To be paranoid about kennel cough?

[Ansumpasty]

Any vets in the house?

I'm taking my children to stay with my sister for a week over Xmas and her dog has just been diagnosed with kennel cough.
Google says it can be contagious to children and perhaps cause whooping cough but nothing seems sure.

AIBU to worry about this? Both of my children are under 5.

Feel free to make fun of my paranoia ;)

My dog had it and the vet made no mention of it being contagious to children.

Vet here. Whooping cough is a different bug to kennel cough. I've never heard of kennel cough infecting humans - perhaps it could in rare cases if the person was immunocompromised but don't think you need to worry

Thank you :)

Long term dog owner here. Never had this warning from a vet despite multiple occurances of kennel cough.

Kennel cough is not zoonotic.
Nothing to worry about

Our dog had kennel cough, dog websites seemed to agree it is zoonotic and can be passed to humans, causing an upper respiratory tract infection. Not found anything to suggest it causes whooping cough (although mine have been vaccinated against that).

We just made sure the DCs (6 & 8) didn’t pick up the dog’s toys, basic hand hygiene etc and all was fine.

Kitsharrington: Never had this warning from a vet despite multiple occurances of kennel cough.

This is just idle curiosity on my part, as, unfortunately, I am no longer really able to have a dog. I got my first puppy as an adult from the RSPCA decades ago and he developed kennel cough almost immediately, to the extent that they thought he might not survive - he did, and became a lovely, lovely dog. So, as soon as kennel cough immunisation became available, even though it was optional, I always ensured that my dogs had it. Was I just wasting my time, or is it like parvovirus, where the dog can still contract it, but in a milder form and generally survive with no side effects?

We immunised our 3 dogs for kennel cough but one still contracted it, so we wouldn’t bother doing it again.

The bacteria that causes kennel cough (Bordetella bronchispetica) is a cousin of the whooping cough bacteria (Bordetella pertussis) which might be where the idea of them being the same has come from. It does not normally affect humans, but has been reported in severely immunocompromised people such as those with active HIV. Highly unlikely to cause any problems with healthy children (I think it's been diagnosed a handful of times in human medicine, very rare really).

ignorance my vet doesn’t immunise against it because it’s like trying to immunise again the common cold. There are so many different strands of it you’d never be able to. And also like the common cold, most otherwise healthy dogs will have a bit of a cough for a few days and then be fine. The most important thing is to keep them away from other dogs while they have symptoms.

@Kitsharrington, I agree it's like trying to immunise against a cold, as there are so many strains of kennel cough. Unfortunately if one uses kennels, as we do, it is a requirement that dogs are vaccinated for k.c. before they are accepted for boarding.

Thanks for that, Kitsharrington. I suppose I was a very anxious dog owner and was prepared to - as in this case - throw money at the vet for unnecessary things for my own peace of mind, so in reality it was money well spent for me, because at least it I felt more secure about the dog's health (if that makes sense).

I actually googled it, and there seems to be the added protection provided agianst more serious ailments sort of like a flu shot does - these may be local, as I don't live in the UK.