THIS ALL WORKED GREAT LAST YEAR!! But we found something much better. Please read further down.!!!!


            HAVING PROBLEMS WITH KENNEL COUGH??

     For many years we had constant problems with out puppies contracting Bordetella. This is commonly known as kennel cough. While it is mostly just a nuisance, there are instances where it has progressed into full blown pneumonia and threatens the life of our precious puppies. This is usually caused by "secondary infections" that go untreated. Bordetella is also classified as a virus. And as a virus, it does not respond to antibiotics. The reason Bordetella is so hard to treat is that when you break it down you find it is composed of not just one type of virus, but is made up of 5 or 6 viruses that combine to make treatment almost impossible. You will find some of these viruses in your combination shots such as "Parainfluenza, and Adenovirus Type 2". If you look at the diseases listed in the Bordetella vaccine, you will find them again.
     Now before we get into this too deeply, let me explain my stance on vaccines. I'm a "naturalist". This means that I believe all of God's creatures came into this world with an immune system. And we should not mess with this immune system any more than absolutely necessary and let it do it's job. I think we over vaccinate to such a degree that we create more problems than we solve. But while I was having so much trouble with KC, I was using various brands of 5 way vaccines. So it soon came to my attention that when I gave my puppies their shots, it was within 3 days that some of them would start this little "cough -- gag--cough--gag" that eventually was full blown kennel cough. And like a lot of you, I cleaned everything with various products that contained bleach or germicides trying to get rid of this nasty stuff.
     My dog room is totally impervious to moisture so the first thing I tried was bleach water. But I noticed that it made me cough and burned my nose and lungs. I never mixed it strong enough to actually smell the bleach but I soon learned that when bleach mixes with the natural ammonia in urine, it releases a dangerous gas. That is what was burning my nose and lungs. And since dogs senses are much more  sophisticated than humans, this must have been really hard on my little dogs. So I began to look for a safe alternative. Below are pictures of my dog room just to illustrate the different surfaces I have to clean.
 

     My floors and walls are ceramic tile. The tile grout is a special "epoxy" formula that is stainless and waterproof. So you can imagine my surprise when we noticed a strange scaley deposit slowly growing across the floor that seemed "untouchable" by even the harshest chemical cleaners. I have a good friend that has worked with tile forever so I made a quick phone call to get some insight. His advice was to clean the tile with vinegar and water. But that just didn't sound like it would kill the germs to me so I stubbornly kept trying other things. And my dogs kept on coughing. (Now I could have saved myself much trouble and my dogs much stress if I had only listened to my friend)
      I clean my floor with a machine called a "Floormate" that is put out by Hoover. It comes with directions not to use any chemicals other than what is supplied as it will void your warranty. I love the Floormate because it not only scrubs the tiles (and also other hard surfaces) but it then takes up all of the water and leaves the floor "squeegy dry". This is much better for my animals as it gets the floor dryer than I can do with just a damp mop. Now not leaving the floor wet help a great deal but my babies still coughed. I tried using the cleaner Odorban. It could even be put in the Floormate with no side effects to the care of the machine. I also used it to spray on the plastic beds to clean them. Well, I'm very sensitive to smells and I noticed Odorban just took my breath and made me cough. And so did my puppies if they were in the area when I sprayed it. But I kept trying to use it anyway as I'm just kind of stubborn and sometimes a little hard-headed. I also thought the cleaning effect would outweigh the fact that I choaked every time I smelled it.


                                            FINALLY A SOLUTION

     Let's get back to the vaccines first as I think this made a big difference although it was not the actualy cure. Like I said, I was using the 5-way vaccines every 3 weeks starting at 8 weeks on my puppies. I let my puppies leave me at 12 weeks so they got their second round of vaccines at 11 weeks. Now if you know anything at all about Mother's antibodies, you know that this immunity takes a couple of weeks to wear off after you wean puppies. So when they got their first shot at 8 weeks, most had not been off Mama long enough for her antibodies to have worn off so they got very "limited" immunity from the first shot. But by the time they got the 2nd round at 11 weeks, they were pretty much on their own immune system wise. This is when they started the coughing thing. And it became so frustrating as some were all ready sold and ready to go to new homes. It's hard to explain to someone that doesn't deal with puppies on a regular basis that this precious little baby of theirs will be all right if you will just give this disease time to run it's course and it will go away on it's own. Believe me, I got phone calls from people that were screaming profanities at me because their baby was sick. And if you raise dogs, you know there are some Vets out there that just don't have a clue about this disease (and many others) that just make things worse.
     Well, after a couple of years of this, it became apparent that either I had to find a solution or just give it up. I got advice from one Vet that told me the only way to get the germ out of my house was to burn it down. Yeah, that's going to happen!!!  So the first thing I did was to do some heavy research about the vaccines I had been using. It was also about that time that the New Shot Protocol was introduced that has changed the way some Vets are vaccinating animals. My research turned up some of the same theories that are now in place-----We are "over vaccinating" our animals. It became apparent that most of my problems with kennel cough were self induced. I ordered new vaccines that were not combinations. I ordered the best Parvocine available in the form of Neopar. I had used it before and really liked the results. Common sense dictated that my babies needed protection from life threatening diseases like Parvo and Distemper. So I also ordered a vaccine just for distemper. This vaccine comes with 2 vials, one of which is only sterile water and the other is the actual antigen for distemper. The Neopar comes in a liquid form only. So I substituted the Neopar for the sterile water and made my own 2-way vaccine. Now you are probably asking, Why didn't I just order a 2-way vaccine? You can't get Neopar in a 2-way. This vaccine was created by 2 Vets that were looking for a cure just for parvo. And if you've ever had to deal with parvo, you know it works!!!
      I used this 2-way on a couple of litters of puppies and paid close attention to the results, especially when they got their shots at 11 weeks. I noticed such a marked improvement that I chucked the 5-way vaccines I had left over and went exclusively to the 2-way. The complete cure for kennel cough did not happen over night. Like I said, the germ was in my house. But I did notice that when a puppy contracted the cough, it usually ran it's course and would clear up within 10 days to 2 weeks. Before I had experienced puppies keeping KC for nearly 6 months before being completely cured. This improvement alone was more than worth the extra cost of purchasing the individual vaccines. OH by the way, I didn't mention that. Purchasing the Neopar in 10 dose vials did save some of the cost and unlike some of the other Parvo vaccines offered in 10 dose vials, it did not go bad when you only used part of it at a time. The Distemper only vaccine does cost about the same as the 5-way did. So I am paying nearly twice the price of the 5-way vaccines but my babies are so much healthier.
     So for a couple of years, I used this 2-way but still had intermittent cases of KC that I could not explain. Then I made the acquaintance of a wonderful lady in Switzerland. She know so much about "natural cures" and practices holistic medicine and cures on her own dogs. She suggested that I switch my cleaning practices from using harsh chemicals to disinfect to something so simple. I could not believe how things come back in circles. She suggested that I only clean with white vinegar. So I said to myself, why not try it. I purchased a gallon jug of white vinegar for less than $3. I dumped out all of the bleach water and the Odorban and replaced it all with a solution of white vinegar and water. I also substituted it in my Floormate for cleaning the floors. Would you believe that scaley deposit on the ceramic tile is now nearly non-existant? I've been using white vinegar now for over a year and I haven't had one case of kennel cough this year. I use it to clean my pens where I raise my puppies and it doesn't take my breath and my babies don't cough. If it leaves a residue and the puppies lick it off, it has not side effect. It doesn't stain, it doesn't sting sensitive little eyes and noses and it's cheap. And as for kennel cough- - - - -
                                                IT'S GONE ! ! ! ! !


     By the way: I also found an excellent safe cleaner for most all surfaces that get dirt buildup. I faithfully use the vinegar water but sometimes you just need something stronger that cuts through oily dirt buildup. I purchase the Swiffer antibacterial formula cleaner to use on my Swiffer wetjet to clean the floor in my Puppy room. And don't believe all those ugly stories the Swiffer is dangerous. NOT SO!!!! I use the wetjet to clean the vinyl floor between litters being put in x-pens for excercise on the floor. If you notice I also use a lot of the plastic storage totes for beds as my chihuahuas love to get up in them to take a nap. If you use a pair of pliars you can manage to remove the top from the Swiffer liquid. I like the citrus formula but any of them will work. I pour this liquid into a spray bottle and spray it onto hard to clean areas, let it set for just a few seconds and then wipe off all of the dirt and grime with a paper towel. It is so gentle, I can even use it on my leather furniture in my living room. My sofa and chairs are an off white so my dogs can track them up pretty quick with dirt they track in from outside. The Swiffer liquid safely cleans the dirt and leaves the leather soft and suptle.

THIS YEAR WE FOUND A NEW CLEANER THAT DOES A MUCH BETTER JOB THAN VINEGAR AND IT DOESN'T LEAVE THE "MUSKY SMELL" THAT YOU GET WITH VINEGAR.
      I had someone send me this in an e-mail so I tried it. It works much better than white vinegar and seems to get surfaces cleaner and leaves a fresh clean smell. It called "Peroxide". Believe it or not plain hydrogen peroxide is doing a much better job for cleaning. We just put a big "glub" into the floormate to clean and also use it in a bucket for mopping. It works better.

ALSO found a product that cures any stubborn cases of kennel cough. Being concerned about the placque that builds up on my chihuahuas teeth, I recently purchased a couple of bottles of "Breathalyzer". This is a new product that you add to your dogs water that helps with their breath and keeps placque from building up on their teeth. We gave it a try and discovered something else it was good for. We have a beautiful little long coat that just kept getting an upper respiratory infection. We would put her through a regimen of prescription meds from my Vet and shortly after she recovered, she would again catch another infection. It was just a vicious cycle. After starting the addition of Breathalyzer in the water we suddenly noticed that she made a full recovery. And we have not had any sign of URI's since. Now it could have just been spontaneous recouperation but we'll certainly let you know when the weather changes into fall and kennel cough months crank up again.


WELL, the weather changed. We went from summer through fall and now it's dead of winter. We have had NO CASES of kennel cough. And we have visited friends that still fight KC and we go to shows so I know we have tracked the germs home. The only side effect we have found is our water containers have to be cleaned very good between watering as the Breathalyzer grows a film inside the containers. But if that is all we have to worry about, then it's more than worth the trouble. So try this stuff. IT WORKS!!!