Kennel Cough

And, boy, is it bad. I was up all night trying to keep him calm and quiet (because, just like a sick kid, Lucky wants MOM for comfort). If I didn't gently soothe him whenever he started to wheeze, he'd go into hacking fits so bad he'd gag himself. I actually was worried for a while he was blocked, but he ate and drank and had normal bathroom activities this morning. They ran x-rays just in case (I fell asleep in the exam room while waiting) and those came back clear. Another $260 at the vet. Oh de do.

I think I partially blame the pred for this for two reasons. One, it's an immune-suppressant, so I'm sure that's not helping because, in all the years he's been in close contact with strange dogs he's not gotten bordetella once. Two, because it's an anti-inflammatory, his infection went completely undetected until he was hacking and gagging. I don't remember him coughing at all until last night. Neither does The Spouse.

Anyway, we're on more medication (doxycycline and butorphanol). I get to play with the butorphanol dose because it's also a narcotic (whee!), so we need to see what would be best to keep him from coughing but not, you know, comatose. The vet recommended starting him on 1/2 pill every 6-8 hours and seeing how that goes.

Also, the vet mentioned she'd read yet another study on Addison medications, this time on prednisone and that, again, dogs studied could be on a much lower dose than previously thought. So once Fuzzy Face is healthy again we're going to start reducing his dose.