My new rottie...

Question
Hi Kristin,

I have just rescued an 8-month old female
Rottweiller from city animal control center. She
was supposed to be killed Saturday evening.
They had no information on her, because she was a
stray. I am not sure what shots she has and what
she doesn't have. She appears healthy. I also
have no idea how long has she been at the animal
control center nor if she is really 8-months old
as they told me. The way I got her was sort of
"shady", since originally my intention was to
adopt a dog in a proper way, you know with all
the papers, rabbies tag and all that stuff that
would make me a legal owner of the dog.But
instead of that, the guy in charge of putting
dogs to sleep at the center just handed her to me
with a leash and said it's your dog now. And we
just went home and since then I 've been taking
care of her. She is adorable and a very good dog,
a quick learner.

I am just having few problems figuring things out
with her.  

Should I just go ahead and take her in to get all
the shots a dog should have? Would it harm her if
she get re-vaccinated, in case she already has
some shots? What shots should a dog have, other
than rabbies?
And finally, she keeps coughing all the time and
sometimes coughs out some saliva with her own
hair in it. Sometimes it sounds to me like she is
throwing up or something. Is this normal?

I hope you can help me with some advice.

thank you
zoe  

Answer
First of all vacinating her twice will not harm her at all,other then rabies I would recomend Parvo/Distemper as that does a number of diseases

Second of all,it sounds like she has kennel cough to me,and would be best to have her taken to a vet ASAP for treatment,other then that everything should be ok,kennell cough is rarely fatal,must dogs that have it recover,and the ones that are put down are usualy done so because of lack of space at a shelter