# Kennel Cough and Antibiotics :(



## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

Jack (and several other dogs we know) picked up kennel cough at a show 2 weeks ago. He started showing symptoms last Sunday and Chloe started showing symptoms the following day. Our vet was a little concerned that Jack had a fairly high fever (of 105) so she put them both on Cephalexin to head off any potential secondary infection. 

Chloe is doing fine taking her medicine and eating normally, but it's really upsetting Jack's stomach...to the point where we're in a bit of a vicious cycle of eating, keeping food down, eating again and giving the pill with the food, then he pukes up everything. We're giving him rice and ground beef and that seems to be helping a bit since he'll actually eat it, but I'm kind of at a loss on what to do short of taking him back to the vet for IV antibiotics. He seems to be feeling normal otherwise and is playing, drinking, pooping, and urinating normally. (Well pooping normally for the amount of food actually making it through his system  ) He just won't eat his regular food and is throwing up almost everything he eats when he takes the pills. This morning is the first time he's kept down his food and the pill, but I'm only cautiously optimistic that it'll actually stay down. 

Has anyone else ever been prescribed Cephalexin (or another medication) and had this problem? What did you do to settle his/her stomach when they took the pills?

I'll be calling our vet today for advice, but I always like to get suggestions from the forum since there are so many experienced people on here.


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

How is the cough itself and the fever at this point?


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

My Jacks was given the same meds when he had his bout with KC last year. In his case he was coughing so hard or so much he was even vomiting water so that first visit with the vet or that first day he was given antinausea meds to help keep his stomach settled. But after 3 or 4 days he started getting better and I don't remember him actually throwing up or sick from the meds.

I'd check with the vet. Best of luck with the poor guy. I remember panicking when our vet said it might take 2 weeks to get through his system. 2 weeks of coughing and vomiting...


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

Ljilly28 said:


> How is the cough itself and the fever at this point?


The fever has gone away, he's been at a normal temp since Tuesday night. They are both still coughing but it's definitely better than it was.


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

Megora said:


> I remember panicking when our vet said it might take 2 weeks to get through his system. 2 weeks of coughing and vomiting...


Exactly! He's supposed to get his pills 3 times a day, too! They are already scheduled to go back next friday but she said if there was no improvement in a couple days they needed to come back. There's definitely been an improvement, which is good. Maybe I'll see if they'll prescribe him a couple days of anti-nausea medicine so he can keep his food and medicine down.


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

I just talked to the vet tech, they were having some phone issues due to our power outage last night and this morning. (I'd just like to point out that having a vomiting dog with no power at your house really sucks, btw.) She is talking to the vet but they told me to stop the pills for the moment. She suspects the vet will either switch the medication completely for him or have him take an antacid with the pills. I've never heard of giving a dog an antacid before....is that weird?


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

My Toby has the same problem with Cephalexin. Ask if they can give him Simplicef instead, it similar to cephalexin but much easier to tolerate, and it's one pill, once a day (and costs a small fortune).
It's quite common to give dogs antacids.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

He can take a different antibiotic, but if his symptoms have already calmed down, there may be no point. Vets prescribe antibiotics with KC in order to prevent pneumonia, not because it helps the KC (which is viral). If the symptoms are already past their peak, the antibiotic may be overkill anyway.

But keep Cephalexin on your list of meds he reacts to so you don't end up with it in the future in a situation where keeping down the antibiotics is actually the difference between life and death, rather than just a prophylactic measure.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

One of my dogs is sensitive to antibiotics; there are some we have found he can take without becoming ill. Sometimes it takes some experimentation to figure out, but if your dog cannot keep the pills down, they aren't doing him any good.


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

I totally forgot Pepto Bismol is an antacid. That's what they suggested. I don't know what antacid I was thinking about. 

I will definitely put Cephalexin on his Do Not Prescribe list going forward. I know it's viral, but the concern was that he presented with a fever versus just the cough. Chloe had a slight temperature at the vet (not as high as Jack's though) which is why she gave them to her too. 

On a positive note, he has still kept down all his food today so far! Fingers crossed that the vomiting has stopped.


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## Tuckers Mom (Nov 12, 2010)

When I got Tucker from the rescue, He was newly vaccinated, but had kennel cough really bad. He was on Doxycycline for the KC and he tolerated that really well. I also gave him pepcid ac for his tummy. He was symptom free in a few days. Good Luck, It's hard to see our Babies sick.


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## Kmullen (Feb 17, 2010)

Pepcid might b what the wanted to prescribe. I would change up ab. Remi was on clavamox and 5 days of some cough tabs. Cough tabs helped a lot.


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## sammydog (Aug 23, 2008)

Hope he is feeling better! I have given Barley pepcid before!


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

I just got back from the vet. He's lost 2.8 pounds in the past 2 days, so they decided to stop the oral antibiotics all together. They gave him some subcutaneous fluids because he was getting dehydrated, and also gave him an injection of antibiotics. The vet said to keep taking his temp daily and if it goes up then he'll need to re-assess. He just doesn't want to irritate his stomach more when it's obviously already irritated from the Cephalexin. So..... let's hope he decides to eat today and we'll be on the road to recovery!


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## sammydog (Aug 23, 2008)

Poor baby boy! That is a lot of weight to loose in two days! Wowzer! I hope he starts feeling better soon!


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

sammydog said:


> Poor baby boy! That is a lot of weight to loose in two days! Wowzer! I hope he starts feeling better soon!


I know, I was pretty upset when I saw that. I actually weighed him 3 times because I didn't believe it. Luckily he's in good spirits. He's still not eating very well, only about half of his usual food. He'll eat beef and rice but we're trying to get him back to eating normally. I think I might make those satin balls and give those in addition to the regular food.


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## Sally's Mom (Sep 20, 2010)

My Tiki is the only one of mine who cannot take cephalexin. It took me a while to figure that one out.... She consistently vomits it. Dogs with kennel cough can actually cough for up to 3 weeks and if it is viral, you just have to wait it out.


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

Sally's Mom said:


> My Tiki is the only one of mine who cannot take cephalexin. It took me a while to figure that one out.... She consistently vomits it. Dogs with kennel cough can actually cough for up to 3 weeks and if it is viral, you just have to wait it out.


Yeah, I'm not too worried about the cough anymore. Jack's weight loss, vomiting and diarrhea have overtaken the KC at this point. [email protected] Cephalexin. 

Any suggestions for getting him to eat? I'm going to make the Satin Balls today and supplement his food with those. I was also thinking of mixing cottage cheese in with his kibble. We did that when he was a puppy and he loved it. We had a hard time keeping weight on him as it was. He's SO skinny right now  He's normally 73-74 lbs (some people still think he's too thin at that weight, but I think it's perfect) and yesterday he was 67 lbs.


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## Sophie_Mom (Jan 21, 2009)

Sawyer developed kennel cough exactly 8 days after we brought Quinn home.  Our vet didn't prescribe any antibiotic, but gave him Temaril-P. It honestly worked miraculously. He took it twice per day, and as long as we gave it to him on time, he didn't cough anymore at all. Nasty, nasty cough that he had too. Quinn wasn't showing any symptoms at all, beyond weepy eyes at first, so I think he had gotten over the worst of his before he came to us.


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

Sophie_Mom said:


> Sawyer developed kennel cough exactly 8 days after we brought Quinn home.  Our vet didn't prescribe any antibiotic, but gave him Temaril-P. It honestly worked miraculously. He took it twice per day, and as long as we gave it to him on time, he didn't cough anymore at all. Nasty, nasty cough that he had too. Quinn wasn't showing any symptoms at all, beyond weepy eyes at first, so I think he had gotten over the worst of his before he came to us.


That might explain Sawyer's ambivalence towards Quinn initially, if he was getting sick he probably felt yucky! 

The only reason we have the antibiotic was because of Jack's fever and Chloe's slightly elevated temp. I really wish we didn't give it at all at this point, though.


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## sammydog (Aug 23, 2008)

I had really good luck getting Sammy to eat those Natural Balance Rolls when he was sick. I would chop some up and mix it in with his food. The good part is they actually a complete balanced diet on their own.


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