No pet stores, no vets other than for Rabies shots, no dog parks, no boarding their dogs, etc... for others it's vaccination. I choose vaccination and luckily, none of my kids have ever picked it up FROM the vaccination itself, thak goodness! Some choose not to vaccinate at all, I say, whatever works for YOU, as it is you and your dog who will have to live with whatever decisions are made. Some dogs have gotten Kennel Cough from the vaccine and the owners choose to never vaccinate for it again, which I don't blame them. It's all about individual experiences.

When my kids DID get it from the nasty vet we used to go to, I gave them doses of Robutussin DM with a syringe, right down their throats. They HATED the flavor of it, but it silenced the coughing and didn't spread to further dogs and it also made the ones who already had it, much more comfortable. I used to have a Husky, he picked it up one time from us visiting a family member's dog, he used to LOVE eating Halls losenges. LOVED the things. Would eat as many as I would give him. I just gave him the Halls with the liquid centers to munch on because he never fought me about eating them, vs. running after him with a syringe hoping to god to catch him to shoot it down his throat while he squirmed. 

That being said, if Kennel Cough goes untreated, it CAN turn into Pnuemonia - and then you have to take them to the vet for chest xrays, have them listen with the scope, etc...Luckily, none of mine ever turned into it, because I caught it in time and treated it in time.

Thanks all, very educating

Ibrahim