What is Kennel Cough and what are the symptoms?
Kennel cough is a highly contagious upper respiratory infection that often affects animals that are kept in a confined space such as boarding kennels, dog shows or veterinary hospitals.
Symptoms include a persistent dry hacking cough or bouts of deep harsh coughing often followed by gagging, which may produce a foamy mucus. Patients with kennel cough usually act fine as far as activity levels, appetite, and general attitude. The cough produced is harsh, dry, and can be quite loud and forceful; sometimes inducing dry heaves or retching. If nasal discharge, lethargy, anorexia or other signs of illness are noticed, it may be something more serious than kennel cough. Either way, a visit to your veterinarian is in order. In patients with kennel cough, the trachea is often very sensitive; a collar may initiate a coughing spasm, so care must be taken to avoid use of collars and leashes in dogs with kennel cough to prevent tracheal damage.
Clinical signs appear anywhere from 5 to 10 days after exposure to affected dogs. While the cough may sound serious, this disease is often harmless and dogs recover uneventfully in a week or so. Symptoms may last as long as 20 days. It is worthwhile to note that kennel cough may have potentially serious respiratory complications for very young and very old dogs.
What is the conventional treatment?
Mild cases may improve without treatment. Conventional treatment of kennel cough often involves antibiotics which tend to relieve the animal’s symptoms fairly quickly, but also have a general weakening effect on their immune system, which can cause further problems, especially in the long-term.
Vaccinations to prevent kennel cough are also often recommended. But research indicates that frequent vaccination or over-vaccination may unnecessarily stress a pet’s immune system.
How can natural remedies help?
As part of a holistic approach to treating your pet, natural remedies can help to build and strengthen your pet’s immune system, encourage the elimination of toxins and generally improve the overall health of your animal.
Natural remedies can also help to relieve specific symptoms such as upper respiratory infections and coughs without the accompanying toxin build-up caused by conventional treatments.
We recommend KC-Defense. What is KC-Defense?
KC-Defense combines herbal and homeopathic ingredients with selected biochemic tissue salts for the treatment and prevention of Kennel cough and other respiratory tract infections in pets.
It may be used preventatively (especially before visits to the vet, kennels, cattery etc) or acutely to treat an active infection.
Learn more about KC-Defense, Ingredients, Dosage, Testimonials and Current Special on KC-Defense »
Author Note: If you prefer using Essential Oils over herbs & homeopathy, LeighB recommends the following:
“You will want to use RC and Raven on the ears twice a day and give 5 ml of Berry Young Juice daily via a syringe to squirt it in between the back teeth so they swallow it instead of mixing it in the water. Works wonders.”
We only recommend Young Living Essential Oils due to their high quality and purity! To learn how Essential Oils can benefit your pets, click here. To order Young Living Essential Oils or any of the items above, click here. To order by phone, call 800-371-2928 and use the referral number 827420.
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DISCLAIMER: The only oils we use and refer to in ALL our posts, tips and articles is Young Living Essential Oils. We DO NOT use any others and would not state what we do in our posts and articles about any other brands. Buyer Beware!
