kennel cough - is vets necessary?

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My dog - fit and healthy - has kennel cough. It is rife in this area at the moment. He had it last year, and I rang vets who said all dogs with kc need to be seen. I took him then and he got antibiotics. He never took them, and he got over kc without any problems. I really don't want to incur £70 charge for appt and tablets if he gets better anyway. I think vets is just on a money making venture sometimes

Is a wait and see approach ok?

you need to take dog to the vet. arrange to wait outside/separate room until vet calls you in

As a vet personnally as two thirds of the cause is viral (2 viruses and 1bacteria needed to cause disease) which antibiotics are not going to help I feel that if the dog is well in itself and eating it needs to be kept away from other dogs whilst it coughs which can be for up to 6 weeks, but not necessarily seen by a vet. If however, your dog is elderly, has other medical conditions or is unwell it should be seen by a vet. In my surgery the vast majority of cases of kennel cough get told it is a mild self limiting disease, get no antibiotics, but are told to represent if the dog becomes unwell.
So if you phoned my surgery this is what you would get told. This follows WSAVA, BSAVA and BVA recommendations to reduce prescription of antibiotics to small animals.

my dog has had kc twice. The first time I took him as I was neurotic and thought it would turn to pnuemonia and he'd die (google is not a good place to research!) The vet gave him antibiotics and told me to get some benylin cough medicine for dog.

The 2nd time he got it, I gave him the medicine and didn't go vets. He was fine after a week or so. I'm much less neurotic about the dog now!

UnWiseDog was prescribed antibiotics, anti-inflamatories and a cough syrup when she got kennel cough. Dogs are vaccinated against the most prevalent strains here in WA so these random strains can often be more serious. At the very least, I'd ring the vet for advice.