So sorry you are dealing with this too! It was a nightmare with Jackson too last year. Cough got so bad and I just felt awful for him -- he was otherwise acting normal.
Our regular vet started with an x-ray and a round of doxycycline to rule out infection. The Doxy seemed to help at first. Vet warned me doxy has anti inflammatory properties though so it could have just been that helping, not necessarily killing infection. Cough came back with full vengeance and our vet tried Jackson on theophylline but he had every side effect -- diarrhea, hyper, anxious, panting, etc. We stopped that. He mentioned prednisone and the Flovent inhaler but he was hesitant to do pred because of his pancreatitis. I asked him to prescribe Lomotil based on research I did and he did prescribe it, but it gave Jax weird poops. We got the inhaler RX and then we got squeezed into the specialist who had a cancellation.
She did a fluoroscopy and saw no signs of Collapsing Trachea or lower airway. They did a tracheal wash under mild sedation and a culture came back and grew 2 types of bacteria -- both resistant to doxy and clavamox. So we did a round of marbofloxacin which really seemed to help and she felt comfortable doing a round of prednisone. His pancreatitis was not affected and I am so glad I did it because it really calmed down the inflammation. We then transitioned him onto the Flovent Aerodawg inhaler and I think it really helps. We also have hydrocodone for bad nights, as of now it seems to work on an as needed basis, but I know eventually I may have to give every 8 hours.
I am sorry you went/are going through as well. I didn't know bronchitis was such a thing in older dogs, but my vet said he sees it often enough. His own 13yr old Pit bull dog is actually on an inhaler as well.
The specialist also ended up doing further testing from his bloodwork and urine results and found he had excessive protein in urine and diagnosed him with PLN which he now takes 2 meds daily for. These seniors are tough..... |