I have a dog that had it bad after Potomac. Has been a full week without coughing. Is she still contagious? How long after they stop coughing do we have to worry about spreading it?
It depends on the type of kennel cough. Although you are unlikely to be blamed if your dog isn't actively coughing, she may still be shedding a viral form for a couple of weeks, or several MONTHS if it happens to be bordetella.
"Unlike many other infectious diseases whereby infected animals can shed infectious organisms into the environment for months to years without showing any clinical signs of infection, animals with viral forms of kennel cough do not seem to develop a prolonged non-clinical carrier state. With the kennel cough viruses, animals will shed infectious disease particles during the period of infection, when they have obvious clinical signs, and also for variable short-term periods afterwards (depending on the causative infectious disease agent), when the symptoms may be subtle or no longer evident. Bordetella bronchiseptica, on the other hand, can induce a carrier state: some animals can be long term carriers and shedders of Bordetella without showing signs of disease.
In the case of Bordetella bronchiseptica, the animal can shed infectious bacteria in the saliva and respiratory secretions for an average of 3 months post infection, sometimes longer. In the case of adenovirus and parainfluenza 2, the virus will tend to shed for up to 10 days after infection. Thus, in order to prevent environmental contamination with these organisms, it is important that this period of post-clinical shedding be taken into account and animals not reintroduced to other animals prematurely. "
