We have a kitten. I adopted her from a pets and people shelter. I took her in last week for her second set of vaccines and the next day she started coughing. It sounds like she’s hacking up a hairball but nothing comes up and she’s not long haired. I have been reading online and it says to take her in immediately. She’s eating fine but not drinking as much water as usual.

Laura
Oklahoma City Oklahoma

Two factors could be playing a role in your kitten’s coughing.

The first and most likely factor is that she was recently adopted. Cats and kittens with a history of recent rehousing often develop respiratory infections.

Moving is stressful. Stress weakens the immune system. A weakened immune system predisposes cats and kittens to opportunistic respiratory infections that can lead to coughing.

Cats and kittens who recently lived in shelters have especially high rates of respiratory infections. Shelter environments are generally stressful, and cohabitation with large numbers of other stressed animals is a recipe for the spread of disease.

The second factor that might be playing a role in your kitten’s symptoms is the vaccine that she received. Vet visits, unfortunately, also can be stressful for cats. And vaccines are designed to interact with the immune system. Some times shots can tip the balance in a cat who is just barely fighting off illness (this is why vets don’t like to vaccinate animals that don’t appear healthy). Finally, certain types of vaccines very rarely can trigger mild illness in animals (or people). This is called reversion to virulence.

Regardless of the cause of your kitten’s cough, there is good news: most respiratory infections in cats and kittens are self limiting. This means that most individuals recover completely with basic nursing care (ensure that the kitten has a comfortable place to rest, ample food and water, and plenty of love). Some infections get out of hand and require treatment with antibiotics. But almost all cats with respiratory infections recover.

I recommend a vet check up for any cat with symptoms of a respiratory infection in order to confirm that medications aren’t necessary. In most cases they are not.

For more information on respiratory infections in cats, visit my website:

http://drbarchas.com/uri

Photo: Ashley get ready to let one rip.

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Can dogs catch a cold from a human?
We are looking after a 9-month-old Chihuahua who
ended up in a dog pound for 24 hours before her mom
rescued her back. She has started coughing and
sneezing for the last three days. The cough sounds like
something between a pig grunting and a goose honking.
Afraid it might be kennel cough or she caught a
cold from me.

Marley
Puyallup, WA

Although there are a few diseases (such as rabies, ringworm and intestinal worms) that can spread between pets and people, most of them don’t cause respiratory symptoms such as coughing or sneezing.

And, in particular, pets do not appear to be susceptible to human rhinoviruses (the germs that cause colds).

Most contagious diseases are species-specific. This means that, for the most part, dog germs spread only among dogs, cat germs spread only among cats, and human germs spread only among humans. It is very unlikely that the dog you’re looking after caught a cold from you.

However, a nine-month-old dog who recently got lost and spent a day in the pound is in the prime risk demographic for a number of canine respiratory diseases including kennel cough. The stress of being lost and ending up in the shelter no doubt weakened her immune system. Close confinement with large numbers of other dogs in the pound likely exposed her to a variety of canine pathogens. Dogs less than two years of age are especially susceptible to the sorts of germs that are common in shelters. And the symptoms you describe are very consistent with kennel cough.

In my opinion, the Chihuahua you’re looking after picked up her cough in the shelter. You are not to blame.

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The other day a good samaritan discovered a dog wandering the streets alone. She approached the dog. He was a very friendly tan Terrier with black ears. He was about one year old.

The good samaritan figured that he was lost, so she brought the dog to my clinic. A veterinary technician used a scanner and found a microchip.

Microchips are small RFID-containing devices that are injected under the skin of pets. Microchips contain a meaningless series of numbers and letters. To reunite lost pets with people who are looking for them, veterinarians and shelters contact a central database that links the numbers and letters on the microchip to the identity of the dog.

But there is a catch. For the system to work, the dog’s owner must register the microchip with the database. Sadly, some people don’t do this.

The technician at my office called the lost dog’s microchip number into the database and found that his chip wasn’t registered. We knew that someone cared enough about him to have him microchipped, but there was no way to find out who that person was.

In these situations, the laws of some cities require that the dog be relinquished to local animal control officers. This was the case in the city where my clinic was located. The good samaritan turned the dog in to the authorities.

About an hour later, an anxious man called the clinic. He had lost his one-year-old tan Terrier with black ears and he was desperate to find his dog.

We had to tell him that his dog was at the local animal shelter, and could not be recovered until the next day (it was a Sunday afternoon, and the shelter was no longer open to the public).

The local shelter does not immediately euthanize lost dogs. The dog no doubt was reunited with his owner on Monday. But if the owner had taken the time to register his dog’s microchip, we could have called him and spared the dog a night in the shelter.

If you haven’t registered your pet’s microchip, I urge you to take that step as soon as possible. It only takes a few minutes.

If you’ve lost your registration form, talk to your vet. He or she can scan your pet and give you all of the information that you’ll need. If your pet is ever lost, it could make a big difference.

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