BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. — Kennel cough, also known as Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease, is a highly contagious sickness in dogs, and it is on the rise, reports Baltimore County Animal Services.
"We are treating it as this general infection going on in the shelter and taking every precaution for any of those viruses," said Carrie McCloskey, program chief with Baltimore County Animal Services.
McCloskey told WMAR the organization's Baldwin shelter is separating healthy pups from sick ones and is looking to the public's help to adopt and reduce its dog population to slow the spread.
"Same as people," McCloskey continued, "people get the flu, COVID, this time of year, general colds. The same thing happens for the dogs and the animals. So as the seasons change, we see an uptick of the virus as well."
The disease is very contagious; dogs cough, sneeze, and spread it in droplets from dog to dog.
"It is something that's happening out there in our area," McCloskey added. "The veterinarians are seeing an increase of cases, local emergency hospitals are seeing it, boarding facilities are seeing this increase in cases right now."
No one wants to see their best friend get sick. The good news is that this is a very treatable disease. Dogs usually get over it within two weeks.
The shelter wants folks to adopt or foster their healthy dogs - sick dogs are also adoptable for folks who don't have dogs, or who follow protocol provided by the county.
"If an adopter would get a dog and take it home, they would go home with antibiotics, and we would recommend to them to do a two week shutdown. And in that time frame, they're going to keep them away from those other dogs, to avoid any exposure. But it's very treatable, and the dogs can live good, healthy lives," said McCloskey.
The shelter still has other animals up for adoption, including cats and bunnies.
