Could Your Senior Dog Have Kennel Cough?

As the holidays approach, many people have to board their dogs. Like a child exposed to all the germs at school, senior dogs can be extremely susceptible to kennel cough.  Unlike a child that can cover their mouth when they cough, this is a highly contagious illness for dogs.

What is Kennel Cough?

Kennel cough is a respiratory illness that dogs can catch when they are around other infected dogs, whether it’s in a shelter, dog park, rescue center or boarding facility. Although most of us pet parents know it as kennel cough, the official name is canine infectious respiratory disease or CID. When a dog has kennel cough his trachea and bronchi are inflamed.

To read more on this story, click here: Could Your Senior Dog Have Kennel Cough?

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Kennel Cough In Dogs

If your dog is hacking away or constantly making noises that make it sound like they are choking on something, they may have a case of kennel cough, or canine infectious tracheobronchitis. Although kennel cough can sound terrible, most of the time it is not a serious condition, and most dogs will recover without treatment.

What is Kennel Cough?

Just as human colds may be caused by many different viruses, kennel cough itself can have multiple causes. One of the most common culprits is a bacterium called Bordetella bronchiseptica m-- which is why kennel cough is often called Bordetella. Most dogs that become infected with Bordetella are infected with a virus at the same time. These viruses, which are known to make dogs more susceptible to contracting Bordetella infection, include canine adenovirus, canine distemper virus, canine herpes virus, parainfluenza virus and canine reovirus.

To read more on this story, click here: Kennel Cough In Dogs

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Meet Simon, The Pit Bull with The World’s Best Eyebrows and His Dedicated Foster Parents

While many people look at shelter websites only when they’re looking to get a companion animal for themselves, there are others who will look at these sites frequently to lend a hand as a foster parent. These foster homes become a place for pups to escape euthanasia on their quest to find forever homes. 

A woman by the name of Stephanie is one of these people. After successfully finding a family for her first foster dog, Kane, Stephanie decided to try the endeavor again. As she was scrolling through the Secondhand Hounds shelter website, one particular dog caught her eye: a Pit Bull with incredibly expressive and bold, black eyebrows. This goofy-looking pup was so uniquely adorable, Stephanie and her friend Kristy decided to co-foster him. 

They went and picked him up, ushering him into a new chapter of life. Considering all of the wrongful stereotypes against Pit Bulls and the fact that they sadly have a 93 percent euthanasia rate at shelters, this kind act was the difference between life and death for this pup.

This is Simon, likely one of the most unique Pitties you have ever seen.

Simon is a very lucky pup who was a part of a litter of 13 that escaped euthanasia in the nick of time when he was picked up by Secondhand Hounds, along with the rest of his family.

Stephanie and Kristy aren’t Simon’s first parents. This adorable pup was returned by his former adopted family because of housing complications. 
Since his parents spoke a different language, Simon arrived at Stephanie’s home unable to understand basic commands or his name in English.
However, slowly but surely, Simon was able to pick up some of these commands and started getting along swimmingly with Stephanie’s other dogs.

Unfortunately, when Simon arrived at Stephanie’s house, he began coughing. After the sickness was diagnosed as kennel cough, Stephanie knew that getting him adopted would take a little longer than she anticipated. He would have to stay in quarantine for a few weeks.

Since all Simon had learned about life was from within a kennel, he didn’t have many house manners. He’d jump onto tables, steal food from counters, and barked at anything he saw outside.

A few applications were submitted to adopt Simon, but none of them were a right fit. Eventually, Stephanie decided to adopt Simon herself!

Now, Simon is getting better at behaving and even participates in dock diving, a sport where dogs get to jump, swim, and play in water and then are scored based on their jumps.

Simon loves this activity immensely and spectators always recognize the “dog with the eyebrows.”

Stephanie knew that handling and training Simon would be a big project but after fostering him for several weeks, her love for him outweighed all of the work that lay ahead of her.

It can be extremely easy to see a difficult-to-manage dog and deem them as “too big of a burden” to welcome into your home. However, dogs are just like children. Just like it would be wrong to go into an adoption agency and try to pick and choose the perfect human child, it is wrong to go through a kennel and completely ignore all of the dogs with behavioral imperfections. 

Simon may have started off as a somewhat unruly dog who did not know how to follow commands and did not know any manners. However, as Stephanie proves, with a little patience and a whole lot of love, any dog can be turned into a wonderful companion animal. Not to mention, Simon has become an unofficial ambassador for Pit Bulls and illustrates that this breed of dog is just as loving and playful as any other dog. 

Simon’s adorable face allows people to see past all of the negative stereotypes this breed has and see Simon for who he really is, just another dog who wants love and has tons of it to give in return. 

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A Sudden Outbreak of the Canine Influenza Virus Has Reportedly Been Spreading Throughout the Chicago Area Over in Recent Weeks

It might be spring, but flu season is far from over, especially for man’s best friend.
A sudden outbreak of the Canine Influenza Virus has reportedly been spreading throughout the Chicago area over in recent weeks.

According to Kimberly Cerny, the practice manager at Blum Animal Hospital in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood, veterinarians in the area have seen a “drastic increase in the number of severe upper respiratory cases coming into their practices and at Blum” within the past two weeks.

Cerny says there have already been numerous confirmed cases of Canine Influenza, including two that were fatal.

She attributes causes of the Canine Influenza outbreak to the higher amount of dogs boarding due to spring break and the number of dogs in doggie day care each day in the city.

Last week, the Medical District Veterinary Clinic at Illinois reported a large number of coughing dogs in Chicago, most with a history of frequenting daycare, boarding facilities and dog parks. The facility said a vaccine for the influenza is "on the market" but has not been widely used because of "the low risk of canine influenza."

Canine Influenza Virus causes an upper respiratory disease in dogs with symptoms closely mimicking those of Kennel Cough. Dogs show signs of high fever, increased respiratory rate and pneumonia in severe cases.

Vets recommend avoiding dog-to-dog contact when possible and vaccinating dogs at high risk. The virus can survive 48 hours on hard surfaces and 24 hours on clothing. 

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Three Critical Problems With The Kennel Cough Vaccine (And What You Need to do About Them)

I’m willing to bet that …

When your dog’s daycare, training facility or kennel asks for a kennel cough vaccine, you vaccinate your dog … am I right?

And why wouldn’t you? You want to protect your dog (and other dogs) from illness and you trust your vet or daycare provider to have your dog’s best interests at heart, like any caring dog lover would.

But I’m here to tell you some things that will make you question whether the kennel cough vaccines your dog has been getting are actually in his best interests …

To read more on this story, click here: Three Critical Problems With The Kennel Cough Vaccine (And What You Need to do About Them)

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6 Common Illnesses to Watch for in Puppies

Your puppy is brand new and you want to protect him. The best thing you can do is to feed him a healthy, balanced diet, says Dr. Jim Dobies, a veterinarian with South Point pet hospital in Charlotte, N.C., and a member of the North Carolina Veterinary Medical Association.

To read more on this story, click here: 6 Common Illnesses to Watch for in Puppies

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Fundraiser to Save Sick Pit Bull Was Derailed by Fake Online Donations - Fraudulent Donations Have Been Removed and Account is Now Being Monitored

Felines & Canines, a no-kill animal shelter based in Chicago, decided to take in Sheba, a 3-year-old pit bull from a local intake facility, they thought the sick dog had a mild case of kennel cough. But after examination, the shelter discovered that Sheba was stricken with the potentially deadly virus Parvo.

The dog was given a blood transfusion and monitored closely by a veterinary technician at the Animal Care Center of Chicago. But with some complications, Sheba's medical care quickly became too extensive for Felines & Canines to afford on their own. So the shelter started a GoFundMe campaign to try to raise money to help cover the costs.

And according to a report from NBC Chicago, the money began to pour in. But many of the donations-some of $550 or more-turned out to be fraudulent. Scammers who were testing out stolen credit cards on the crowdfunding site likely caused the phony donations.

The shelter was immediately disheartened and worried that donors would lose faith in the validity of the fundraising effort.

GoFundMe said in a statement that they caught the fraudulent donations early and were able to remove them from the campaign. The website team has also promised to monitor the campaign closely to make sure scammers do not keep inflating the total.

Sheba remains in critical care at the Animal Care Center of Chicago, but an update on the campaign website explains that is making baby steps towards recovery. The team is taking it "hour-by-hour and day-by-day." Any donations received that exceed the cost of Sheba's medical care will go directly to helping other animals in need.

Currently the donations on Sheba's GoFundMe page are just shy of $16,000-a huge excess of the original $1,500 that was asked for by the shelter. Hopefully all of those donations are real and this amazing pit bull gets the highest quality medical care.

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