Sunday, May 2, 2010

Coughing, hacking wierdness

Leo has had an interesting week. It started earlier in the week with a strange hacking sound he was making. It wasn't a reverse sneeze. It wasn't a cough, per se. It was just a strange noise like something was stuck in his throat. He would stand with his hand hanging just so slightly and hack and snarfle and make these strange guttural noises and then be done with it. A little while he might do it again. The first night it happened, I was obviously concerned. It was just about bedtime and I was debating on taking him to the emergency room. I checked his color and it was fine. He kept breathing and, while he was hacking like something was wrong, he acted fine otherwise. He was playful, ornery, chewing on stuff, drinking, and happy. So, I ended up going to bed and just checked on him a couple times during the night (He sleeps on the bed so easy enough to do.). He was fine but this strange behavior continued. Finally yesterday I decided he should see the vet. I was becoming concerned about collapsing trachea, although nothing had happened to traumatize him and he's never worn a collar as long as I've known him.

Off to the vet we went around mid-morning. Fortunately they are a walk-in clinic and were able to get us in right away. The doctor examined Leo and, amidst comments and exclamations about how sweet, well-behaved and a-typical he is for a Pomeranian, she explained a bit more about collapsing trachea. It wasn't quite what I thought so it was good to learn more. She tried pressing on his trachea a bit and wasn't able to get a response and send him into a 'fit.' She said it was possible it was collapsing trachea but they really struggle to try to get dogs to exhibit the behavior at the clinic. Plus, she said even when they x-ray, unless the trachea is actively collapsing, they cannot definitely determine that's it. She said they would do the x-ray if I wanted though, but she said it might be a mild case of kennel cough. Based upon the discussion we were having and knowing Leo has not had a kennel cough vaccine yet, I decided it was worth trying the antibiotics and anti-inflammatory to see if we saw a change.

So far so good. Although when we walked out of the clinic Leo immediately went into a fit and then just a short while down the road when we got out at the outlet mall to walk a bit he had the same thing happen again, he went through all of today without a single fit. He's only three doses into the antibiotic but I have a feeling that was what he had going on. I hope Vegas stays well, and it looks like Leo is on his way to kicking this little bug that attacked him.

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