Hello, I'm new and have a question
 

Hello, I am a brand new yorkie owner and brought my baby home on the 27th of December at 8 weeks. Come to find out that she has kennel cough. She is now on anitbiotics and torbutrol, for the cough. Does anyone know if this torbutrol makes them really wild before making them sleepy? She got VERY, VERY crazy and then has just fallen asleep. I'm extremely worried about the amount of medicine that she is taking. I've always owed BIG dogs, labs and such so having a little baby now kind of makes me nervous. I know that they are much more delicate and I just want to make sure that I do the right thing. Thanks for any advice that you can give me..

Regards,
Lynn
Mom to Daisy Mae...

I'm sorry, I have no idea whether or not the medicine is making your baby wild, but i do know that it is not uncommon for puppies to run wildly before they go to sleep - I'm sure that is a normal puppy thing. Your medicine may be affecting your baby too though, I'm not sure.

Hi and welcome to YT! When Simon was a baby he would get a big case of the crazies before bed and run like a madman. I don't know about the medicine so I'm sorry I can't give you any help there!

I was just watching some show on TV yesterday talking about kennel cough. They were talking how vets really give the antibiotics most of the time for owners sake and not the dogs(NOT ALWAYS JUST USUALLY). They said if it is diagnosed as normal kennel cough and not anything serious that seperation(from other dogs) and letting it run it's course was normal procedure and that the antibiotics were for the owners who couldn't take the coughing . They also talked about using a baby cough syrup for soothing the cough . They said Kennel cough was just a name for a cold like humans get colds . They also talked about antibiotics should only be used for multiple dog households and in cases where diagnosis was for the more extreme cases where it has gotten into the chest such as pnuemonia.

Found this:

Torbutrol® is an opioid pain reliever. It is FDA approved for pain relief in cats and for chronic coughing in dogs. It is common and accepted to use off label for pain in dogs.

Torbutrol® is not for use in patients with heartworm disease. Use with caution in patients with liver or kidney disease. Contact your veterinarian if you see vomiting, diarrhea, seizures or signs of sedation. Signs of overdose or toxicity include decreased heart rate or decreased respiratory rate. Naloxone is used to treat overdoses. Use with caution when combining with medications that have sedative properties.

http://www.peteducation.com enter Torbutrol in search

http://www.dodgerslist.com/lit/drugs.html#torbutrol

I looked up kennel cough to see if it was viral or bacterial, looks like it could be either. Many doctors prescribe antibiotics for people with viral infections to "satisfy" the patient so that they feel like something is being done, not a very good practice...anyway, wondered if the same was true for dogs.


A: Ben- Tracheobronchitis, commonly referred to as "kennel cough" is usually caused by the bacteria Bordetella bronchiseptica. It can also be caused by several viruses. Some vets feel that it is best not to treat this condition with antibiotics since it is almost always self limiting and the organism is a normal inhabitant of the upper airways. Treatment may lead to resistance problems and difficulty treating the most serious complication, pneumonia, if it occurs. So many dogs are very uncomfortable due to the severity of the cough that I think most vets do use antibiotics to treat this. I personally like sulfa/trimethoprim combination antibiotics such as Ditrim (Rx) or Tribrissen (Rx) or doxycycline but I suspect that many antibiotics work well for this condition -- and no antibiotic at all is OK most of the time. Use of a cough suppressant can make the dog a lot more comfortable, whether antibiotics are used or not.

Mike Richards, DVM