May 21, 2012

Does Your Dog Have Canine Respiratory Infection?

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Recently both my dogs caught a Canine Respiratory Infection (was this Kennel Cough again?). Stetson caught the cold first and about 5 days later Linus was showing similar symptoms. It seemed to me like it was just a common cold the same one I’d get as a kid playing with all my friends on the playground. When I look back I think Stetson caught the cold in similar fashion that is playing with a group of his doggy friends. One of his friends must have had the same respiratory infection and past it on the Stetson.

Canine Respiratory Infection Symptoms

A few days after one of Stetson’s play dates he started showing symptoms of a cold. He first started blowing out his nose like there was some kind of blockage. I took a closer look and it appeared that he had a runny nose. He also started wheezing, sneezing, and hyperventilating from time to time. Besides all that Stetson acted as if nothing was wrong…his behavior was normal. I checked in with Guide Dogs of America and they asked me to bring Stetson into the veterinarian.

Veterinarian’s Recommendation

Sick Dog

The veterinarian took a look at Stetson and also observed many of the symptoms I mentioned above. After a few minutes she recommended he start taking antibiotics. He was prescribed Doxycyclin and was to take one pill twice a day for ten days. After about seven days I noticed Stetson’s symptoms cleared up.

Antibiotics Vs. No Antibiotics

If you recall when both Stetson and Linus had kennel cough I kept Linus off the antibiotics to see if his symptoms would clear up on their own. Here’s a link to that article:

My Dog’s Got Kennel Cough…Now What?

I tried the same idea of antibiotics vs. no antibiotics with the canine respiratory infection.

Linus had the same symptoms as Stetson, but unlike Stetson I didn’t put Linus on antibiotics. I decided that because Linus did not have a loss of energy or act any differently besides his respiratory infection that I would keep him off antibiotics. I figured Linus would get better on his own after all I don’t run to the doctor at the first sign of a cold. So, I let Linus’s natural immune system fight off his infection and after about 5 days he stopped showing signs of the canine respiratory infection.

Has your dog or puppy had a canine respiratory infection? Did you give your dog antibiotics?

Related posts:

  1. What To Do If Your Dog Has Kennel Cough
  2. My Older Dog is Disoriented, Unbalanced, and Confused
  3. Dog Training – AKC’s Canine Good Citizen (CGC) Program
  4. How And Where To Purchase Canine Good Citizen Tags
  5. Stetson Took The Canine Good Citizen Test And He…

About Colby

Colby Morita is a puppy raiser for Guide Dogs of America and has been raising and training puppies for over 6 years. He's been writing to the PuppyInTraining.com blog and sharing his puppy training tips from his experiences as a guide dog puppy raiser since August, 2007.

You can follow Colby at Facebook | YouTube | Twitter | Google+

Comments

  1. Emi says:

    My 3 cats were around a dog that had the canine respiratory infection….they are currently sneezing…can cats catch this infection from a dog? Thanks for any input on this.

  2. Colby says:

    I’m not too sure if cats can catch infections from a dog. However, both my dogs were around my mother’s 3 cats and my sister’s cat while they were sick and none of the cats got sick.

  3. nice article..do not let our pets attacked respiratory disease. I realy hate respiratory infection.. .

  4. Pam says:

    I have to pomeranians who are seniors now, my oldest dog is 14 and my younger one
    is 9. I took them into the vet for annual shots and ect. The vet said my older dog had
    a respiratory infection. My older dog coughs sometimes, not all the time, and I gave
    that to old age. She prescribed anitbotics and a drug to open breathing passage way.
    Well the drug to open to open breathing way, made my dog pant and shake and I thought
    he was dieing. I stopped giving him the breathing drug and all the panting and shaking stopped.

  5. Colby says:

    @Pam, I hope you’re dog is feeling better today.

Trackbacks

  1. [...] assumed my two dogs had kennel cough and luckily already had a vet appointment set up for Stetson’s ear (he developed an ear [...]

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