Kennel Cough Vaccination

Hi, I am looking for a dog boarder for my two Shih Tzus but most of them insist on them having the kennel cough vaccination.  Is this something you would recommend?  My vet once told me that their are numerous strains of kennel cough and wouldn't necessarily be protected if they did have it.

Hello!  - and Thankyou for this brilliant question.  The truth is that Bordetella Bronchiseptica, the microbeastie that causes kennel cough, is not actually THE only microbeastie that causes the hacking, tracheal-pinch-positive cough that humans call 'kennel cough.'   (Tracheal pinch positive just means that when a vet manipulates the trachea with their fingers, the dog will cough).    Kennel cough, that tracheal pinch positive cough, is a symptom of Bordetella Bronchiseptica, but it is also a symptom of some other illnesses too.

A parallel to this might be rashes.  Measles causes a nasty rash in people.  But not all red blotchy rashes are caused by measles; the rash is only a symptom of that virus and rashes can also be caused by other things.

So, the words 'kennel cough' refer to tracheal inflammation that causes a nasty, repeatetive,  harrowing cough.  Most cases of this sort of cough are caused by Bordetella Bronchiseptica which we can vaccinate against.  Having the vaccination doesn't guarantee that your dog will never get a resonant tracheal cough, because such coughs can also be caused by other things.  However, Bordetella Bronchiseptica spreads through populations like wildfire and if your dog is vaccinated against Bordetella, they are more than significantly likely to get that.

Oh no!  Correction of last line: Bordetella Bronchiptica sweeps through populations like wildfire.  Although vaccinated dogs can still develop other tracheal pinch positive coughs (and occasionally do), they are much less likely to catch Bordetella Bronchiptica.

This is very advantageous and we'd still recommend that dogs are vaccinated against Bordetella Bronchiseptica.