# Fostering Sick Dogs: kennel cough



## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

In the past year, every foster GSD I've had from our local shelter but one came to me sick. Our public shelter is a disease pit. They start out healthy, and then within just a few days they pick up a nasty strain of kennel cough. The GSDs seem particularly vulnerable to it. 

It slows down our adoption process with fosters, as they can't get a speuter appointment while they are sick. We could often place dogs twice as fast if we didn't have to nurse them back to health first. OTOH, without a foster home to nurse them back, they'd likely end up dead. At the shelter, they'll waste away and eventually end up on a euth list. They don't seem to recover there without meds. We've had at least one GSD _die _at the shelter from a bad case of kennel cough that turned into pneumonia, so it really is a nasty strain.

If we get them home early enough, they typically take 3-7 days to bounce back, with the help of a script for Doxycycline. My current foster took 9 days, but she was actuallyon the euth list (due to kennel cough) the day I brought her home, so her case was pretty bad.

The challenge at first is always getting them to eat, as the mucuous seems to kill the appetite in every dog I've seen with kennel cough. Wet food seems to help a lot. My feeling is that getting some good nutrition in them is essential to keeping the immune system functioning, as they invariably get sicker and sicker at the shelter once they stop eating. 

This got me thinking about supportive care. I use eucalypus essential oil in an infuser with foster dogs with kennel cough, to give some relief. If they'll eat a fish oil capsule, I give that too. 

I read in Whole Dog Journal that 1 t. of coconut oil is supposed to also be helpful. I haven't tried it yet, but I think I likely will with the next one.

For those who foster regularly, do you have any tried-and-true methods of supportive care to help fosters get over kennel cough faster? Supplements that consistently seem to make a difference in strengthening the immune or respiratory system of sick dogs?


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

Just the doxycycline, which I would not use except the fact their immune systems are shot after being at the shelter.
You can try Mucinex DM, or Robitussin DM with just the expectorant and a cough suppressor. 
Keep them warm and don't let them get chilled.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

Just wanted to report my experience using *coconut oil* with sick fosters. 

My latest foster, Daisy, _appeared _healthy when she left the shelter on Thursday night last week, but she broke with kennel cough within 24 hours, on Friday night. That meant I didn't have a supply of antibiotics for her over the weekend. I decided this was the time to experiment with the coconut oil's reputed good antiviral effects to the dog's system fight the bug off. She was at a very early stage (runny nose, sneezing, occasional light coughing)--it had not yet turned into a full-blown secondary bacterial URI.

I started her on a heaping teaspoon of organic, unrefined, cold-pressed coconut oil with each meal (2x day), and gradually upped it to about a tablespoon 2X day. She's a small female, probably just 50 #. We also fed her 1000 mg of fish oil, as we always do to help the fosters with their coats. 

I immediately was impressed that she didn't get worse over the weekend -- and that's _huge_ for the nasty kind of kennel cough in this shelter. Usually once they break with it, within 48-hours I typically see the runny nose change from clear to dark yellow, and the cough becomes much more pronouced, and with 72-hours there's cheek-puffing, lethargy, and total loss of appetite due to the bacterial URI that nearly always hitches a ride along with the virus. The dogs typically feel _awful _until they get on Doxy or equivalent. None of that happened here -- her energy stayed up, she remained playful and happy, she kept up her appetite, and she was just a little snotty and sneezy.

By Thursday, she had kicked it -- _without ever needing antibiotics._

Can I say definitively it was the coconut oil? No. We also kept her warm inside, fed her high-quality food, and got her out of the shelter before she'd had a chance to get very sick. All of this likely helped give her immune system a fighting chance. I'm _very _intrigued that she didn't break with secondary bacterial URI as nearly all the other dogs I've fostered straight out of the shelter have.

I think all my fosters are going to be getting some coconut oil in their food from now on.

Here's the Whole Dog Journal article referencing it: 
Remedies for Kennel Cough - Whole Dog Journal Article


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## gsdraven (Jul 8, 2009)

Thanks for the info Magwart! I've been fortunate that my recent fosters haven't come from AC so I've dealt with that kind of kennel cough in a while but good to know the options. 

I'm curious, do you know if she was a stray or owner surrender?


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

She was picked up stray. She was underweight when picked up (ribby), but not dramatically so.


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## RebelGSD (Mar 20, 2008)

I had many come in with kennel cough. Kennel cough my vet would not treat with antibiotics, we only get antibiotics prescribed if the dog has obvious bacterial discharge. Unfortunately I had too many come in with "silent" pneumonia, with no URI symptoms. I became an expert in recognizing this early, unfortunately. If a dog is unusually calm and quiet, has moderate appetite even when thin, I get suspicious. I caught several like this, the vet would not believe it until they did x-rays, sometimes they could even hear it. In the winter all local cats and dog came in with pneumonia. If not recognized early, they can die. I also pulled one which probably had canine influenza in the early days. The vet did not think she would make it. I decided to bring her home. Put her in the bathroom and kept the tub filled with inhalant. Hand fed her and she recovered. She was on three antibiotics, asthma meds and all kinds of supplements.


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## I_LOVE_MY_MIKKO (Oct 4, 2006)

msvette2u said:


> You can try Mucinex DM, or Robitussin DM with just the expectorant and a cough suppressor.


I've had only one foster with kennel cough. We gave him cough medicine and good food and he got over it in a few days. He didn't get any antibiotics.

I will keep the coconut oil in mind for the future!


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

saw this on my fb wall(bookmarked it just yesterday)
Homeopathic Remedies For Kennel Cough Dogs Naturally Magazine


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## I_LOVE_MY_MIKKO (Oct 4, 2006)

Glad I read this threat the other day-I'm getting a temp foster tomorrow, who has an upper respiratory infection (maybe KC). She's been on antibiotics for a couple of days (maybe longer). I'm going to keep her on the antibiotics and try the coconut oil, and a couch suppressant if necessary.

The other foster I had with KC, didn't show symptoms until he was already here and sharing water and playing with my dog. Mikko luckily never got sick. It seems like dogs with suppressed immune systems or under stress are more likely to get sick, but I really don't want Mikko to get sick if she is still contagious. 

What precautions should I take? How long will she be contagious for?


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

I was told by a shelter vet that ideally you are _supposed _to quarantine the foster from your own dogs for at least 10 days.

I limit exposure to my dogs in the first few days or a week for the psychological good of the foster dog, and that gives me a few days to see if they're going to break with illness. If they are very sick, I confine to my big master bathroom and don't let them mix with my dogs. That means sanitizing the bathroom regularly when the foster is coughing and hacking up phlegm--it gets gross _really _quickly when they have a bad case.

My dogs are vaccinated for bordatella every 6 months (required for play care and boarding). It may or may not be effective for the strain any given foster has. Mine have never picked up a full-blown URI from a foster...yet.


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## JeanKBBMMMAAN (May 11, 2005)

Knock wood, my dogs have not caught kennel cough or pneumonia from any fosters ever. They might have had a cough for 1 day - that was once a long time ago. And that includes fosters that had it bad enough to go on antibiotics - so I worry more about giardia or mange or other things (PARVO!), though again, knock wood, things have been okay there too. As my dogs get older, I may stop fostering dogs straight from shelters, because I will be concerned about it. 

I don't let them get up close face to face for a few days but they are exposed. Mine do not get the bordatella vaccine. 

I do not let my dogs or fosters drink from communal bowls in public places though! Every time I do, someone gets some creeping crud. I don't know why that is! EVERY. TIME.

ETA - hope this post doesn't jinx me!


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