Friday, July 27, 2012

Kennel Cough :(

Poor Kai has kennel cough!  He most likely picked it up last weekend at Wag Hotel.  We boarded him there overnight last weekend while we were in Santa Cruz.  He was fine until Wednesday morning, when he woke us up at 6am making the most horrible gagging sounds.  I was so worried and we almost took him to the emergency vet.  Instead, we took him to our regular vet that morning.  The vet said that it's a bad time of year for kennel cough right now, and the bordatella vaccine really can't do much against it because of the vast variety of strains out there.  Infected dogs will go several days before showing symptoms, but they are still contagious during that time, so it's really impossible for places like Wag Hotel to totally keep it out, no matter how clean the place is.

The vet gave us a week's worth of antibiotics (to prevent a secondary infection) and cough suppressant.  Kai has to stay away from other dogs while he's contagious, which can be for up to a week after his symptoms go away.  We're not even supposed to take him on walks or do anything else that could excite him and trigger the coughing. 

We had planned on taking Kai back to Wag for All Day Play this weekend, and also he was supposed to get some play time with Cousin Vinny.  Now he's stuck at home.  We can't even take him to the dog park.  I feel so bad for poor little Kai.  I hope he gets better soon!

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