Understanding Kennel Cough - Essential Information for Your Dog's Health and Wellbeing
When your dog starts coughing uncontrollably and they’ve recently been with other pups, it quickly becomes clear that kennel cough has struck again. In this episode, we'll delve into the highly contagious respiratory disease that affects dogs of all breeds and ages. We'll explore its causes, how it spreads, and the critical signs to watch out for.
You'll learn about the different treatment options available to help your dog recover, as well as the importance of vaccines in preventing kennel cough. Join us in this informative episode and discover everything you need to know to keep your furry friend safe and healthy.
What You’ll Learn:
What kennel cough is.
What causes kennel cough.
The most common bacteria that causes kennel cough.
How kennel cough is spread.
How long the incubation period is for kennel cough.
The critical signs to look out for.
Common treatments for kennel cough.
How vaccines can prevent kennel cough.
Ideas Worth Sharing:
“Usually the signs for kennel cough do not show up right away.” - Tyler Sugerman
“That is the hardest thing about kennel cough is that it spreads very easily and is very contagious because we don’t even know the other dogs are sick until they’ve already spread it to your dog.” - Tyler Sugerman
“How you prevent kennel cough is through vaccines but it is important to remember that vaccines are not always 100%.” - Tyler Sugerman
Resources Mentioned:
ASPCA 888-426-4435 or pet poison helpline 855-764-7661
Canine infectious respiratory disease complex (Kennel cough)
Read The Transcript:
Welcome to Vetsplanation. I'm your veterinary host, Tyler, or you can call me Suggs. This podcast is about educating pet parents about what is going on with their furry little loved ones. As an emergency veterinarian, I understand how hard it is to explain complex diseases in terms that are understandable for pet parents in a few short minutes before the next critical case comes in.
In this podcast, we can dive deeper into understanding of what our pets are going through and break down those complex medical terms into easier to understand chunks of information.
Just a quick disclaimer: this podcast is for informational purposes only. This is not meant to be a diagnosis of your pet. If you have questions about diagnostics or treatment options, please talk to your veterinarian about those things.
Remember, we are all practicing veterinary medicine, and medicine is not an exact science. Your veterinarian may have different treatment options. The information I provide here is to help pet parents, and it's not related to my place of work. I'm here for you guys to provide free information and knowledge.
If you like our podcast, consider sharing this podcast with at least one friend or someone else who has pets and could benefit from this.
Now, let's jump into this week's episode.
Tyler Sugerman: Hey everybody, welcome back to the podcast. So, today, we're going to be talking about something called kennel cough. So, kennel cough is really interesting. It goes by some other names as well. We also call it tracheobronchitis because it has to do with the trachea, which is the dog's windpipe. And the bronchi, which is like the tube that goes from the trachea into the lungs. Those tubes going directly into the lungs are called the bronchi, so it affects those.
It's also called infectious bronchitis because it's something infectious, passes from dog to dog, and it also affects the bronchi, just like we were talking about before. Just so bronchitis, the same as people get as well.
And then, the third thing that we'll usually call it is something called Canine Infectious Respiratory Complex. Another acronym for that is just CIRDC and it’s lots of big words there, but it just means that there's something that is infectious. It can be passed from dog to dog very easily, and it's in the respiratory system and there's lots of things that can cause that.
So, let's talk about like what kennel cough really is. So, kennel cough is basically just a term that we use for something that's highly contagious and that can affect the respiratory system of dogs. You have to think of it as kind of like a cold for us.
It affects our respiratory system, it affects your lungs, it affects your nose, it affects your eyes. You can't breathe very well, you’re coughing, you’re sneezing, you’re snotty. Like it's a lot of those things for our dogs. But we'll talk about some of those differences in a bit here.
So, there are lots of different things that can cause kennel cough. Like we were just talking about with it being called the Canine Infectious Respiratory Complex. Complex, meaning there are lots of different things that can cause this.
So, the two main things that cause kennel cough are going to be either a bacteria or a virus. I'm going to go into some of these because you'll hear later on me talk about vaccines and how we can use vaccines to help prevent it.
But one of the most common bacteria are going to be something called Bordetella or the other name for it, the true name, is Bordetella bronchiseptica. The two other bacteria that are most commonly found are going to be something called mycoplasma.
And then, another one called streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus. It's just a different type of bacteria, really that's all. The other thing we talk about — we talked about bacteria is one cause and viruses are another cause.
Now, this is also where we kind of talk about the fact that we have vaccines to help with these things. So, the viruses are going to be canine parainfluenza, canine adenovirus, canine influenza, canine respiratory coronavirus, canine herpes virus, and canine distemper virus. So, all of those are potential things that cause kennel cough as well.
And I think one of the very common things I hear is people just assume that kennel cough is Bordetella. But as you just heard, there is a huge list of things that can actually cause kennel cough. So, when we talk about kennel cough, it's not just like one type of bacteria or one type of virus that causes this. There are many different things, many different bacteria, many different viruses that could potentially be causing the kennel cough. We just kind of put it under this general name of kennel cough.
So, let's talk about how kennel cough is spread. So, it's usually spread through very close contact with either another pet that has kennel cough or a pet that was like touching something that had kennel cough. So, most common things are dogs are like licking each other or nuzzling with each other.
Usually, it's going to be through the drops of like snot or drops from like coughing. Those like water drops that happen after you cough. Those droplets are going to actually contain that virus or that bacteria that's going to cause the kennel cough.
So, let's say Peter's dog down the street is coming over, they're playing in the backyard. They're playing with the same toys, they're doing tug of war and stuff. They're in very close contact. And you may not even know that Peter's dog actually has kennel cough at that point.
So, we now have all these toys and stuff that are contaminated. Usually, the signs for kennel cough don't even show up right away. The incubation period, meaning the period before they actually start showing signs, is about 2 to 10 days.
So, Peter brings his dog over and five days later, that dog is coughing and Peter's complaining about how his dog is coughing, and then suddenly, your dog is coughing three or five days later. Then you know you got it from Peter's dog, but Peter's dog was already sick before then.
Even if Peter's dog didn't come over after that, on that day that he came over to be able to play and they were playing with toys. They were doing tug of war right next to each other, all that — those droplets from their nose and from their mouth are still on those toys and still in the air that the other dog was breathing very directly by playing tug of war.
So, the other dog, Peter's dog gave it to your dog when he wasn't showing any clinical signs. And that's the hardest thing about kennel cough, is it spreads very easily and is very contagious because we don't even know that the other dog is showing clinical signs. We never heard Peter's dog cough, and then suddenly, now our dog is sick as well.
And then, let's talk about like who's susceptible to these infections? Like who are the most common animals to get these infections? So, actually, all breeds of dogs, all ages of dogs, they're all susceptible to getting infection. Even ones who have been vaccinated for years and years and years are susceptible to it. Ones that are really young are susceptible to it. Really, any of them are susceptible to potentially getting kennel cough.
The risk actually becomes higher when you have dogs who are like in close contact with other dogs who are infected. So, like Peter's dog coming over, your dog and Peter's dog playing, and they're in close contact with each other.
Other situations are going to be when they're exposed to like large settings of dogs. So, boarding facilities, shelters, daycare facilities, grooming facilities, even the vet's office can potentially be a source as well.
Because remember, I said that they've had a 2 to 10-day time period where they're not showing any clinical signs, but they still have the infection. So, Peter brings his dog now over to the daycare facility, and that dog has been playing in the daycare facility. Nobody's heard the dog sneezing or coughing for that five days, and then suddenly, the dog starts coughing on the fifth day.
Well, there was no way to know that that dog, Peter's dog, was sick that first five days. It was not showing any clinical signs. So, now all the other dogs in the facility are now exposed as well and potentially, could get kennel cough too. And not everybody will.
It's kind of like us having a cold or being sick. I might not get sick even though my daughter is sick, or I might go around my neighbor and he gets sick, but his signs are worse than my signs. It just really depends on lots of different things.
But the dogs are the same way. You could actually be exposed to kennel cough and that dog never gets sick at all. But it does increase the risk when they have been around those dogs for multiple days, long periods of time.
When they're in a boarding facility they're with them for however many days, already being exposed to kennel cough. And again, like there's just no way that you're going to know until that dog starts showing clinical signs.
So, let's talk about next what the clinical signs are. The most common clinical sign is going to be coughing. People usually describe it as like a gagging or a retching. A lot of people describe it as like the dog is attempting to get something up as if they're choking on something. And typically, they'll do what's called a terminal wretch, meaning they like do this coughing, coughing, coughing, and then suddenly like they hack as if something is going to come up.
And a lot of times they'll have white foam that comes up, even sometimes with like small amounts of food as well. And one of the telltale signs that this is not vomiting, is that they will do this like after eating. So, they'll eat something and then start doing this like coughing.
And that's why people think that they are choking on something because they've just eaten something, so they assume they're choking on it. And then they'll do this, this hacking, hacking, hacking, and then white foam with a little bit of food.
Well, if they were vomiting, all of their food would come up if that's the case. But if they're not vomiting, if they just have this little bit of white foam and a little bit of food that it's not actually vomiting, it’s just like coughing.
Another way to kind of tell whether they're truly vomiting or not, is that a lot of times their whole belly, so their abdomen is their belly — their whole belly will almost look like it's like convulsing. It'll be like sucking in almost as if they're trying to vomit.
Like think about when you're vomiting, your whole abdomen is just like convulsing trying to get something up. Versus our dogs, when they're vomiting, it's the same way. But when they're coughing, really, it's just their chest that's moving and not their abdomen or not their belly.
And then the coughing or hacking or gagging, whatever you want to call it, it usually happens after some period of activity or exercise or excitement. A lot of times like again they'll be thinking that they're choking on something …
And I'm very sorry if you hear my dog in the background. She is very obsessed with being with me at night and is digging in the background. But back to when this happens.
So, usually they're going to have given their pet a treat, you give your dog a treat, and then they get super excited. And then they start doing this hacking and it seems like they are choking. But in all reality, they've just gotten really excited because they got that treat, and now, it is making the receptors in their trachea (so their windpipe and in their bronchi, those first tubes into the lungs) start react and then they start doing this hacking and coughing.
So, it seems like they're choking on something when really, it's just they've gotten excited, and their kennel cough is starting to happen. Some of the other signs can be that they'll have sneezing, some runny nose, runny eyes that can be clear. Usually not like green or yellow but it's typically clear.
So, let's say you witnessed this happen, you've gotten home, you've given Fluffy a treat and now, Fluffy is trying to cough something up as if they are choking. Should you rush Fluffy to the vet? Well, yes and no.
So, if the episode stops and they seem fine, then I probably wouldn't bring them in because if they're conscious, they can breathe, then they're not choking on something at that moment.
Now, I will say that it is not wrong to bring them in because I've definitely had … usually, this is happening four or five Pomeranians actually, at this point to me — that somebody did give them a treat, this really hard treat and that that treat did get stuck in their esophagus.
It's pretty rare when that does happen, but that is definitely a possibility. So, it's not wrong to bring them in for sure. If this had nothing to do with the treat or food or anything though and it was after being excited or after exercise or something, and your dog does get exposure to a lot of other new dogs, then maybe you do wait and see how they do.
But let's talk about then how we're going to diagnose this. So, the hardest part about diagnosing this is most of the time, we go off of what the dog's lifestyle is, and what the coughing sounds like. So, usually, we're asking questions about like how many dogs are they exposed to? Do you bring them to boarding or grooming, or did they go to the vet's office recently or did you go to the dog park recently? So, we can try to determine like how high of a risk are they for having things like kennel cough.
And then we may also just try to start ruling out other causes of coughing as well. So, sometimes that means for checking, checking things like x-rays or what we call radiographs. And we're looking for things like does the pet have a heart problem or is there a lung problem? Do they have pneumonia or bronchitis? Do they have things like a mass in their chest? Or do they have a disease called a collapsing trachea which I'll be doing soon, I believe.
And then, so that's kind of the only way we can kind of diagnose things in the hospital. There's not like a test in the hospital to tell us yes, for sure whether it's kennel cough or not. So, a lot of times we're doing x-rays or radiographs to rule out other problems of coughing.
And then, the only real way to be able to determine whether it is kennel cough, is to do swabs. So, we swab like the back of their throat and their nose, and their eyes, and we send that out to the lab, and they can tell us if there is a bacteria or a virus that's causing this.
The hard part with that though is it does take about 7 to 14 days to get that result back. So, in that period of time, most of those dogs will have already improved and gotten over the disease. And so, really, it just gave us more information, but it wasn't anything that we're going to do differently to try to help treat them.
It can be useful information though. Let's say maybe that kennel cough actually worsens and turns into pneumonia. Well, if we have something back, some sort of test back saying that yes, it is one of those viruses or bacteria that causes kennel cough, well, that gives us a much better understanding of how we need to treat that pneumonia. Or if it comes back as negative, then we're going to start looking for other reasons why that pet might be coughing.
So, let's talk next about like treatment. How do we actually treat kennel cough? So, with treatment, 90% of the time, there is no treatment that's needed. So, we talked about the fact that there are bacteria and viruses that cause kennel cough, and there were a lot more viruses than there were bacteria.
So, with both of those, most dogs will be able to get over kennel cough without doing any treatment. You don't need to give antibiotics for a viral infection. Viruses cannot be killed with antibiotics, only bacteria can.
So, if it's not a bacterial infection, there's really no reason for us to give antibiotics and we don't really know, like I said, we don't know whether this is a bacteria or a virus that's causing it. So, in a lot of cases, we don't give antibiotics.
Unless like for some reason, we think that it might be something that pet is really immunocompromised, their immune system basically just doesn't work as well. And so, sometimes we'll give them antibiotics because we're worried about that pet getting worse and getting pneumonia.
Another thing that people will use is something called antitussives. Antitussives are something that helps stop coughing. So, coughing can do good things and bad things. Coughing allows the dog to get up a lot of that junk, all that bacteria or viral stuff that's just kind of stuck in their lungs and in their bronchi. We want to get that stuff out.
So, I particularly don't always like using antitussives or anti-cough medication because I want them to get that stuff out. Some people though like to use it especially at night because their dog can't sleep and if their dog can't sleep, then you can't sleep.
Like if Fluffy is up, coughing, coughing, coughing, their tags are jingling, like I get it, you need to sleep and they need to sleep as well. So, sometimes, we’ll use some sort of medication for coughing. Those are usually things called hydrocodone, butorphanol, or codeine that will help stop that coughing.
And then, the last thing is some people will still use some sort of anti-inflammatory or a steroid to help with kennel cough, but there have been many studies that have shown that there's really no benefit to using those. So, it's not something that I particularly use. But the one medication that I do like using that they have shown studies on that have helped has been a medication called Cerenia.
Cerenia is something that tries to help with the coughing receptors or inflammatory receptors basically on the trachea and bronchi. So, our windpipe and that first little tube that goes into our lungs to try to help us breathe. And it doesn't have some of the bad side effects that some of the other medications like anti-inflammatories and steroids do.
And it also helps make them not nauseous, which is nice as well because sometimes like all that snot and stuff drips down the back of their throat into their esophagus and into their stomach, and it just makes them feel nauseous sometimes. So, I do think that Cerenia is great for those things.
Now, if we don't do anything, if we don't do any medications or we even do medications, most of the time, the recovery time will be the same. It's usually about 7 to 10 days that your pet will be coughing until they are better.
Now, one of the things I always talk about is to isolate your dogs. Now, we've already talked about it takes 2 to 10 days for this incubation period, so before they even have any clinical signs. And then, now we have 7 to 10 days from having clinical signs to feeling better.
So, I usually tell people not to be around other animals, like don't take them around any other animals for about two weeks to make sure that we've gotten over this coughing, and we're not spreading it from dog to dog.
That means like don't take them out on walks. If you take them to that hospital, keep them contained in your car until they're ready to bring them into a room. So, that way we're not spreading it from your dog to the other dogs that are in the waiting room who are well at that time. We don't want to make everybody sick.
If you have a dog that you're going to be dropping off for boarding, let them know beforehand because maybe they have a separate area for dogs who have kennel cough or maybe they don't, and you don't want to infect all of those other dogs that are there as well.
So, let's say you kind of figured out that your pet probably does have kennel cough. We had Peter bring his dog over from the other day that had kennel cough. His dog was diagnosed with kennel cough. Your dog is doing the same coughing, you decide not to bring them in. What signs should you watch for at home?
Or even let's say you did bring them in, we didn't do any medications or maybe you even did Cerenia or an antibiotic from your vet. What should you watch for at home to know that you need to bring them back because they're going to cough for that 7 to 10 days. Remember even with the medications we give them, they're still going to cough for 7 to 10 days.
So, some of the things you want to watch for at home are going to be if your pet becomes really lethargic, meaning they just lay around, they don't want to do anything. Because a lot of these pets who have kennel cough, they're still wanting to play ball, they're still wanting to be crazy, jumping up, they're usually still pretty active.
You're also going to want to notice if they have a decreased appetite. That's actually one of the first clinical signs that I typically see, is that the pet just has a decreased appetite or just stopped eating that morning. Those are usually something worrisome because usually dogs who have kennel cough, they will still eat.
If they have a fever, one of the things you can do is check their temperatures at home. Just go to the store and get one of those rectal baby temperature ones. The ones that go in the butt and some lube and you can use that to be able to take their temperature. And a dog should not be over 102.5. So, if their fever is 102.5 or above 102.5, then we start worrying about them having a fever.
If they start coughing up some yellow discharge or green discharge, or having the yellow or green coming from their nose or their eyes, then again, we need to see them back because now we truly have some sort of infection going on.
And then, if they're having any breathing difficulty, they're breathing really fast, or you've noticed that they're just breathing really heavy, they're just having a really hard time catching their breath, because maybe this isn't kennel cough or maybe they do have kennel cough that turned into pneumonia. So, we want to try to rule those things out to see what's going on.
And all of these clinical signs are usually something indicative of pneumonia. And if that's the case, we want to try to get them on antibiotics sooner than later so we can try to get it under control. So, usually, if we notice that they're having any of those clinical signs, x-rays or radiographs, what we call them is going to be the first step for them.
Alright, let's kind of talk about some of the common questions that I get. So, some of the common questions, one of them is, can cats become infected too?
And the answer is yes, they can become infected with some of the viruses and bacteria. Most of the time, the most common ones that'll affect cats are like Bordetella, the streptococcus equi and canine influenza.
And they'll show a lot of the same clinical signs. Not so much as always with the coughing, sometimes it's just that upper respiratory tract infection. So, they'll have green discharge from their eyes and their nose, or they'll have sneezing. It's not as much with the coughing I would say.
The next question I usually get is can humans become infected? And the answer to that one is usually not, it's pretty rare. But if they are going to become infected, it's usually the people who are severely immunocompromised. I mean, their immune system just does not work well at all. And usually, the one organism they've found that has infected people was the Bordetella virus that infected them.
Now, how do you prevent this? So, we talked earlier about the viruses and the bacteria that cause these things, and this is kind of where this comes into play. So, how to prevent kennel cough is usually by vaccines.
So, one of the most common vaccines that we get is Bordetella. So, the Bordetella vaccine usually goes in the nose or in their mouth or as an injection, and it's to help prevent against that Bordetella bronchiseptica.
Another one that they can use is canine influenza, which is sometimes with the Bordetella, and sometimes on its own. Some people don't always give it like not all vets give it. So, you kind of have to ask like your vet whether they think that your pet is like highly susceptible and might particularly need that.
And then some of the other vaccines are going to be things that you would normally get that you don't even think about. So, DAPP or DHPP or DHLPP is another name. They have like lots of different names but that has distemper, it has adenovirus, and it has parainfluenza. So, it has three of those upper respiratory diseases that we're trying to vaccinate for as well.
Now, the one thing with vaccines is we do have to remember that vaccines are not 100%. So, think about you getting the flu vaccine. Even though you get the flu vaccine, there's still a potential that you're going to get the flu.
And one of the reasons why is because you've gotten a flu vaccine for what they think is going to be the strain for that year. Well, what if you don't get that strain? What if you get a different strain and that's what you become sick from?
Now, think about the vaccines that I just mentioned: Bordetella, influenza, distemper, adenovirus, parainfluenza — that did that did not cover all of the bacteria or the viruses that caused them to have illnesses. What if your dog is highly vaccinated for Bordetella but they end up getting mycoplasma? Well, that wasn't something that we had given them to protect them against.
So, instead, they ended up getting sick. But kind of our goal is that even with these vaccines, even if they did get Bordetella, our goal with that, just like with our flu virus, is we're hoping that if we give the flu vaccine is that we're going to make the illness less. We're less likely to get pneumonia, we're less likely have to be hospitalized.
It's the same with our dogs when we're giving like things like Bordetella. We're hoping that we're protecting them from getting kennel cough. But the majority of the time we're hoping that we protect them from getting so sick that they get pneumonia and have to be hospitalized.
So, our goal is not 100% that it's going to make them not sick, our goal is to try to make sure that they don't become a worse illness than just kennel cough. We want to try to make sure they don't get to that pneumonia stage.
And the next big thing to help prevent it is to isolate the dogs who do have kennel cough. They might look really healthy, maybe they were only coughing for three days but they're still contagious up to 10 days after the fact that they were coughing.
So, keep any of the dogs who were sick with kennel cough away from other dogs. Don't walk them in areas that they can cough on a rock and have another dog come up and be able to sniff that rock as well.
Another question I usually will get is could wildlife cause this? And technically, yes. So, they have found like different viruses and bacteria in different types of wildlife. Distemper has been something that's found in raccoons. Bordetella has been found in things like pigs and seals and even squirrels.
So, wildlife can be part of this as well. So, maybe your dog never leaves the backyard, but squirrels are running through your backyard, and they potentially could give the kennel cough to your dogs as well.
The next question I usually get asked is, “Well, I boarded my dog at this kennel and now they have kennel cough. So, obviously, that kennel was like a dirty kennel.” And that is not the case because remember, we've talked about how that dog isn't even showing signs for 2 to 10 days.
So, let's say Peter's dog gets boarded right after playing with your dog. Gets boarded at a boarding facility, it's not showing any clinical signs but has kennel cough, and now, five days later, is starting to have a cough while it's in the kennel.
Well, a lot of times, kennel staff are pretty well-trained to like listen for coughing and when they see it, bringing that dog into an isolated area to make sure that they hopefully don't spread it to other dogs. But unfortunately, by that time, it was too late. There was no way to know that that dog was sick beforehand because it wasn't showing any signs.
But it had already been spreading that virus or bacteria for five days before then. So, your dog got sick. Plus, all of those dogs that are in the kennel are potentially being exposed as well. And that is one reason why the kennel facilities do actually request that the dogs be vaccinated for Bordetella and for DAPP so that we're trying to decrease the chances of other dogs getting sick as well.
And they do a lot of things that are trying to help make sure that they don't spread it, like I said. But it's already happened at that point, there's nothing that they can do about it.
So, the next big thing I think that people ask me is “Is there any remedy that I can try at home?” And there absolutely is. There are definitely things that you can try to help with that cough. So, steam therapy is fantastic. If you have a humidifier, just put the dog into a small room and that way you can put the humidifier on and just humidify the room.
Try not to do it in like rooms that have really high ceilings and stuff. Like I usually suggest a bathroom is usually the best place because that way you can try to get as much humidity in the air as possible down where the dog is because things are going to rise as well. So, we want to try to get as much down where the pet is as well.
If you don't have a humidifier, the other way is you can bring them into the bathroom with you when you go into take a shower. Just close the doors, close the windows, don't turn the fan on and again like let that steam build up. It's going to help just like get all that stuff out of their lungs. They can cough a lot of that stuff up. So, you'll notice they'll do a lot of productive coughing.
So, they'll cough up a lot of phlegm or whatever it is that they have caught in their trachea to the windpipe, and also in their bronchi. Those first little tubes that go into your lungs. We want them to cough all of those things up. You can also, afterwards, just tap on their chest. So, don't like beat them but like a pretty good like smack in their sides of their chest afterwards because that's called coupage.
So, when you're doing the steam, it's called nebulizing and then afterwards, you're like kind of tapping on their chest and that's called coupage. And that's going to help again, just like break stuff up in their lungs, which is going to help them to be able to breathe.
Now, I will say I do not suggest doing a humidifier or bringing a dog in the bathroom if they are a brachycephalic dog, meaning they have a flat face. So, like Bulldogs, Frenchies, Bostons — if any of you have a dog that has a flat face, do not bring them in there because they can overheat very easily.
And then, we're going to cause a whole other problem, something called brachycephalic syndrome, which I will get into on another podcast. But we don't want them to overheat, so don't bring them in there. Everybody else just fine.
You could also use honey. People have asked me before, “Can you use honey?” You can usually about roughly a teaspoon’s worth. Honey has some cool properties, like it has antibacterial properties, it has antifungal properties, it has antitussive or anti-coughing properties. So, definitely you want to use some honey, totally fine.
And then, the other big thing I tell people is to use a harness with their dog. Because when they like go to take them outside to go to the bathroom, because I understand like some dogs are in apartments, there's no way you can just keep them inside.
So, if you have to take them out to go to the bathroom, try to isolate them to some area that dogs don't usually go to. Like maybe go over to the bushes by the trash cans or something that people don't usually go to. So, that way we're trying to decrease the exposure to those other dogs.
But put a harness on them because if you have them on a leash on their collar, on their neck, it's going to pull on their trachea, which is going to make them cough even more. So, we want to try to help avoid that.
So, just to recap real quick; kennel cough, very highly contagious disease that causes respiratory tract infection in mostly dogs. It can be from different viruses, different bacteria, spread through the droplets from their sneezing or their coughing, like directly from human to dog or dog to dog, or object to dog.
Usually, anybody can be susceptible to this. But typically, they're most common found when the dogs attend some sort of boarding facility, shelters, daycares, grooming facilities, veterinary offices, even when you go to the dog shows as well.
The most common clinical signs is that they're doing like some sort of gagging or retching or hacking and they'll sometimes hack up or cough up white foam. And then, diagnosis, we don't usually have a very particular test that we do for diagnosis. Most of the time, it’s like kind of based off of the history. But there is a test that you can do to try to help make sure that you know for sure that it's kennel cough.
We treat them sometimes with things like Cerenia. Some people will give antibiotics right off the bat and sometimes, people will give antitussives or anti-cough medication, but not always. Lots of veterinarians do not give them anything. Most of the time, they will recover within about 7 to 10 days. So, pretty much just on their own, whether you gave them medication or not.
Things to look forward to know whether you should bring them in for sure are going to be, if they are lethargic, they have decreased appetite, they have a fever. They have yellow or green fluid that they're coughing up or sneezing or having discharge from their eyes, if they have any sort of labored breathing or difficulty breathing. And then, also if they just have like an increased respiratory rate, like they're just breathing really quickly.
Alright, think that we've gone over pretty much everything there. I'm going to tell you my cool animal fact real quick. So, for my animal fact this week it's going to be about chameleons. I love chameleons. They're one of my favorite reptiles. I had one, he was amazing. I know most of them aren't always amazing, but he was amazing. I loved him.
So, chameleons, we're going to talk about their tongues because their tongues are fascinating. So, some of the things about their tongues, first of all, their tongue is faster than the fastest race car.
So, one of the smallest chameleons called the rosette nosed pygmy chameleon, they can launch their tongue at their prey at a rate of 5,795 miles per hour. That's also the same as 8,500 feet per second. That's just ridiculously fast.
That's also the same as saying they could go from like 0 to 60 miles per hour in 0.01 seconds, or 1/100th of a second. Versus the fastest race car can hit 0 to 60 in 2.5 seconds. So, way faster than the fastest race car.
They can also have an acceleration that's ridiculously fast. So, the acceleration, we think about that in terms of like Gs. So, like the fastest jet fighter can accelerate at seven Gs when they go to pull out of a really fast dive. So, that is the fastest jet. The chameleon's tongue is up to 264Gs. That's ridiculously faster than the fastest jet that we have.
Now, the length of their tongue, when they shoot out their tongue to the maximum length, it can be up to two and a half times the length of their body. And the craziest thing about this, is they're not actually even the fastest animals. So, there is an insect called a jumping leaf hopper that when it jumps, it actually can reach 23,100 feet per second.
Now, if you remember what I just said, I said so many numbers, but the chameleons’ tongue, they can launch their tongue at 8,500 feet per second. So, when this jumping leaf hopper jumps, it can jump at 23,100 feet per second.
And then there's also the plethodontid salamanders that they can flick their tongue at 14,700 feet per second. That's almost twice as fast as the pygmy chameleon. I mean, those are just ridiculously fast numbers. It's crazy what they can do.
Alright guys, if you have any questions, you'll please feel free to email me. You can contact me on pretty much any social media. If you have a subject you're interested in, please feel free to reach out to me. I'm more than happy to educate you guys on whatever it is, whatever topics that you would like to hear.
For next week, we're going to be doing allergic reactions because we're going to be getting into bee season here soon. And so, we're going to talk about what you can do at home and when you need to bring them in.
Alright guys, I hope you have a great week. I appreciate you. Thanks again.
Thanks for listening this week. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or you just want to say hi, feel free to email me at suggs@vetsplanationpodcast.com.
You can visit our website at vetsplanationpodcast.com, or you can find us on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok at Vetsplanation.
Thank you all again for listening and we'll see you back here next week.