Canine Pneumonia!

Unbelievable! As if this old girl hasn't had enough to deal with this past year, she now has pneumonia. The diagnosis has been a long time coming. The first clue something was amiss came mid-May when she started reverse sneezing. This is an odd phenomena (to me) as it sounds nothing like a sneeze, but rather a huge gathering or gasping of breath. It happened infrequently, but ongoing over a couple of months. Finally around the end of June, it was occurring regularly enough to warrant a vet visit.

When I brought her in the verdict was indecisive. Since Lucy's appetite and energy seemed okay, the vet put it down to (perhaps) an allergy. For a couple of days running, Lucy had a mucus-y nose and eyes. I mean goopy, like a child with a bad cold, but this vanished too along with the sneeze. By the end of July, I figured whatever was blooming and bothering her should be over its cycle and indeed, the reverse sneezing was diminishing.

Then came dry hacking. She sounded like a cat coughing up a fur ball. This time I called and spoke with the vet (a substitute), but she didn't seem very concerned. I was uncertain whether to push or not. After all, Lucy just had the surgery a year ago. Did I want to put her through tests for something we had no clue about? Not to mention, the possibly unnecessary expense... The vet told me to give it a couple of weeks. Here it is summer, so Lucy's shedding a lot. She has two little cuts on her that she's been tending by licking. So couldn't she be gagging on her fur?

Then the beginning of this week, her energy plummeted. Her dry hacks turned into wet, deep chest coughing. She tried to stand up and was so unsteady, I didn't know if she could do it. This time I rushed her in and the vet (another sub), on taking her temperature (102.5), decided to do a chest xray and take blood. She said I should take her temp again that night and if it topped 104 to take her to the emergency vet. Well, before bed her temp was 103.7. Our neighbor is a vet tech and I asked her if this constituted an emergency. She said if Lucy was breathing okay, to wait as that was high, but within range. We kept her in the basement (always cool), with ice packs and a cool, wet towel. We slept there too. I didn't sleep, of course, as I was listening to her every sound. By morning her temp was down to 103.

The blood test came back the following day. I don't know much about white blood counts or how they are measured, but Lucy's last white blood cell count was 8,000. This one was 16,000! The vet said this was only slightly out of normal range (which I guess goes to 15,000), but because it was double her normal, it was cause for concern. I brought Lucy back in and they gave her two different shots of antibiotics.

The xray needed to be sent out, but the vet showed it to us and Lucy's left lung (looking at the xray) was milky at the top. Their main radiologist was on vacation, so they had to send it to a sub. The sub went on vacation also, but took the xray with him. (Huh?) They couldn't reach him so wanted me to come in for another set that could be sent out to a third radiologist. Meanwhile, I'd brought Lucy back in for more antibiotic shots and they sent me home with Clindamycin and Baytril thinking these would "get" most bacterial pneumonia. Her temp was back in normal range.

Well, the long and short of it is they finally reached the vacationing radiologist and he said it was pneumonia. They are treating it as bacterial and if Lucy doesn't respond to the antibiotics, then she'll need a throat culture. After her shots and the orals, she is a bit more perky. I wouldn't come close to saying she's normal. Even though she's sleeping most of the time, when she is awake, she seems more alert.

The issue now is getting her healthy and keeping her hydrated. She's to be on antibiotics for 2-3 weeks and then they'll do another xray. For whatever reason, Lucy who normally drinks a couple bowls of water a day, is not even touching it—and it's hot and humid here. I'm drowning her food in 1 1/2 cups of water laced with low-sodium chicken stock. At a minimum, she's ingesting 3 cups a day. Now to get just a little more down her...