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Kennel cough and doggy day care

Hello,

I bring my little dog to doggy daycare once a week. They do require Bordetella(sp?) vaccine and she just got her biannual booster last week. This week she came back from doggy daycare and started developing a cough. The next day it became quite severe and she’s still coughing and clearly having respiratory issues 4 days later. Vet said to just monitor her as long as she wasn’t vomiting or acting out of the ordinary.

Anyway, the next day after doggy daycare I texted the daycare and told them she was developing a respiratory bug and wanted to let them know. They texted back and said “Yes, we have kennel cough going around right now. That’s probably what she has.”

So I just wanted to ask other dog people before my blood pressure explodes lol, in doggy daycare or boarding do you just accept there’s going to be kennel cough going around? I mean, to where you don’t think it’s important to be told about it? Or am I right to be annoyed that they knew they had kennel cough ‘going around’ and didn’t tell anyone? I don’t want to be unreasonable if this is just something that is impossible to avoid and it’s just expected to be around at kennels.

I’m debating about whether it’s worth it to keep bringing her. It’s kind of a PITA for me to bring her there and it’s not cheap. This is the second time she’s come down with a respiratory thing but the first time it was very very mild and went away in about a day. It’s otherwise a very well-respected daycare with a waiting list. Dogs get to run out in a large fenced-in field and are always monitored.

I worked at a dog daycare for about six years, it was my end of high school/college money job. Very well-respected, and I’d happily leave my dogs there now. All that being said, unfortunately kennel cough does just “go around” since it’s so easy to pass and there are a few strains or ways it can start. Even taking all possible precautions as this place most likely is, it can be introduced in to the building and spread pretty quickly so it’s a risk we all take letting our dogs interact. It is impossible to completely avoid.

That being said, if they were aware of a round of it, I don’t think it’s responsible not to inform you as a client. Of course it’s super uncomfortable and worrying as a business, but you need to be able to make your own decisions about your animal so I definitely don’t think you’re wrong to be angry in that sense.

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I’ve been using a doggy daycare regularly for about 3 years and there has never been a case of kennel cough. I would expect to be warned if it were going around and I would not return to a kennel that knowingly let me bring my dog to an infested kennel without warning. If my dog picked it up early in the outbreak before the kennel operators knew it was a problem, I would forgive that. But knowing and not warning is neglect in my mind.

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A lot of people don’t bother to vaccinate against kennel cough because even when vaccinated, it’s not terribly effective and kennel cough is not typically serious. It has a wide incubation period so often by the time a kennel/day care has a suspected case, your dog has likely been exposed already. It would have been better that they inform owners so that you would then know what the symptoms might mean, but depending on the size, location and time of year, it might be constant risk. Kind of like a human daycare - if they notified parents every time “colds are going around” it would be constant.

I probably wouldn’t use an episode of kennel cough to decide on whether or not to use a dog daycare; but if it’s already a pain in the rear it might be time to quit it.

Kennel cough is one of those things that happens even when a kennel tries to make sure it never happens.

I like @S1969 example, just like a daycare.

Would I be frustrated that my dog is sick? Most certainly. Would it be enough for me to stop using a service if everything else there is fine? Not even close.

Thanks for your responses. It otherwise seems to be a good place.

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