A puppy person stopped by my house on Mon.(they were in the area)to show me how nice their puppy is looking(I am the puppies breeder). We stayed outside because I had a pregnant bitch due to have her puppies within days inside resting. The visit was brief, but nice.
She called me on Tues. to tell me later that night her dog started coughing and she took him to the vet the next morning and he had kennel cough. My girl had 8 beautiful healthy puppies on fri., by sat. morn. I had 3 dogs coughing including the mom of the pups. I imediately called my vet and got the pills to help the cough. Upon my suggestion we put the mom on 500mg of Amoxi. 2x a day. plus the pill for her cough.
We are hoping that the amoxi. will stop any secondary infection in the new pups, they will get the medication through her milk.

Has anyone ever had pups this young get kc? Please tell me how I can help prevent this from happening. If it does happen what signs I should be looking for.
I am very upset that my older girls have this and very worried my babies will get it.

The biggest risk for the babies is the herpes virus that usually goes with kennel cough. It can infect the puppies. There was a threat about 2 month ago from Alison and how to treat it.
Good luck. I hope they don't get sick. They can get amoxi too, just in drops if needed. Make sure they eat and are kept warm.

Many years ago had my girl exposed when I took her to the vet with problems during whelping. Everyone of my dogs got it, including the 10 puppies at about 10 days old. It was not a good experience, and a lot of work. It was so hard getting the puppies to nurse and if they did, watch them bring it back up because of the cough. Ended up with two for a few days in oxygen and fluids at the vets. Treated everyone with antibiotics to ward of secondary infection. I used a vaporizer and tented the whelping box - pups hated it for it was like a sauna-I think it helped them breath a little easier- but caused some to have diarrhea. I would recommend getting a Delee Suction Cath to clean out their noses and throats(if necessary) of the phlegm - a nasal syringe just did not seem to help that much. I supplemented the puppies with formula mixed with some pedialyte, I could hold them in a more upright position while they nursed on the bottle making it easier to breath. You might want to learn how to sub-q and get some "riggers" and see if you can get some oxygen- in case you need it for an emergency until you can get a puppy to a vet. The good news is all my puppies made it through with no lasting side effects. But at that time I really thought I never wanted to have another litter. I was very tired treating 4 adults and 10 puppies for 4 weeks around the clock- not everyone came down with it at the same time.

Being that all my dogs are house dogs, I no longer let visiting dogs come here the last month of my girls pregnancy or while I have puppies- nor do I show or hunt test any of my dogs during that time. I am real careful about any vet visits and if some reason have to see the vet or have contact with another dog- wash, change my clothing and leave my shoes outside before touching any of my dogs. I know it seems a little extreme, but we have had KC only one other time- that was brought home from a Specialty. Good luck and I hope your puppies don't come down with the KC. KC is so hard on the very old and very young.

I picked up kc at a specialty a number of years ago and it went through my dogs including a mother dog w/pups. I had 10 puppies and all were treated with antibiotics including the mother dog. Pups were fine so I thought. At 3 weeks of age pups came down with viral pneumonia, secondary infection to the kc.
We managed to save 4 pups out of the 10 by taking a cocker pen w/pups into the bathroom, putting the shower curtain over the pen, closing doors,windows etc. to the bathroom and steaming the pups in the bathroom for 20 min. every 4 hours around the clock. Pups were also treated again with antibiotics. I also had a very senior dog we almost lost. KC is nothing to mess around with if you have young ones and seniors. It was a heartbreaking extremely stressful situation. Coincidently it was over the 4th of July and I ended up at the emergency vets with the first pup who died there the next day.

Had a bitch pick up KC when she went for a c-section at out local emergency clinic. I don't recall how old the puppies were when she started coughing. My vet did not wait for the pups to cough. He put them on amoxy drops right away. We did not lose any puppies.

Please refer to a post by *ES* that is down the page under the GPRLC KC thread.....great explanation.

Twice in the past 10 years I've had a dam with kennel cough, and was lucky the none of the babies ever became sick. Both times, I gave the dam 500mg of Amox. 2x a day. In one instance, the dam started coughing before giving birth and continued for a couple weeks after whelping, and in the 2nd case, the dam began coughing when her babies were just a week old. Again, in both cases the pups were fine. No one got sick, and no one died or required any meds. That's been my own personal experience, but each case is different. Proceed with causion and hope for the best.

Good luck!

Best remedy ever is "Cough" from Thomas Laboratories, I think you can get it at Revival or directly at Thomas Labs, you can google it. In 2 days the cough is gone!

I had a litter of 8 come down with KC at about a week old. Mom did not get it and only one adult got it - coughed once every other day for a week and that was that. Two pups started wheezing so my vet put them on Amoxi. They wheezed for about 3 days and then started getting better - after a few more days two more pups started to wheeze and I started them on Amoxi. By 3 weeks of age everyone was fine.

I think it's rare for them to be severe - most get it mildly and do fine just like the adults.

I too jumped on it as soon as the coughing started with my vet and Amoxi.....the dam started coughing before she whelped and puppies were treated immediately with amoxi drops for 10 days. They were off the meds for one week before the first pups at 3 weeks started acting funny......no wheezing. In fact at first I though the dam had accidently stepped on her by the way she was acting. We wasted no time heading out to the emergency vet with her. We were there from 11pm to 3am with her. They couldn't figure it out either until the next day when they re-x-rayed and saw how consolidated her lungs were. There was no evidence when we first brought her in. There was slight improvement and then she died.
The others started dropping like flies, dying at my vets office. If you see any signs of lethargy ( hard to tell with such babies as it was very hot and humid....) that was my first clue something was wrong. I truly hope you have a very mild case and all you're pups come through this.