For the past year or more, we’ve been trying to track infectious upper respiratory tract disease (officially known as “canine infectious respiratory disease complex (CIRDC)” but more commonly called “kennel cough”). It’s a tough thing to do since testing is limited, the disease is always present to some degree in the dog population, and there’s

I get calls about concerns regarding increased respiratory disease in dogs all the time.

  • Sometimes, they’re the result of local disease outbreaks.
  • Sometimes, they’re just a result of increased awareness of the normal “baseline” disease rate, since “kennel cough” is always occurring at some level.
  • Sometimes, the circumstances just seem different, and we need to

Not uncommonly, I get questions about outbreaks of “kennel cough” (more formally known as canine infectious respiratory disease complex (CIRDC)). It’s not uncommon for us to see little outbreaks of this kind of respiratory illness in dogs, and we don’t have a good handle on the amount of “background” disease that’s always present in the

“Kennel cough” (now more conventionally termed “canine infectious respiratory disease complex’)  is a fairly common problem in dogs that can be caused by an array of bacteria and viruses. We commonly see it in outbreaks, often linked to kennels, but sometimes we see higher levels of disease in the broader community. What we’re more concerned

Dog cough SSThe latest set of clinical treatment guidelines from the International Society for Companion Animal Infectious Diseases have been published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Lappin et al 2017): Antimicrobial Use Guidelines for Treatment of Respiratory Tract Disease in Dogs and Cats: Antimicrobial Guidelines Working Group of the International Society for Companion Animal Infectious

OESDInfectious respiratory disease isn’t exactly rare in dogs. A variety of viruses, bacteria and Mycoplasma can cause what we generically call canine infectious respiratory disease complex (CIRDC, formerly and still commonly called “kennel cough”). We see clusters of disease periodically and hear rumours of larger outbreaks, but usually there’s not a lot of additional information