She thought her dogs had contracted kennel cough. Also known as canine infectious tracheobronchitis, dogs commonly contract it at places where large numbers of animals congregate, like boarding kennels, daycare facilities, dog parks, dog training groups, and dog shows, but Wendy Brown then found out that was not the case. The cause was more insidious and mysterious.
“Dooley started doing kind of this huffing and also seemed to feel quite lethargic,” Brown recalled to “Good Morning America.” “Not too long after, Bridge began to exhibit the symptoms. But his were louder, more boisterous. I thought it was his stomach because he made like a retching sound.”
When the presumed kennel cough persisted, Brown took her dogs to the vet, who “started him on a 10-day cycle of doxycycline. Today was day 10 and he is not a lot better,” Brown said.
While research is underway, veterinarians say the mystery illness is highly contagious and can be fatal. Reported symptoms so far have also been typical of a kennel cough and they include coughing, sneezing, nasal and/or eye discharge and lethargy.
“Instead of that dry cough where the dog felt good, it was now this wet cough where the dog felt sick,” Amanda Cavanagh, the section head of the urgent care service at Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, told “GMA.”
Experts like Cavanagh said any dogs showing signs of persistent coughing should be taken to a vet to be examined.
“We can ultrasound the lungs to see if there is a problem that is related to pneumonia or the contagious pneumonia that seems to be going around,” Cavanagh said.
Cavanagh also recommends keeping any coughing dogs away from other dogs and for two weeks after the cough goes away.
