Disappointment

My husband and I had plans to leave town for a continuing health education/ski trip out of town after he had been on overnight call for eight days out of nine. He left the house this morning, after tractor-blowing 6+ inches of fluffy snow off the driveway. Not me, though…

We set up reservations at the doggie daycare we’ve used many times before for our other dogs, but only once for Tucker, who will be a year old this weekend. Because he hadn’t been to our boarding facility (which is very clean and organized, but also very busy) in a few months, we took Tucker there for a play date a week ago, and a couple of days later he began to cough. He also started to leave some of his breakfast -- unlike his typical thorough gobble -- although he always ate it later. We worried about kennel cough, although it seemed to have come on too quickly. Wait, though… we had taken him for a walk along the river four days earlier, where there had been lots of other dogs, and outside things are never pristine clean.

Kennel cough is a highly contagious condition caused by a variety of germs to which dogs are susceptible. It causes inflammation of the trachea (windpipe) and bronchi (tubes into the lungs), and weakens a dog’s immune system. Dogs are usually required by boarding and training facilities to have a vaccination for the most common cause of kennel cough: Bordatella bronchiseptica. Like human flu shots, though, kennel cough vaccine is only 60-70% effective, because both conditions can be caused by germs different than the ones the vaccines prevent. Some other causative canine-specific germs that cause kennel cough may be distemper, mycoplasma, coronavirus, pneumovirus, or influenza. Also, the effectiveness of any vaccine -- human or canine -- is dependent on how each individual uniquely responds. Kennel cough isn’t usually a serious illness, and a dog may just carry the germ without even showing symptoms, but its effects can be different depending on the system of each individual dog. Without isolation from further infection, fever and lethargy can develop and lead to pneumonia. Prevention of spread in boarding and training facilities is very difficult, even if they are properly cleaned and regularly sanitized.

I had trouble sleeping, worried about who might be able to dog-sit if Tucker had kennel cough, and also about how a dog-sitter at our home would be able to function with the prediction of a multiple-day winter weather warning predicting up to 20 inches of snow in our area. Yesterday, I took Tucker to the vet. Our vet proclaimed that his temperature was normal, his lungs were clear, his heart of normal rate and rhythm. On the other hand, however, she was concerned that his cough (which he delivered in her face) could be related to a mycoplasma infection currently circulating in our community, which has caused pneumonia in two of her canine patients. She prescribed antibiotics and recommended quarantine from other dogs, to keep Tucker from contagion in his resistance-depleted state and to prevent other dogs from catching whatever it is he has.

My children are grown and my grandchildren live far away. I’m still a mother/grandmother, though, and my current "child" just happens to be canine. I decided I couldn’t go with my husband on what should have been, at least partially, a romantic getaway. Yesterday afternoon, we cancelled my flight, my shuttle spot, my lift tickets, and Tucker’s daycare reservation. My husband reviewed with me the use of the tractor, and I practiced with it for a bit.

He boarded the plane on time at noon today, and will return in five days.