There is No Evidence For or Against the Use of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs to Reduce the Clinical Duration of Kennel Cough (Infectious Tracheobronchitis).

a Knowledge Summary by

Marc A. C. Silpa BVM&S MRCVS*

*Corresponding Author (m.a.c.silpa@gmail.com)


Vol 1, Issue 1 (2016)

Published: 27 Jan 2016

Next Review date: 15 Aug 2017

DOI: 10.18849/VE.V1I1.3


Clinical bottom line

There is no evidence on which to judge the efficacy of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for the treatment of kennel cough.

Question

In [canines], does the use of [NSAIDs] versus [no treatment] reduce the [clinical duration of canine infectious tracheobronchitis (kennel cough)]?

Clinical scenario

Mr. Smith brought his two year old male Labrador Retriever, “Winston”, to your clinic for a sudden onset hacking cough. Winston was housed in a kennel last week while the owners were on holiday. On clinical exam, the dog coughs when the trachea is manipulated, but is well otherwise. You suspect “Winston” has infectious tracheobronchitis. You, keeping aware of the latest EBVM publications, know antibiosis is not warranted in this case. But you wonder if a few doses of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug would reduce the time that it takes for “Winston’s” cough to resolve.

The evidence

There are no research studies, case studies, or epidemiological surveys published on the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for the treatment of canine infectious tracheobronchitis. No judgement can be made whether the use of NSAIDs is justified. Further research is needed.

Appraisal, application and reflection

There are no research studies, case studies, or epidemiological surveys published on the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for the treatment of canine infectious tracheobronchitis. No judgement can be made whether the use of NSAIDs is justified. Further research is needed.

Methodology Section

Search Strategy
Databases searched and dates covered: Pubmed accessed via the NCBI website 1900 – 2015, CAB Abstracts on the OVID platform 1973 – 2015 week 31
Search terms: (Dog OR dogs OR canine* OR canis OR pup*) AND ((Inflamm* AND (bronchi OR trachea)) OR tracheobronchitis OR ITB OR rhinotracheitis OR "kennel cough" OR bronchitis OR tracheitis OR laryngitis OR bordetellosis OR bordetella) AND (NSAID OR NSAIDs OR anti-inflammatory OR "anti inflammatory" OR non-steroidal OR "non steroidal" OR steroid*)
Dates searches performed: 15 August 2015

Exclusion / Inclusion Criteria
Exclusion: Non English language, Non-systematic reviews or conference papers.
Inclusion: Systematic reviews, randomised controlled trials, case studies, meta-analyses and epidemiological surveys.

Search Outcome

Database

Number of results

Excluded – study design

Excluded – non- English language publication

Excluded – did not answer PICO question

Total relevant papers

NCBI PubMed

66 0 5 61 0

CAB Abstracts

9 2 0 7 0

Total relevant papers when duplicates removed

0


Intellectual Property Rights

Authors of Knowledge Summaries submitted to RCVS Knowledge for publication will retain copyright in their work, but will be required to grant to RCVS Knowledge an exclusive licence of the rights of copyright in the materials including but not limited to the right to publish, re-publish, transmit, sell, distribute and otherwise use the materials in all languages and all media throughout the world, and to licence or permit others to do so.

Authors will be required to complete a licence for publication form, and will in return retain certain rights as detailed on the form.