IMPORTANT Information on Coughing Dogs in Billings
8-21-10 Best Friends Animal Hospital Information Release
We have recently seen many cases of upper respiratory infections in dogs. Most of the infected dogs have been at a boarding facility (most of the facilities in Billings) or have been exposed to other dogs. Many of the dogs have been up to date on their bordetella vaccination series. A couple of the dogs have no known exposure to other dogs. The most prominent clinical sign is intermittent or continuous coughing. This coughing can be quite severe and several owners report that it seems like the dog has something caught in his/her throat. Sometimes the cough produces foamy phlegm. Most of the dogs act normal besides the cough - they eat normally, have good activity levels, and do not have fevers. Occasionally a dog has had a decreased activity level and appetite. We have treated these dogs with a cough suppressant and prophylactic antibiotics. All of the dogs we have treated have improved and normalized in approximately 5-7 days.
Our boarding policy requires that dogs are up to date on bordetella, canine distemper, and parainfluenza (three of the players in the "kennel cough" complex). We have seen coughing in some of the dogs in our boarding facility. The coughing dogs have been moved to our isolation area as soon as they are identified and the boarding kennel has been deep cleaned. We recently sent samples from an infected dog for a respiratory PCR panel to hopefully help identify the causative agent of this suspected contagious disease. As mentioned above, most of the infected dogs that we have seen have been up to date on their bordetella (or kennel cough) and distemper/parainfluenza vaccinations.
If your dog is boarding anywhere in Billings or has access to other animals, there is a chance he/she could become infected. If your dog starts coughing, please isolate him/her from other animals and seek veterinary care. We hope our proactive approach to this situation helps minimize the amount of dogs which become sick from this disease. We will provide updates as available.
UPDATE 8-30-10 We received our PCR results from the dog we tested which showed NEGATIVE results for: Bordetella bronchiseptica, Canine respiratory coronavirus, Canine adenovirus type 2, Canine distemper virus, Canine influenza virus, and H1N1 virus. It came back positive for Canine parainfluenza virus type 3, which is one of the viruses that are included in our Distemper/parvo/parainfluenza vaccine, and one of our required vaccinations for boarders. The dog which had been tested had been vaccinated in April of 2008 with a three year vaccine at another veterinary practice by a licensed veterinarian. We consulted with an internal medicine specialist who thought, given the situation, that this was most likely a false positive result. We recently sampled another dog and shipped it out today for another PCR respiratory panel test. The internal medicine specialist also pointed out that the cause may be one of several other potential viruses/bacteria which are not included on the PCR test. We will see what our second test shows and will report results. Since our depopulation/deep clean/sanitize on 8-23-10, no new boarding animals have been coughing.
UPDATE 9-4-10 We received our PCR results from the second sampled dog and it showed NEGATIVE results for everything (Bordetella bronchiseptica, Canine respiratory coronavirus, Canine adenovirus type 2, Canine distemper virus, Canine influenza virus, Canine parainfluenza type 3 and H1N1 virus). Our boarding animals continue to be cough-free. We are still seeing many coughing animals from throughout the community proving that whatever this is, it is pretty contagious! If you have a coughing dog, seek veterinary care and keep your dog away from other dogs to help stop the spread!
