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8-Week Old Lab Mix Puppy Fights Pneumonia

2010 January 2


“How long has the puppy been coughing and had crusty eyes and nose?”

“One day.”

Now, when a pet parent tells me their new puppy has suddenly gotten boney, won’t eat, vomits once and has diarrhea, I doubt the problem is only 24 hours old.


In eight-week-old Shella’s case, she had worms for a month (the shelter diagnosed hookworms and gave directions to see a vet the month before she saw me.) The little puppy was weak. with crusty yellow discharge by her eyes and her nose.

She breathed fast and noisily, was crackling, fluidy sounds emanating from her chest cavity. Her belly hung down to her knees.

Radiographs (x-rays) confirmed my fear that the little lab puppy had full-blown pneumonia. Her lungs had little space for air, because of the fluid build-up in the air sacs (alveoli) and she was super anemic, which means she had less red blood cells to carry the little bit of oxygen her lungs picked up. (In the picture, see how her tongue is salmon pink, instead of a bright, healthy pinkish-red?)

After two days of fluids, nebulization, hand feeding, and tender loving care, Shella looked like a new dog.

Puppies can develop pneumonia for many reasons:

  • Distemper virus
  • Canine H3N8 Influenza
  • Bacterial pneumonia
  • H1N1 Influenza has been confirmed to spread from infected human to dog
  • many more….

In Shella’s case, she developed aspiration pneumonia. Her family isolated from other dogs for at least five weeks before she developed symptoms, no humans in the house were ill. And she became violently and suddenly sick.

What happened was: Shella vomited because her intestinal hookworm infection made her symptomatic with gastroenteritis. She coughed in the middle of vomiting and breathed in some vomit. Now she had an unfamiliar liquid in her lungs, full of bacteria, too!

The lungs react violently to improper materials onside them (ever cough and choke after just breathing in a little piece of dog fur?) Imagine spoonfuls of vomit in your lungs. You become very sick very fast.

Shella continued her treatments for over a month, and eventually made a full recovery!

Here’s Shella’s picture just after her first medical treatment. She really enjoys eating out of the nurse’s hand!

5 Responses leave one →
  1. October 13, 2010

    My 10 week old boxer puppy was just diagnosed with pneumonia. I have to say, it is a very scary thing. He was so frail and wouldn’t eat or drink anything. Anything we hand fed him including water and medicine, he would throw up. He couldn’t keep anything down at all. Luckily after only a few days of being on his medication, he is starting to eat normally and the best part is that for the most part, he is keeping everything down. He has shown a lot more energy as well. My puppy’s pneumonia stemmed from a kennel cough that he had since we had picked him up from the breeder.

    • October 13, 2010

      Dear Jennifer,
      What’s your puppy’s name?
      I hope he feels better soon. There’s a new test panel in America run through Antech diagnostics (they do about 95% of the small animal labwork for the US). The test searches for the DNA from about 10 different causes of “kennel cough” looking symptoms. Like H3N8 dog flu, H1N1 flu, parainfluenza (saw a pup with that a few weeks ago), and, of course, Bordetella bronciseptica. Research shows most puppies from a breeder will not usually have bordetella (like puppies from stores or shelters) but actual bacterial pneumonia. Luckily, your veterinarian put him on good medication. Think of it like a kid getting a cold when they go to preschool. Life happens!

      • November 4, 2010

        Virtuavet,

        Thanks for the reply, sorry it took so long to get back to you. His name is Sammy. I did not know about the new test panel, thanks for that information – that is very interesting that technology has come so far even for our precious animals. It’s been about 3 weeks since we took him to the animal hospital, he finished all of his medications, he seemed fine for a few days, but recently we have started to hear the cough come back yet again! I think we are going to take him to a different vet this weekend for a second opinion. Any suggestions?

        Jennifer

        • November 7, 2010

          Dear Jennifer,
          Puppy pneumonia often takes longer than two weeks of antibiotics to resolve. Perhaps yours stopped too soon. If they feel you need it, I would let them take x-rays, perhaps a blood test (CBC, respiratory panel), check your antibiotics and doses. Ask them for a detailed recheck schedule and do not stop antibiotics until they have rechecked him and told you that it seems safe to stop. I’ve had pneumonia pups on antibiotics for 6-10 weeks sometimes! Other times, the problem was actually viral, and they just were coughing a little bit for weeks to months. Nerve-wracking, yes, but no antibiotics were needed!
          Definately take him to the vets. Plus, you’ll get better service on a weekday than a weekend. That’s true at people hospitals, too!
          Yours,
          Doc Truli

  2. November 10, 2010

    Thanks Doctor Truli. You have been more than helpful! We got some more Baytril for him; this time a higher dosage since he has gained 10 pounds, doubling his size, since we first took him in to see the vet. When the other medication and the first batch of Baytril ended, we took him into the vet again for a checkup, they didn’t take a second x-ray, they just listened to his chest through the stethoscope, said he sounded fine and sent him home with us. Not too long after, he started getting a cough again. We made another appointment for him for Saturday; it’s very hard for us to keep taking off of work during the week to bring him in. Luckily the appointment is with a friend of a relative, so hopefully we won’t get the “weekend service”. 🙂 It is a little farther than we hoped to travel, but we feel more comfortable bringing him to someone who we know will take good care of him and hopefully at least x-ray & blood test him.

    – Jennifer

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