The problem: Kennel cough Vet’s advice

“I vaccinated all my dogs against kennel cough last year but, despite this, they still coughed. What’s the point of vaccination?”

Unfortunately, like so many other aspects of life, things are not as simple as they seem. Take the name kennel cough for starters. It implies that the condition involves a cough that the dog contracts in a kennel, but this is rarely the case. It would be better if the condition was referred to as infectious tracheobronchitis. This is at least factually correct in that the disease is infectious and involves inflammation of the trachea and bronchus. But that is where the trouble starts.

What’s the problem?

There are many infectious agents that can cause respiratory disease in dogs, with the list being as long as a wolfhound’s windpipe: • Canine adenovirus • Canine distemper virus • Canine parainfluenza virus • Canine influenza virus • Canine herpes virus • Canine coronavirus • Bordetella bronchiseptica • Streptococcus • Mycoplasma canis

All very well, you might think, but the kennel cough vaccine only protects against two of these bugs — bordetella bronchiseptica and parainfluenza — which explains why some vaccinated dogs will still cough and takes us back to your question: what’s the point?

What is bordetella bronchiseptica?

Bordetella is a bacterium named after Jules Bordet, a Belgian immunologist and Nobel Prize winner. Bordet, with the help of his