Dog Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook.pdf - Mr. Walnuts

Regardless of the dog’s age at the initial vaccination, a second vaccination
should be given one year later.
When traveling with your pet, be sure to bring along proof of inoculation
against rabies—ideally, a vaccination certificate signed by a veterinarian. If
you enter a rabies quarantine area and are unable to prove your dog has been
vaccinated, your pet could be impounded. In addition, you could be subject to
a heavy fine.
Public health considerations: Do not pet, handle, or give first aid to any
dog suspected of having rabies. All bites of wild animals, whether provoked or
not, must be regarded as having rabies potential. If your dog is bitten by a wild
animal or a domestic animal whose rabies status is unknown, wear gloves
when handling your pet to clean his wounds. The saliva from the animal that
is in and around the bite wound can infect a person if it gets into a cut or onto
a mucous membrane.
Preventive vaccinations are available for high-risk groups of humans, including
veterinarians, animal handlers, cave explorers, and laboratory workers.
Early laboratory confirmation of rabies in an animal is essential so that
exposed humans can receive rabies prophylaxis as quickly as possible. The
animal must be euthanized and his head sent in a chilled (not frozen) state to
a laboratory equipped to diagnose rabies. Rabies is confirmed by finding rabies
virus or rabies antigen in the brain or salivary tissues of the suspected animal.
If the animal cannot be captured and his rabies status can’t be verified, you
need to consult your physician, who may suggest prophylactic vaccinations.
Whenever you have physical contact with an animal who may conceivably
be rabid, immediately consult your physician and veterinarian, and also notify the
local health department. Biting dogs who appear healthy should be confined
and kept under observation for 10 days. This is true even if the dog is known to be
vaccinated for rabies.
KENNEL COUGH
INFECTIOUS DISEASES • 77
Kennel cough is, in fact, not one but a group of highly contagious respiratory
diseases of dogs that spread rapidly through a kennel or other area where
many dogs are kept in close quarters. A harsh, dry cough is the characteristic
sign of infection. The cough may persist for many weeks and become a
chronic problem as the virus is replaced by secondary bacterial invaders.
A number of viruses, and the bacteria Bordetella bronchiseptica, have been
implicated in the kennel cough complex.
Treatment: See Kennel Cough Complex, page 320.
Prevention: Immunizing your dog with parainfluenza, bordetella, and CAV-2
vaccines—incorporated into the routine immunizations—will decrease the
prevalence and severity of kennel cough, although it will not entirely prevent it.