Alright, let’s talk about my recent experience with the kennel cough vaccine and the side effects my dog, Buster, went through. It’s something folks ask about, so I figured I’d share what happened with us.
So, Buster needed his shots updated. We go to the dog park sometimes, and our vet recommended the kennel cough vaccine. Made sense to me, better safe than sorry, right? We went in for the regular check-up and shots.
The vet discussed the options. There’s an injection, but they often use the nasal one these days. They said it works faster or something. We went with the nasal spray. The vet tech held Buster, tilted his head back a bit, and whoosh, squirted the stuff right up his nose. He wasn’t exactly thrilled, let me tell you. Sneezed a couple of times right after, gave me that ‘what was that?’ look. Paid the bill, went home, didn’t think much more of it initially.
The rest of that day, Buster was pretty much his normal self. Maybe a little tired from the vet visit stress, but nothing major.
The Next Couple of Days Though…
This is where things got interesting. The next morning, I noticed Buster was sneezing quite a bit. Not just one or two, but like, little bursts of sneezes. And his nose was a tiny bit runny, just clear stuff, nothing gross.
Then, I heard it. A soft little cough. Not the deep, hacking cough you imagine with full-blown kennel cough, but definitely a little ‘huff huff’ sound now and then. It wasn’t constant, but it was there.
Here’s what I observed over about 48 hours:
- Lots of sneezing, especially after waking up.
- A mild, soft cough, maybe a few times an hour.
- He seemed a bit low-energy. Usually, he’s bouncing off the walls for his walk, but he was more subdued, kinda dragging his feet.
- His appetite was slightly down. He still ate, but wasn’t gobbling it down like usual.
- No fever or anything scary like that, just seemed a bit ‘off’.
Honestly, it got me a little worried for a minute. You hear ‘kennel cough vaccine’ and then your dog starts coughing… makes you wonder, right? Did he get it from the vaccine? I remembered the vet mentioning that mild symptoms, like mimicking the illness, could happen because the nasal vaccine uses a live (but weakened) virus to get the immune system going.
So, I decided not to panic. I just kept a close eye on him. Made sure he had plenty of water. Kept the walks shorter and calmer than usual. We skipped the dog park for a few days, just to be safe and let him rest. Didn’t want to stress him out or potentially spread anything, even though the vet said it wasn’t really contagious like the real disease.
And sure enough, by about day three after the vaccine, the sneezing really tapered off. The little cough disappeared. His energy levels picked back up, and he was back to demanding walks and dinner with his usual enthusiasm.
Looking back, it was just his immune system doing its job, reacting to the vaccine. The side effects were definitely noticeable, but they were mild and thankfully short-lived. It was a bit stressful seeing him under the weather, but it passed quickly. For us, it was just a couple of days of sneezes and feeling a bit blah for Buster. Glad we got the protection, even with the minor temporary reaction.
