I was going to post this in the senior forum but as it's not exclusively a senior thing I thought I'd try here.
Luc, who turns 14 in July, has laryngeal paralysis. For the most part its asymptomatic, though he had a heat related scare 3 weeks ago. We got him cooled down, took him to the vet, he checked out fine.
He has developed a heart murmur (grade 4). So we've been monitoring his respiratory rate.
Saturday he was tearing around our yard like a puppy, playing 'chase and be chased'. Sunday night (last night), we went out, and as we were getting ready for bed noticed he was breathing heavily. I took his respiratory rate and it was 70+. Normally it's under 20.
Our vet had indicated 30 or higher was a concern for congestive heart failure, so we went to the e-vet (despite my husband's objections...he said I was a hypochondriac where Luc is concerned).
The vet examined Luc and didn't seem too concerned - pulse good, gums good, heart sounded fine aside from murmur - he presented normal - so left to monitor him at home, and got to bed about 2 am.
Got up just before 7 (it's a holiday in Canada today), checked his respiratory rate three times - 40, 34, 48 - called the e-vet. She suggested seeing how he ate, and he did, but wasn't as enthusiastic as normal (read: did not bark and spin like an idiot <3 ).
Much to my husband's annoyance, I insisted we go in for diagnostics. I think even the vet thought it was dumb. But we had x-rays and a scope done.
Results: Some white on his heart, likely calcification due to old age. Some of the left lobes of his lungs are white, so it could be cancer, but given that he has laryngeal paralysis, the likelihood is that it's aspiration pneumonia. The scope showed a small edema.
We are treating with antibiotics (the first dose was a nightmare to get in, as he was sedated and not hungry, and tried to bite us when we tried to pop peanut-buttery pills into his mouth). We left him to sleep it off and I just got him to eat the pills.
Question: I've read the survival rate of aspiration pneumonia is 77-81%. Which is apparently 'good' though doesn't seem that good to me. Does anyone know what the survival rate is for senior dogs? Does it change?
But I KNEW something was wrong. The e-vet kept saying 'Well, he's awake when you're looking at the respiratory rate, and 40 isn't bad for an awake dog' and I was like 'IT IS NOT NORMAL FOR HIM!!!!' I'm friends with our regular vet and even before we knew the results she was like 'I'm glad you're getting the x-rays done'.
Aspiration pneumonia experiences, good and bad, would be appreciated. Thanks all!
Luc, who turns 14 in July, has laryngeal paralysis. For the most part its asymptomatic, though he had a heat related scare 3 weeks ago. We got him cooled down, took him to the vet, he checked out fine.
He has developed a heart murmur (grade 4). So we've been monitoring his respiratory rate.
Saturday he was tearing around our yard like a puppy, playing 'chase and be chased'. Sunday night (last night), we went out, and as we were getting ready for bed noticed he was breathing heavily. I took his respiratory rate and it was 70+. Normally it's under 20.
Our vet had indicated 30 or higher was a concern for congestive heart failure, so we went to the e-vet (despite my husband's objections...he said I was a hypochondriac where Luc is concerned).
The vet examined Luc and didn't seem too concerned - pulse good, gums good, heart sounded fine aside from murmur - he presented normal - so left to monitor him at home, and got to bed about 2 am.
Got up just before 7 (it's a holiday in Canada today), checked his respiratory rate three times - 40, 34, 48 - called the e-vet. She suggested seeing how he ate, and he did, but wasn't as enthusiastic as normal (read: did not bark and spin like an idiot <3 ).
Much to my husband's annoyance, I insisted we go in for diagnostics. I think even the vet thought it was dumb. But we had x-rays and a scope done.
Results: Some white on his heart, likely calcification due to old age. Some of the left lobes of his lungs are white, so it could be cancer, but given that he has laryngeal paralysis, the likelihood is that it's aspiration pneumonia. The scope showed a small edema.
We are treating with antibiotics (the first dose was a nightmare to get in, as he was sedated and not hungry, and tried to bite us when we tried to pop peanut-buttery pills into his mouth). We left him to sleep it off and I just got him to eat the pills.
Question: I've read the survival rate of aspiration pneumonia is 77-81%. Which is apparently 'good' though doesn't seem that good to me. Does anyone know what the survival rate is for senior dogs? Does it change?
But I KNEW something was wrong. The e-vet kept saying 'Well, he's awake when you're looking at the respiratory rate, and 40 isn't bad for an awake dog' and I was like 'IT IS NOT NORMAL FOR HIM!!!!' I'm friends with our regular vet and even before we knew the results she was like 'I'm glad you're getting the x-rays done'.
Aspiration pneumonia experiences, good and bad, would be appreciated. Thanks all!