A vet says the recent kennel cough outbreak in Auckland is the worst yet, with many dogs going from the honking cough to full-blown pneumonia.
Kennel cough is a respiratory disease so highly transmissible dogs can even catch it off your clothes.
An emergency vet at the Animal Emergency Centre Dr Shalsee Vigeant said normally kennel cough will resolve on its own in a week, but says cases have been more severe this year.
"This year it seems like these are much more severe cases. I can't recall in probably over 15 years seeing this many pneumonia cases," Dr Vigeant told The Project.
Michael McCann's dog called Boots got the disease at the park and has been rushed to the emergency vet three times in the past week.
"We would wake up in the middle of the night to him coughing and vomiting up," McCann says. "He couldn't hold himself up, he was not eating and drinking so we were pretty, pretty concerned."
Duncan Bernard's two dogs Brian and Blue have both come down with kennel cough too.
"It's like having a small baby where they can't tell you what's wrong and you just have to guess," Bernard said.
He took the dogs to the vet, who told them they were the third dogs seen that day with kennel cough and were expecting to see over 20 more dogs later that day.
Dr Vigeant said they have informed the Ministry of Primary Industries about the severity of the outbreak and she and her staff are testing the dogs to work out what is going on.
While they don't know why this outbreak is so severe yet, Dr Vigeant urges people not to panic.
She says if your dog starts coughing you shouldn't rush to the vet because they are already overstretched, but if the dog gets more lethargic, isn't eating or resting but their respiratory rate is higher than it should be then they need to be seen.
Dr Vigeant said if your dog has kennel cough it should be isolated for seven to 10 days to avoid passing on the infection further.
