Kennel cough - how contagious is it?

[tabulahrasa]

We met an offlead dog the other night who came over and had a sniff at mine...his owner had told me the day before that both his dogs were inside because they have kennel cough.

I wasn't overly bothered in that it was maybe 5 seconds of contact and my dog is a healthy (in that way, lol) young adult. I mean it would be a PITA if he caught it, but no more than that.

Anyway, I was googling the incubation period, just out of nosiness and discovered that cats can catch it.

I have a cat with a compromised immune system and now I'm a little bit worried.

Should I be, or is he unlikely to catch it with such a small amount of exposure?

Didn't know about cats but I used to be quite blasé about KC until a friend of mine took in a dumped lurcher pup. The pup had no signs of KC and didn't develop it but both her other dogs got it quite badly :(.
I would guess the chances of bringing it home from a few seconds contact are fairly slim - not an expert - but I would worry more if your dog had been in the other dogs' house or car perhaps?

If the dog catches it, well there's nothing I can do to prevent it and I can't see why it would do him permanent damage - so I just thought, well I'll be annoyed if he gets it and I could do without more vet bills, but he should be fine on balance.

Having just realised cats can get it, well it could kill my cat :(

Kennel cough is very contagious but doesn't need vet treatment unless a dog is otherwise unwell/vulnerable. It looks and sounds AWFUL but in most dogs it'll pass in a few days, rather like a cold for us.

It doesn't sound as though your cat will find it so easy to cope with though. Fingers crossed it hasn't been caught.

Oh I'm working on the assumption that he'll need the vet because if something can go wrong with him it will, lol.

But no I wasn't overly fussed about him getting it, because I know it's usually not serious.

But I'm a bit worried for the cat.

Not that there's anything I can do about it, I'll just have to hope he doesn't catch it I suppose.

There are several different causes of kennel cough the labs test for seven main causes, but there are other ones too. Only one of these is infectious to cats.
Dogs are infectious whilst they are coughing as a rule of thumb. It is most easily carried on people's clothes.

So it's fairly possible he won't get it and if he does, the cat probably won't because it's more likely to be the wrong strain?...

Ok, that's helpful, thanks

High dose vit c and kids benalyn used by our rescue to help get through kc

He's not ill yet...and that's been about a week. So fingers crossed just in case, but I think he's fine.

For once I was more worried about the cat anyway, lol