Pholcodine

Hi Noel,

Sorry to have tell you this but Pholcodine is one of those drugs that is only very slowly eliminated from the body, and therefore not a good one to give a racing greyhound.

Nearly half of a dose taken is excreted in the urine as the original drug taking up to 5 days, while the other half of the dose breaks down into a number of metabolites that are also very slowly excreted into the urine. One of those being conjugated morphine which could be detected in a drug test for up to 14 days, and would give a positive swab to morphine.

As far as non-swabable products to treat kennel cough is concerned, the list is extremely limited and would consist of a eucalyptus spray for use in the kennel area such as Fess Eucalyptus Spray to ease coughing, and possibly a very very small smear of Vicks Vapour Rub to the top of the nose for the dog to lick off.

For the rest of it, kennel cough in most instances is caused by a virus, and as such requires good animal husbandry until the dog’s own immune system is able to combat the infection, and gain immunity to that particular strain of the virus in the process.

Keep in mind that kennel cough can also be caused by a bacteria, or in some instances a viral infection can progress into severe bronchitis due to excessive coughing, or a secondary bacterial infection. If this occurs, and the greyhound was allowed to run, it could easily become pneumonia with a high possibility of damage to the lungs in the long term that could adversely affect the ability to perform in the future.

In my honest opinion all cases of kennel cough that involves severe bouts of coughing, or nasal discharge, and/or eye discharge, need urgent Veterinarian attention.

Cheers,
Tom