As the chill sets in, the one thing that pet parents dread is the flu season with sneezing, coughing, and other respiratory distress for their beloved furry friends. Here’s how you can manage these and keep your pets healthy!
Coughing and sneezing are natural mechanisms to get the irritant out of our respiratory system, but sometimes the coughing and sneezing mechanisms are intertwined with the mechanism of our body to help get rid of pathogens. Pet parents also need to know that not every cough is related to the flu. There are many reasons that can cause a cough and cold in pets.
What Is Coughing?
A cough, medically known as tussis, is a voluntary or involuntary reflex that helps clear the throat and respiratory tract of foreign particles, irritants, microbes, fluids, and mucus. It involves the rapid expulsion of air from the lungs to help keep the airways clear.
Coughing – More Than Just a Reflex
There are minute, intricate systems that work hard to keep your pet’s body healthy and free from diseases. The body has several natural defence mechanisms to keep harmful pathogens at bay. For instance, tiny hair-like structures called cilia, along with mucus in the nasal passages, help trap foreign particles and prevent them from entering the respiratory tract. When these passages are irritated, sneezing helps expel the irritants. This is just one example of how the body protects itself.
Coughing – A Natural Defence Mechanism
Cough helps and aids the body to get rid of pathogens (which cause diseases) by providing protection and also aids in clearing your pet’s airway.
Coughing can sometimes signal an underlying respiratory infection, as the body attempts to clear irritants, mucus, and other substances from the airways. However, the severity or frequency of a cough does not always reflect the extent of an infection. As the body recovers, the cough may gradually subside, although it can sometimes persist even after the infection has cleared.
From Cough to Contagion – Understanding the Risk
Coughing and sneezing can spread bacteria and viruses when they are caused by an infectious disease. However, when triggered by non-infectious irritants or allergens such as dust and dander, they do not generally pose the same risk of transmitting infection.
For example, kennel cough is a contagious respiratory illness in pets. It can be caused by Bordetella bronchiseptica bacteria and several viruses, including canine adenovirus, influenza virus, and parainfluenza virus. When a healthy pet comes into contact with an infected pet, the infection may spread through respiratory droplets or close contact.
Routine vaccination, as recommended by your veterinarian, can help protect pets against specific respiratory pathogens and reduce the risk of severe illness.
Signs to Look Out For
Coughing could be because of the influenza virus, causing normal seasonal flu to lead to life-threatening conditions such as CHF or an allergic reaction. It’s best to get your pet diagnosed at the earliest to avoid any future obstacles in the recovery phase. Keep an eye on the following signs –
• Type of Cough: Dry Cough (without sputum or mucus being expectorated/ coming out from the throat) or Productive Cough (with sputum/ mucus accompanying coughing). A dry cough could be because of asthma or an allergy. Other causative factors involve viral respiratory infections. In kennel cough, particularly, there is a honking type of coughing. A productive cough could be because of respiratory infections, pneumonia, bronchiectasis, etc.
• The period of coughing: Whether the cough lasts for a few hours or more than a few days, or worsens as time passes by.
• Acute Cough: If the cough lasts only for a few hours and subsides, then it’s an acute cough. Chronic Cough – If it lasts for more than a few weeks, it may be a chronic cough due to some health issues. Generally, allergens cause short-term coughs. Even some mild respiratory infections last for a few days. Prolonged coughing needs to be diagnosed thoroughly, as the causative factor could be the heart itself. Thus, proper medical help should be sought out at the earliest to rule out or rule in cardiac complications and cardiac diseases.
• Rise in temperature: Make sure to check for fever. It could be easily attributed to infectious disease progression.
Finding the Root Cause
The diagnosis is generally based on the type of cough, its consistency of it, and the time period your veterinarian will diagnose your pet based on some tests.
• Your vet may suggest a routine blood checkup to rule out or rule in Infections. A complete blood count test (CBC) gives a clear picture of the blood cells and whether there’s an infection going on in the body.
• X-ray is an extremely handy diagnostic tool as it can check the lung patterns and even the heart for any lesion that may cause coughing in your pets.
• Diagnosis is based partly on history as well. Hence, it’s essential that you give a proper and complete history of the signs that your pet exhibits.
Respiratory Distress Put to Rest – Treatment Protocols
Treatment is based on diagnosis. Thus, diagnosis is key. If your pet has a cough due to respiratory causes, your vet may suggest antibiotics, fluids, and other medicines for your pet.
In cases of other reasons, such as allergies, the coughing generally subsides when the causative irritant is removed (like pollen/cigarette or vehicle smoke, etc.)
On the other hand, for coughing caused by heart problems, the treatment protocol is totally different and focuses primarily on resolving the heart disease to subsequently resolve the coughing problem.
(Dr. Goel’s Homeopathy for pets)
