It is NOT the Norm to give antibiotics for Kennel Cough ONLY if secondary problems arise with this. I had MANY cases in my house from the dogs I get out of the pound and the Norm is to use cough meds and wait it out. See below.

HOW IS IT TREATED?
Many dogs that contract Kennel Cough will display only minor signs of coughing that may last seven to ten days and will not require any medication at all. The majority of dogs with the disease continue to eat, sleep, play and act normally... except for that annoying, dry, non-productive coughing that seems so persistent. It is always a good idea, though, to have any dog examined if coughing is noticed because some very serious respiratory diseases such as Blastomycosis, Valley Fever, Heartworms and even cardiac disease might display similar sounding coughing. Your veterinarian, through a careful physical exam and questioning regarding the dog's recent environment, will be able to establish if the dog's respiratory signs are from kennel Cough or some other respiratory insult.

Treatment is generally limited to symptomatic relief of the coughing with non-prescription, and occasionally prescription, cough suppressants. If the dog is running a fever or there seems to be a persistent and severe cough, antibiotics are occasionally utilized to assist the dog in recovering from Kennel Cough. It can happen that secondary bacterial invaders will complicate a case of Kennel Cough and prolong the recovery and severely affect the upper airway. Therefore the use of antibiotics is determined on an individual basis

I use a Mobile Groomer.... they come to my house and have a converted van with all the equipment...
I love it .... I don't have to take my furbabies to them,.,, and don't have to worry about them being around any other dogs..
It is pretty common around here....

I can get the bordetella nasal vac from a local vet here for $8 & you just split the dosage half in each nostril-so easy & protects them all year. And I use store brand strawberry yogurt, it seems to be less sweet. I give about 5 spoon fulls. You can kinda imagine your dogs little tummy. I give mine a tummy full. I get GV strawberry it does have some shunks of strawberry but not a whole lot. I hope your pup is getting better. You will want to make sure all other pets that live or visit your home getthe vac too.

From the day we got Missy, she had this horrible cough... after reading all the info on the site, I thought it was just the reverse sneeze... but on Saturday we went to the vet for her 3rd set of puppy shots and told him about the coughing... he said it was the kennel cough... Is that the same as the canine cough? Anyway, he gave us a cough suppressant (sp ch) and an antibiotic. So now I've been trying to find all this info on the meds he gave us.

First of all the cough suppresant we have is called hydrocodan (not coden it's really with an "a") which is red in colour and cherry flavored. We have to give that to Missy 3 times a day for 10 days. Marcerella - this makes me wonder whether you have a cough suppresant, or antibiotics... i guess there could be different ones out there.

Second med is the antibiotic and it's white, banana flavored and needs to be given ever 12 hours.

The vet said that the meds will make her drowsy... OMG was that ever an understatement!! She's completely KNOCKED OUT!!!! we lift her up and she just lays right back down... for a second, i had her sleeping on my tummy with me, and i had to check for breathing cuz she just seemed so lifeless... we experimented a bit yesterday and realized that it's the antibiotic that's knocking her out, and not the cough suppresant. We gave her the antibiotics with the cough suppressant on sunday at 6am and 6pm she totally knocked out...then just the cough suppressant at around 11 pm and she was pretty active still, so we figure it's the antibiotic... but either way, her cough is almost gone, sleepless nights are gone, but now it sounds like she has the hiccups sometimes... I'll be asking the vet about that in 2 weeks since he didn't want to give her the puppy shot until this cough cleared up... BTW, vet said that we got Missy when she was at the tail end of the cough... and since it's been a while, she needs the antibiotics.

Sorry for the long post!!!

Marcerella, does your little one pass out after you give the meds?

I always get my dogs the bordetalla shot, because you never know when they may come in contact with another dog that has kennel cough. My vet won't allow my dogs to be kept there if he has to watch them when I have to go away.

Which type of vaccine do you get for them and how often???? Do you have a really good vet you like. I see you go to the flea market in Port Richey so I think we live in the same general area. I'm looking for another vet.