cmt

For anyone's interested, she seems PERFECTLY normal, as she did yesterday. I really do think it was the cough medicine that caused the problem.

Saraho

Just to mention, as well as my dog having seizure reactions to annual shots two years in a row, my cat got very sick after her annual shots this year! I have pretty much decided that after kitten/puppyhood, my pets will not get yearly shots since they have such bad reactions to them. In fact I had read in the Prevention pet column that pet shots actually last for at least three years. The annual requirement is actually a state requirement not necessarily a vet requirement.My vet thinks that my ten year old dog is better off not having any more shots. He said that he would want puppies to have all their shots. My pets do not stay at the vet or around other animals. My dog also has had an allergic reaction to ampicillin and cleocin, so I certainly understand your concern about the robitussin for your dog. Baytril works well for my dog , thank goodness!

cmt

I think the routine immunizations for dogs (as well as many of the immunizations for people) are mainly for the PUBLIC's health benefit, to prevent epidemics, even if in many cases, the INDIVIDUAL might not necessarily benefit. Since I have boarded my dogs, and since I lived in apartments and used common areas used by other dogs when I had my previous two dogs, I think the immunizations have been very important for my dogs. But if my dogs did not have many opportunities to mix with others and were never boarded, I think the risk of the shots could outweigh the benefit to them, individually. so far, fortunately, none of my dogs have reacted adversely to their immunizations, except that Rosie was very sore from the shot itself when I took her for shots as a very skinny stray, with not much meat between her skin and her bones.

Sue4

I, too, wish my dogs didn't have to have so many shots, but I do it anyway.
Liverwurst - I'm sure they would love that! I put the pills in a little piece of vienna sausage, which works like a dream.

Gypsy is beautiful, and looks so sweet.
She reminds me of my beautiful German Shepherd/Saluki mix who lived to be 16.
I wish they could live much longer, too. I think my dogs have brought me more joy than just about anything in my life. But don't tell my children and grandchildren I said that! Dogs bring you such unconditional love.

cmt

16: That's a good age for a larger breed. I hope Gypsy lives that long.

One of my vets didn't like the liverwurst idea for hiding pills--too rich for an older dog, she said. (I guess she'd say the same about Vienna suasages.) Oh well, I never have it on hand anyway, and would have to buy is specially for the purpose. There's always peanut butter and usually cheese in the house, though they don't work quite as well as the smelly liverwurst. Dogs have such weird taste preferences. I shouldn't post here about what my dog finds delicious, but let's just say that I have a gate to keep her out of the bathroom so she won't use the cat's litter box as a [yuck!!!] snack bar!

And yes, I fully agree dogs are wonderful and can have some an enormous positive impact on our lives.

cmt

On the original topic of this thread (i.e. not about my dog's emergency), here's an update re the new virus and how people are recting to it: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/07/ny...nd&emc=rss

cigalechanta

I read that this morning. I agree with the man who said you don't stop your child from playing for hear the kid will catch something. My new pup will get his second shot in a few weeks.

Carta_Pisana

I took my Lab in for a checkup
Wednesday and talked to my vet
about this virus. He told me that
it has been around for about 4 to
5 years - but mainly affecting
greyhounds - when they're being
shipped from Maine to Florida, when
many of them are being held in a small
pen. He says there have been rumors of
the virus in NYC but so far nothing verified.

cmt

My vet was concerned about it, and wanted to be extra cautious about my dog's mild kennel cough since he wasn't positive it was only that. There has been SOME virus spreading around NY-area kennels, even if it's not THE virus. I wonder whether the virus is spreading around the country faster becuase of hurricane-evacuated dogs being placed in shelters away from home and then moving with their owners to new homes around the country.

cmt

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9697415
About the canine flu--it has NOT gone away. It's spreading. This is why I'm not going on a mini vacation this week, despite having two days off because of the Election Day and Veterans Day state holidays.

lynnejoel1015

we just returned from vacation and our greyhound got back from the kennel hacking!! she's vaccinated against bordatella... we're just monitoring her.... i'd COMPLETELY forgotten about those poor greys in FL. yikes.

cmt

Bordatella vaccines protect the dog against the most common, known kennel cough viruses. But they cannot protect against ALL kennel cough viruses, so it's still possible for a dog to get some sort of kennel cough, in spite of being vaccinated, but it will probably be a mild form. As I posted above, my dog did get mild kennel cough in September, though she was vaccinated.

The thing to be concerned about is this new, potentially fatal virus. Unfortunately, in the early stages, it can have the same symptoms as kennel cough, which is not usually anything terrible. That's why I was worried when my dog was coughing after her week in a boarding kennel. So it might be a good idea to have your dog seen by a vet, if you haven't already, and/or to monitor the dog very carefully for signs of more serious infection, keep the dog away from groups of other dogs, etc. (Also: Read what I wrote above about Robitussin. There are other veterinary cough meds. less likely to have side effects.)

If it's just kennel cough, as it most likely is, don't worry. It will probably pass quickly without any complications.

linawood

Does anyone know if the virus can be passed on the clothes of someone who has been with an infected dog and then visits a home where another dog lives?

smueller

There was a scare in Colorado concerning this new strain of "dog flu" about two months ago. According to our vet, the Colorado cases turned out to be bogus.

Scarlett

linawood, as my pediatrician and the vet told me ( not at the same time or same person lol) you can not spread germs unless you have them.
I don't think this virus travels on clothing etc. I think it is spread through saliva, coughing on each other, etc.

Before anyone rushes to a vet in fear, remember what your pup might have eaten before you heard him cough..Pup coughs like he has TB if he eats a chewie bone ( before he throws it up ) and some pigs ears or treats will make him cough ..
My groomer gives Pup a treat/biscuit before I pick him up and he hacks and whoops before he throws it up
So now that I have made you all sick, just give it a day or so and see how many times he actually coughs hard, before panicking

cmt

This update is not about the virus, but about the tangent about my dog's vestibular incident last September. It was tentatively diagnosed at the time as "idiopathic vestibular syndrome." However, I thought maybe it wasn't so "idiopathic" after all, since I strongly suspected it had been caused by the "DM" part of Robitussin DM administed for her mild cough. I'm now re-thinking that. She had another vestibular incident lat night. But she hasn't taken cough medicine or any unusal substance that could've triggeed it. Here's the thread about it on DogPark forum, if anyone has a deeper interest in these things: http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum....webtag=ab-dogs

Getting back to travel...I'm vaguely planning a trip for this fall, but I'm a little concerned about leaving my dog for two weeks. My vet just had a much bigger hospital built right next to the site of the old one, and it just opened last month. I know he's planning to offer some limited boarding. I'm sure it'll be more expensive and maybe not as pleasant (no outdoor runs?) as the normal boarding kennel, but I might want to use the vet's boarding to be extra safe, since my dog is 12 and i worry about lower resistance to infection and these vetibular incidents that require monitoring and more personal reassurance if they occur.