There may come a time in your dog's life when he will suffer from dog flu (medically known as the "canine influenza" virus). There are a few symptoms to watch out for:

Firstly there is the coughing. Most if not all dogs will suffer this, if not painful it will be very uncomfortable for your dog. Young puppies and older dogs will suffer from coughing a lot more than your average aged dog. The best thing to do at this stage is to make sure that he has plenty of fluids and that he doesn't over work himself in the throat area, or he could start to feel really sorry for himself! The coughing tends to be worse during exercise or excitement, it tends to imitate kennel cough but the difference with dog flu is that the cough lasts a lot longer.

High fevers are another symptom to watch out for. Sometimes dogs can suffer temperatures up to 106 degrees so if you start to notice the coughing and the fever together make sure that you get him to the vets just to be on the safe side. Otherwise you could be looking at a bad bout of dog flu. The fever tends to make your dog dehydrated so again just make sure that he has lots of water and that you give him plenty of love as he will need it, feeling so poorly!

There are other general symptoms such as runny eyes and nose, which could simply be just a cold but its best to get it checked out especially if there are any other symptoms. Your dog may also suffer from some depression. He will be going through a tough and painful time so just make sure that he is as comfortable as possible and give him lots of cuddles. A bit of tender, love and care can go a long way!

Dog flu is highly contagious between other dogs. People are often worried about dog flu spreading to humans but there is no evidence of this whatsoever and there has been no claims of it either so that's not something you have to worry about. Something you do have to worry about however is that if dog flu is left untreated then it may lead to Pneumonia. Dogs suffering from dog flu also have an 80% chance of infection which is why antibiotics are usually prescribed to help them fend it off, saving them a lot more pain and discomfort.

The incubation time for dog flu is around four weeks, after those few weeks are over and your dogs had a good treatment of antibiotics he should be feeling fit, happy and back to his normal self again.

Bert Gajda lives with one old stubborn border collie named Roxy and is an administrator of http://www.dogtwist.com