Dog virus can be deadly
Kennel cough reaching epidemic proportions in Yk

Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 20/99) - There is a highly contagious, airborne virus spreading throughout the dog population of Yellowknife that has pet owners worried sick over the health of their dogs.

An adeno virus, called kennel cough, has affected about 80 per cent of the dogs in Yellowknife and continues to spread on the wind through contact with other dogs and their owners.

Kennel cough is not in itself a serious illness, but the symptoms can be deadly, said Dr. Tom Pisz of the Great Slave Animal Hospital.

"The virus is growing very rapidly," Pisz warned. "It is an upper-respiratory infection caused by a virus bacteria combination."

Owners can recognize the illness by a number of characteristic symptoms he said.

"The symptoms can be very sudden, with coughing, gagging and trying to vomit," he said. "The symptoms themselves look worse than they really are -- the coughing and gagging looks like the dog is having convulsions."

Pisz says the scratchy throat brought on by the virus will force dogs to try and scratch the itch by swallowing grass, rocks and plastic bags, to name a few.

"The dog will also try to eat foreign objects, like foxtail grass," Pisz explained. "We've never ever seen a dog die from kennel cough, but we've seen several dogs die from the foreign objects they swallow."

"Foxtail grass has these little hooks on it and theses little hooks are very sharp and they can get caught in the throat," he added. "It causes even worse irritation, but the dogs will continue to eat more and more because they think if they can scratch it, it will get better."

It is through this ingestion of other objects where the dogs can really run into trouble, he said.

"Kennel cough itself is not a deadly disease, it's like a flu -- if it's treated or not treated, it will probably pass away, but the things with dogs eating foreign objects, it can be very dangerous," he said.

"We had a dog here yesterday who was one of the musher's dogs and he had swallowed about 600 rocks because he was trying to scratch his throat by swallowing these rocks," Pisz said.

Keep an eye on your pet, the vet warned. If he exhibits these symptoms, you must keep him from trying to swallow.

"Watch your dogs. If they eat a lot of grass or anything else, you have to stop him from that."

"The most important thing is not to let them eat a foreign object, because that can lead to complications including death," he said.

Dr. Pisz said it could be that the virus is evolving into a hardier strain because the vaccination for kennel cough is not always effective.

"There is a vaccination which we administer to every dog, but it doesn't give them full protection," he said. "Some dogs even after vaccination still get kennel cough while some will never get it."

As far as a cure, owners need only reach to their own medicine cabinets, the doctor said.

"Just human cough syrup helps," he advised. "We usually use Benilyn with codeine, it works the best."

"It calms them down a little bit and soothes the symptoms," he said.

"Basically about a teaspoon for a small dog three times a day or a tablespoon for a big dog would be sufficient."