Saturday, August 28, 2010

Vaccinating against kennel cough

We are fostering a rescue dog (adorable Finn-- check out his special blog with video and details here )and in order to protect my dogs from any viruses or bacteria he may have from the animal shelter, I should have vaccinated them against kennel cough a few weeks before we fostered him. But the series of events didn't happen that way, and I hadn't kept up with my dogs' bordatella (kennel cough) vaccinations so they are, in fact, vulnerable.  Here is a video of what kennel cough sounds like (and it can also sound worse than this):


But it's not a big deal. It's like being vulnerable to a cold. But the coughing that accompanies kennel cough can keep a light sleeper like me awake at night. So even though I'm late in doing this, I decided to catch up and get my dogs vaccinated.

I found out that many places around the South Bay offer vaccination clinics on Saturdays, but we didn't think of this till late Saturday night so we missed them. The cost for a bordatella vaccination is $20 per dog (and it lasts about 6 months).

I logged onto PetcareRX.com, and was able to order 6 doses (an entire year's worth) for all 3 dogs for $8 per dose (which includes the $23 overnight shipping charge). And they give you points for previous orders, so I even got a further discount. Ya gotta love that. I like the savings but the real perk here is that they'll have it to me by Tuesday at the latest, allowing me to vaccinate my dogs and not have to wait for a vaccination clinic next Saturday. The vaccine takes at least a week to kick in, so if my dogs have already been exposed to kennel cough from other dogs at the dog park, or from our rescue dog, it's too late to stop it. But as I said, it's not a big deal.

I also vaccinate my own dogs for distemper and parvo, using this same company (and they sell the syringes and needles too). I'm vaccinating no more than every 3 years for these, which is what the American Veterinary Association recommends. (I mention this because many boarding kennels still expect you to have your dog vaccinated for these once a year, and that's not in your dog's best interest).

For more info on kennel cough, watch this video:

1 comment:

  1. One more thing-- it seems that the vaccine you squirt up their nostrils is far more effective than the injection, which according to this study didn't work any better than a placebo:
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17447223

    (I bought the nasal vaccine).

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