[yorkietalkjilly]

I let Tibbe have one after he got over his GI troubles as my sister's dog, Tavi, nearly died of kennel cough, he had such a bad strain. He got down to skin and bones, coughing nearly nonstop, making this horrible noise when he did, & his many cough suppressant medications he was tried on as each one didn't work, weren't helping hardly at all. He was coughing himself violently to death almost, vomiting from coughing so much, couldn't eat - she had to forcefeed him liquified dogfood and liquids and at times he could barely breathe. He messed himself in his bed at times. She practically lived at the vet with him, got second opinions and the antibiotics and such could barely handle the strain he had. One time I saw him and inwardly said goodbye to him as he was so very thin and ill, I was pretty sure he would die within 24 hours. Thankfully, he didn't. He did start to get well, finally gain weight & is now a little brick but oh, he was so sick. Poor boy had this the first 3 weeks she had him, having gotten him from the Animal Shelter and he was cute, fit and healthy when she brought him home, bright-eyed and darling, playing and exploring the house/yard. But within 30 hours or so, he started to cough a little and he just went down, down, down from there. They did so many blood tests, cultures and such on him and changed his meds, had him on so many things, I think her kennel cough bills in 2008 were about $1200.00 for 3 weeks of treatment & he was on one medication quite a while afterward that added to that amount. Twice he was at the vet overnight for 2 nights each, getting monitored, fluids and oxygen, etc. Every vet diagnosed kennel cough of a particularly virulent strain likely contracted from another dog when he was out loose or in the shelter.

My son works as a dog trainer at a dog training ranch, resort and rescue and he said they have had a bout with kennel cough running through their dogs that are there for the month in their training program. Said 1/4 of them sick to one degree or the other but one or two very sick and some, not at all. They stopped taking new trainees, vacationers or any dogs until all clear. It seems when they opened the rescue portion of the business, the kennel cough walked in, too, though the rescue dogs, most of whom likely haven't had recent Bordetella vacc., stay over a mile from the others and aren't allowed anywhere near each other or use any of the same facilities, play yards or anything and they had sanitation measures for workers to supposedly prevent transferring disease. So much for that! So I'm pretty well decided about giving Tibbe the vaccination for it until & if he has a reaction, at that time I'll make a decision after that whether he should try for another with pre-medication or something or just forego it and take his chances without the shot.