Anything For Animals

posted by admin on Apr 1

What Is Kennel Cough? 

Kennel cough is a highly infectious disease found in dogs which is particularly prevalent where large number of animals are kept in the same place, for example in kennels, breeding establishments and rescue centres.

This disease is known by several names including Canine Contagious Respiratory Disease  (CCRD), tracheobronchitis as well as the more common ‘kennel cough’.  Basically ’kennel cough’ is a phrase commonly used to umbrella together many types of respiratory tract infections.

What Causes It?
The canine respiratory tract (the windpipe) normally harbours many micro-organisms including Streptococcus spp. amongst others but they are not causing any problems.  However the Bordetella bronchiseptica is the one that is commonly associated with the worst throat infections.

Other viruses that could be identified in canine throat infections include:

CAV-1 - canine adenovirus 1
CAV-2 - canine adenovirus 2
CPIV - canine para-influenza virus
CHV - canine herpes virus
and - Reovirus

What Makes Them Different? 
Depending on which virus is present and whether it was contracted at the same time as Bordetella bronchiseptica or not will vary the actual infection and the ‘kennel cough’ symptoms that actually appear in the dogs themselves.

Infection follows either direct dog-to-dog contact or aerosol transmission (where dogs are having to breath the same air and the infected dog has breathed the virus or micro-organism out into this air). Following inhalation, the micro-organisms rapidly colonize the windpipe tissues leading to inflammation in as little as 4 days.

The severity depends as said above on the combination of organisms causing the infection.