KENNEL COUGH VACCINE…USEFUL OR WORTHLESS?
KENNEL COUGH A.K.A CANINE INFECTIOUS TRACHEOBRONCHITIS!
Now you see why we call it Kennel Cough!
Once more Vicky our Holistic Vet has spotted articles circulating the internet which may or may not be giving their readers the whole story…this time the headline, “Kennel Cough Vaccine is a Waste of Money!”. So…..ready for a balanced review?
WHAT IS KENNEL COUGH?
Kennel Cough is properly known as Canine Infectious Tracheobronchitis. It is a highly contagious, complex respiratory disease of dogs. In healthy adult dogs it causes an annoying, hacking cough for up to four weeks, but in young puppies and older dogs it can have more serious consequences including pneumonia and death.
It is caused by a bacteria called Bordatella bronchiseptica with one of a number of viruses including Canine Parainfluenza virus, Canine Adenovirus and Canine Herpesvirus.
It is spread by coughing and sneezing but can also remain in the environment for a short time meaning direct dog to dog contact isn’t required.
IS MY DOG AT RISK FROM KENNEL COUGH?
We recommend all puppies and breeding bitches are vaccinated. Puppies have little natural immunity and infection in puppies can cause pneumonia, fading puppy syndrome and death.
We recommend old dogs and those with chronic respiratory diseases are also vaccinated, again because consequences could be severe for these dogs.
Most adult dogs are at risk of contracting Kennel Cough but as the disease is usually more annoying than dangerous in this group some owners choose not to vaccinate. Dogs are at higher risk of contracting kennel cough if they go to kennels, groomers, training classes, shows and competitions or ares used by multiple dogs.
DOES THE VACCINE WORK, AND IS IT SAFE?
It has been suggested that the Kennel Cough vaccine doesn’t work, but that’s not really true. Most vaccines contain modified live Bordatella and Parainfluenza and create good protection against these after 3 days (Bordatella) and 3 weeks (Parainfluenza). As mentioned many other viruses can be involved too so the dog is still at risk from these. Often dogs are not taken for vaccination until an outbreak has started, so may be incubating the disease already. Usually in a Kennel Cough outbreak vaccinated dogs are either fully protected, or get a milder form of the disease to unvaccinated dogs.
The vaccine creates local immunity by being given up the nose so is amongst the safest vaccinations. It can be used for pregnant bitches and pups from 3weeks old!
Reactions are rare but some dogs, especially brachycephalic breeds such as pugs, get a little snotty after vaccination.
The diseases in the vaccine are modified so the vaccinated dog can’t spread disease from the vaccine to other dogs. Cats, unvaccinated dogs and people can suffer mild and transient symptoms but won’t get full blown kennel cough. However dogs which have already had Kennel Cough can shed it for a long time, even for three months after vaccination.
HOW IS KENNEL COUGH TREATED?
If your dog does get Kennel Cough he may need very little treatment; in mild cases use honey to soothe the throat (some human cough medicines can be used too, but consult your vet!). If your dog seems miserable, or won’t eat your vet may prescribe anti-inflammatories. Only the most serious cases need antibiotics. If visiting your vet when you think your dog has Kennel Cough leave it in the car until the vet is ready for you to reduce spread. Kennel Cough also responds really well to herbal medicines (contact us if you would like a bespoke herbal preparation for your dog!).
SO SHOULD MY DOG GET THE KENNEL COUGH VACCINE?
Our best advice is to speak to your vet so you can decide between you the best course of action for your dog.
NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS?
TIME FOR SOME NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS?
*Switch your pet to a species appropriate diet….that means more meat and bones for cats, dogs and ferrets and more grass and hay for rabbits and guinea pigs!
*Speak to your vet about vaccinations; if they aren’t already using a vaccine which gives three years protection against Distemper, Hepatitis and Parvo and a years protection against 85% of the most dangerous current lepto strains ask them why not!
*If you really want to reduce the vaccines your dog receives ask about testing for Distemper, Hepatitis and Parvo antibodies; a new ‘in-house’ test makes this cheaper if you can get a group of interested dog owners together.
*Work your pets minds as well as their bodies! For cats and small pets active feeding is the easiest way to stimulate them. For dogs choose games suited to your breed.
*Don’t ignore little problems. An early vet visit can lead to early diagnosis and better treatment. Complementary medicine can be particularly useful at slowing down early symptoms of disease.
NEUTERING
TO NEUTER OR NOT TO NEUTER, THAT IS THE QUESTION…
In the UK neutering our pet cats and dogs has become the norm. Rehoming charities and vets recommend neutering for population control and health benefits but the internet abounds with websites warning owners against neutering so once again our vet Vicky Payne tries to cut through the hype from both sides and present a balanced view…
NEUTERING CATS
We’ll start with cats as the evidence is clearly in favour of neutering cats not intended for breeding. Female cats come into season for the first time around 6months and then be in season for about 3 days every 3 weeks! Female cats become very vocal while in season and some owners even think they have been in road accidents due to their horrible calls and odd posture. Female cats will try very hard to find males while in season and due to artificial heating and lighting seasons may continue through the winter months. Cats can become pregnant on their first season, when they are still kittens themselves and can become pregnant while still feeding a litter putting an enormous strain on them. Female cats which cycle but are not bred are at risk of pyometra (womb infection) and mammary tumours.
Male cats become sexually active from around 6 months too. They are more likely to roam and fight leaving them at higher risk of road accidents, abscesses and the cat viruses FIV and FeLV. Cats Protection has data suggesting the life expectancy of a free roaming entire male cat is less than 4 years. Entire male cast develop lovely big round faces….but they also develop very pungent urine, and a tendency to spray it on any vertical surface.
Cats have been neutered at 6months for a very long time and few concerns have been raised about the effect of neutering at this age. Some charities now recommend neutering at 3-4months, but it is as yet unclear if this carries any long term risks. Both male and female cats are at higher risk of obesity after neutering, but this can be avoided by active feeding of an appropriate diet.
NEUTERING MALE DOGS
Male dog become fertile from around 6months and many owners find their cute puppy turns into a horrible teenager during his adolescence. Castration can help with some behavioural issues, but can make others worse so in most cases it is better to work through adolescence then consider neutering.
Neutering males removes the risk of testicular tumours and unwanted litters and reduces the risk of perianal tumours and perineal hernias. It increases the risk of obesity (but as with cats, this can be managed) and possibly some joint problems; though it is hard to tease out whether this is a direct effect or castration or secondary to obesity. Some uncommon cancers may be more common in castrated dogs but even doubling the risk of a really rare cancer still makes it really rare. The biggest concern is that neutering can increase the risk of osteosarcoma (bone cancer) in breeds prone to it (e.g. Irish Wolfhounds, Rottweilers)by 50-100%! Properly trained and managed entire male dogs need not become aggressive towards dogs or humans but if you live in an area with lots of entire bitches your dog may become noisy and distracted when bitches are in season.
If, after discussion with your vet, you feel neutering is the best thing for you and your male dog the next question is when to do it. Most vets offer neutering for males from 6months old, just before puberty. This has few behavioural or health affects on small and toy dogs but large, active or working dogs may be better left until they have been through puberty and their bones have stopped growing (9-18months depending on size/breed). There is some evidence that large breeds neutered before their bones are fully grown can have altered ratios of length of bone. How this affects them is unknown but it may leave them more at risk of injuries. It is common in America and Australia for puppies to be neutered at 12-16weeks. This is not common in the UK and the risks/benefits are not clear. It is important when reading internet posts about ‘early’ neutering to know if they mean 3-4months or 6-7months (pre-puberty) as the effects could be quite different.
NEUTERING FEMALE DOGS
Female dogs usually come into season for the first time between 6 and 18months and then every 6-12months. They have a bloody discharge from their vulva and will be attractive to dogs for 3-4weeks (and most fertile at around 14days). Having a bitch in season can be messy and it can be difficult to manage exercise if you have to walk in areas where dog are off the lead. After her season your bitch may suffer from a false pregnancy as she will have the same hormone changes whether mated or not (weird, huh). In most bitches this just means she gets a little soppy and her mammary glands swell but others can become very upset with painful swollen mammary glands and behavioural changes. Neutering removes the risk of unwanted pregnancies, pyometra (life threatening womb infection) and tumours of the womb and ovaries and reduces the risk of mammary tumours. As in males it increases the risk of obesity and of osteosarcoma in high risk breeds. Coat changes can be seen in long coated dogs (of either sex), but these can be managed through stripping or clipping. In most cases there are more benefits to neutering females if you don’t plan to breed, or in neutering her after her breeding career is over.
If you decide that neutering is the best option for your bitch when should you have it done? As with males many practices offer neutering at 6months, just before puberty. Again this is most suitable for small and toy breeds, but may be the best option for any bitch if her owners don’t have the facilities to cope with a bitch in season. The traditional time for neutering bitches is 3months after her first season when she will be physically and mentally more mature. Neutering before 2years of age causes the greatest reduction in mammary tumour removal risk. If bitches are kept entire for showing or breeding it is advisable to consider neutering at 7-8years old; the mammary tumour risk won’t be reduced but pyometra is increasingly common in bitches of this age and can be life threatening. As with males, a few vets offer neutering at 12-16weeks so when doing research make sure you understand what is meant in the article by ‘early’ neutering.
SO, TO NEUTER OR NOT?
The decision to neuter should be an individual one and the recommendations will vary with every dog and owner combination. Some vets can seem ‘gung-ho’ in their approach, booking pets in as soon as they have completed their vaccination course, but if you have concerns about neutering your vet will be happy to discuss them.
MIRACLE CANCER CURES!
MIRACLE CANCER CURES!
If you’ve been following the Four Seasons Holistic Veterinary Care blog for a while you’re probably not expecting a post which is actually about a miracle cancer cure, but with cancer a common cause of early death for our pets it’s not surprising that many owners are searching for miracles…or that there are regular articles claiming to have found them. Today we look at three ‘miracle’ cures and try to find what hope they really offer.
GREEN TEA CURES LYMPHOMA IN DOGS!
There are several good studies showing that artificially induced cancers in mice can be inhibited by the use of extracts of green tea but often the doses and preparations used are not easy to transfer to larger animals such as dogs or people. Recently a paper has been doing the rounds which seems to offer a lifeline to the many dogs diagnoses with lymphoma each year. The basic gist is that a really sick, 7 year old Labrador cross showed dramatic improvement with treatment including green tea and was still alive and happy nearly a year later. Brilliant…so let’s put the kettle on! Or, not.
This paper is limited in it’s usefulness as it’s a single case study. It’s impossible to know what would have happened if the dog had not received the green tea as part of it’s chemotherapy protocol. Lymphoma is not a single entity in dogs; there are types which will kill most patients in a couple of weeks not matter what treatment is tried, others where the dogs would be expected to live for nearly two years with no treatment at all and some where life expectancy can be improved with chemotherapy. It is important to note that green tea was used alongside conventional drugs in this paper and though it may have worked synergistically it’s hard to see that the tea alone could have improved the dog so dramatically. Then we get to the tea itself! This is not the stuff you buy in the supermarket…the tea used was selected for high levels of green tea catechins and brewed in a very specific way to ensure these were not lost or damaged.
So, this paper offers some hope but a lot more research would be needed including randomised, blinded trials with large numbers of dogs before we could claim this to be a miracle.
CV247
This combination of vitamins, minerals and aspirin was designed by a vet to treat cancers. There are a number of papers showing that it can delay the return of cancer after surgery in mice and dogs as well as an increase in wellbeing, and now there is some evidence that it can kill cancer cells from human trials on breast and bowel cancer too. Studies of prostate cancer patient using CV247 did not show huge increases in life expectancy but patients did feel better in most cases.
CV247 is certainly not a miracle cure, and the aspirin content limits it’s usefulness in some dogs and particularly in cats but it offers a relatively safe and cheap therapy, especially for preventing the return of solid cancers which can be removed.
A spanner has fallen into the CV247 works however…the company which has taken over it’s production has tripled the wholesale cost of the product, despite it’s fairly cheap ingredients and increasing demand. While it remains cheap in terms of human cancer therapies the cost is rapidly becoming prohibitive for the animal patients it was originally designed for.
INTERNET MAGIC PILLS
It would be wrong to mention brand names but there are several ‘miracle’ herbal cancer cures being sold on the internet. Most contain a large number of ingredients all of which have some scientific or historical literature to support their use in cancer. None have been tested as a complete product in a randomised, controlled way though some have glowing case studies and testimonials (with the same limitations as the green tea case).
At Four Seasons we are always wary of herbal medicines that don’t come from our trusted suppliers as there have been many cases of substitution, adulteration and otherwise poor quality herbs being sold. We also think that a scattergun approach of giving small amounts of a large number of herbs will be less effective than preparing an individualised herbal tonic using herbs with evidence relevant to that particular patient.
MIRACLE CANCER CURES? SADLY, NO.
So far we’ve yet to find a magic cure for cancer, but we’ll keep looking. And in the meantime we have many ways of treating and supporting pets with cancer to ensure they live with the disease with a good quality of life for as long as possible.