Jenni23

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Mar 3, 2016
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Georgia
So many of you who read my EBN introduction, know how I came to have Gigi. She was being treated for kennel cough with clavamox for 14 days. Well by day 10 on her meds there just wasn't enough improvement for me, so I called up our vet and she wanted me to bring her in right away for chest X-rays. We took her on Sat morning. She has a bad case of pneumonia in her right central lung lobe. She was put on an extended dose of clavamox, baytril, and some Pepcid. The X-rays also revealed a very narrow trachea and maybe megaesophagus. The vet thinks the megaesophagus could be due to the irritation from all the coughing she's been doing with the pneumonia, so she put her on Pepcid twice a day. She thinks it may clear up over time, especially since she's not throwing up food.

Everything looked ok on her physical exam except her kneecaps are slightly loose, but they do not luxate.

She goes back in 2 weeks for follow up X-rays. If she's clear, great, if not, more meds.

I also found out that she had a sister at the pet store. They shared a cage and bowls and toys. When my brother went in, the sales person said the sister was quarantined because of a "runny nose". She has since passed away. I know it's not a good idea to ever buy from a pet store like my brother, but I can imagine if he hadn't, Gigi would have suffered the same fate.

So has anyone dealt with any of the above issues? Thoughts, advice, tips??

We are taking steamy showers with her in the bathroom and then firmly patting her right side where the pneumonia is, trying to help it break up.

Thanks,
Jenn and Gigi
 

madie4589

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Feb 9, 2015
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I am so sorry you are experiencing this and so sad about the loss of her sister!! Sadly that's the fate many many puppy store dogs suffer, they're crammed together at a crucial time in their lives - heath wise, and pass around sicknesses so easily. Gigi is incredibly lucky to have you... I've read so many stories about people not willing to pay for all the medical treatments their puppy store dog usually needs after they buy them!

Your biggest asset will be a vet with is familiar with the EB breed! It sounds like you have a thorough one now, since they spotted the megaesophagus and the loose kneecaps.

good luck to you and your baby through this, it doesn't sound as though she's doing awful, and I hope you see improvement asap. I've dealt with kennel cough several times but it usually cleared up in a few days and never progressed to pneumonia. it's so much easier for the younger ones to get worse sadly. keep us updated!
 

ddnene

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Oh boy… it's very possible that the sister died of pneumonia, and the pet store decided it was cheaper to have her put down then pay to save her :*( I'm surprised he would mention megaesopahgus especially since she isn't throwing up food and now has been diagnosed w/pneumonia. Most puppies have loose kneecaps, so that IMO is nothing to be concerned about yet. Poor baby girl… Thank God you saved her, and you are doing a great job of trying to get her well. I would say in addition to the steamy showers if you have a humidifier that you could use when she sleeps or takes naps that will help her cough up the mucous from her lungs. I would keep lemon juice on hand if she has trouble coughing it up, the juice will help break it up and keep her from choking. You just squirt a little bit to the back of her throat and that should help.

I'm so sorry about all of this, and I will keep you guys in my prayers. Please keep us posted on Gigi, and let us know if you have any questions… I honestly don't know if we have had a member deal w/megaesopahgus before [MENTION=2]bullmama[/MENTION] ?
 

bullmama

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I'm sorry your baby is sick! [emoji30]. [MENTION=9157]ddnene[/MENTION] No not megaespophogus, but in 6 years of EBN I have seen a huge amount of young pups on this site get pneumonia, most of them diagnosed with a narrow trachea.

I have a theory that I'm trying to verify but that will take time, and that is that I believe that the bulldog trachea doesn't grow when it should, or to put it another way, When a pup is 3-4 months old, their trachea is only that of a 6-8 week old puppy.

This can cause them to aspirate easy and get pneumonia because of it.

Now this is only a theory but one I believe has a solid foundation. Mainly because Bulldogs grow in stages as pups (ever notice the over sized floppy ears of an 8 week old puppy or the short stubby legs of a 5 week old puppy, or the super long legs and thin chest of a 5 month old? Then boom 10 months rolls around and overnight they look like the went to the gym on steroids.

If anyone at all has any information and especially X-rays to prove or debunk my theory I would love to have it. This could save hundreds of bulldog pups from being put to sleep and give puppy owners more information on such a condition before making a choice they could regret.


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2BullyMama

I'm not OCD....now who moved my bulldog?
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Oh boy… it's very possible that the sister died of pneumonia, and the pet store decided it was cheaper to have her put down then pay to save her :*( I'm surprised he would mention megaesopahgus especially since she isn't throwing up food and now has been diagnosed w/pneumonia. Most puppies have loose kneecaps, so that IMO is nothing to be concerned about yet. Poor baby girl… Thank God you saved her, and you are doing a great job of trying to get her well. I would say in addition to the steamy showers if you have a humidifier that you could use when she sleeps or takes naps that will help her cough up the mucous from her lungs. I would keep lemon juice on hand if she has trouble coughing it up, the juice will help break it up and keep her from choking. You just squirt a little bit to the back of her throat and that should help.

I'm so sorry about all of this, and I will keep you guys in my prayers. Please keep us posted on Gigi, and let us know if you have any questions… I honestly don't know if we have had a member deal w/megaesopahgus before @bullmama ?

:goodpost:
[MENTION=15577]Jenni23[/MENTION] .... sending lots of prayers and healing thoughts to little Gigi!
 

CCandMurray

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Sep 16, 2015
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[MENTION=15577]Jenni23[/MENTION] I'm so sorry to hear you're going through this with Gigi :( I've had my Murray since he was eight and a half weeks old, he flew to me from Texas to NY and a few days after I got him he developed kennel cough which did not improve and turned into pneumonia after a couple of days we went back to the vet, had an additional medicine and I am happy to say that he turned out to be 100% fine, no trachea problems and haven't had any problems like it since. The hot steams really helped a lot I probably did it about 4 or more times a day the entire time he was on the medication (10 or 14 days) and massaged near where he had the pneumonia to try to loosen it up. Super scary stuff I really feel for you. Sending healing thoughts and prayers to you and Gigi it sounds like you are taking all the right steps please keep us posted!
 

cefe13

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Wishing little Gigi a speedy recovery!
 
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Jenni23

Jenni23

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So this morning Gigi is on her 4th day of baytril, and her 15th day of clavamox. She still has this deep chesty cough, and a gag at the end. When she gets up from her morning nap, it takes her a while to get going, is that normal bulldog behavior? or is the pneumonia making her super tired? She's eating really well, and drinking well too. I am keeping some humidifiers running. I just want some hint of improvement, is that too much to ask? lol.
 

2BullyMama

I'm not OCD....now who moved my bulldog?
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So this morning Gigi is on her 4th day of baytril, and her 15th day of clavamox. She still has this deep chesty cough, and a gag at the end. When she gets up from her morning nap, it takes her a while to get going, is that normal bulldog behavior? or is the pneumonia making her super tired? She's eating really well, and drinking well too. I am keeping some humidifiers running. I just want some hint of improvement, is that too much to ask? lol.

it is the pneumonia making her tired... it sucks the energy out of them
 

Goob14

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I'm sorry your baby is sick! [emoji30]. @ddnene No not megaespophogus, but in 6 years of EBN I have seen a huge amount of young pups on this site get pneumonia, most of them diagnosed with a narrow trachea.

I have a theory that I'm trying to verify but that will take time, and that is that I believe that the bulldog trachea doesn't grow when it should, or to put it another way, When a pup is 3-4 months old, their trachea is only that of a 6-8 week old puppy.

This can cause them to aspirate easy and get pneumonia because of it.

Now this is only a theory but one I believe has a solid foundation. Mainly because Bulldogs grow in stages as pups (ever notice the over sized floppy ears of an 8 week old puppy or the short stubby legs of a 5 week old puppy, or the super long legs and thin chest of a 5 month old? Then boom 10 months rolls around and overnight they look like the went to the gym on steroids.

If anyone at all has any information and especially X-rays to prove or debunk my theory I would love to have it. This could save hundreds of bulldog pups from being put to sleep and give puppy owners more information on such a condition before making a choice they could regret.


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My experience with Goob totally makes sense with your theory about bulldogs growing in stages....

Goob was an engagement present. The first night we had him, he would cough/gag then vomit. It was mostly bile but it would happen every couple of hours. We contacted the breeder and met her at the vet the next day. When we got there, I asked her what it could possibly be. She said that worse case scenario, it could be a small trachea but if that was the case, she would take Goob back and we would get to choose another puppy or get our money back. Even though I only had Goob for a day, the thought of losing him was heart breaking.

The vet took X-rays and said that his trachea "looked a little small but was working at roughly 70% capacity" (If I remember right, less than 40 or 50% means a life threatening problem) but it was nothing life threatening and it should grow nicely; we just needed to keep an eye on him.

Well, after a couple weeks, maybe even a month, all gagging/coughing and vomiting stopped. We sort of wondered if his trachea was really too small. We didn't know anything about bulldogs at the time so we didn't think to ask about the soft pallet. Looking back, it totally makes sense that he was a 2 month old puppy with the trachea of a younger pup. I'm sorry that I don't have the X-rays but I agree with your theory completely.

P.S. The breeder took care of all the vet bills, got us into the vet priority (the front of the line), contacted us a couple times a day to check up on him AND told us that if we couldn't get him to the vet to leave him with her and she would get him to the appointments. She was great! I don't even want to think about what could have happened to him if they deemed his trachea too small:(
 

bullmama

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Any improvement? I hope so :hug:


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Jenni23

Jenni23

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Any improvement? I hope so :hug:


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She has more energy for sure and there is no more nasal discharge, seem to have less congestion also. The thing that keeps worrying me is the deep cough with the gag at the end. She hardly ever spits up anything, but it just keeps continuing. She still has a week of baytril and clavamox left, and then we re-X-ray. I keep wondering if the coughing is still due to the pneumonia or is she having an elongated soft palate issue already? Can they show signs of that this young? The coughing seems worse at night if that means anything. It's definitely exhausting me, because it wakes me up several times a night:(. Any ideas? Suggestions?
 

2BullyMama

I'm not OCD....now who moved my bulldog?
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She has more energy for sure and there is no more nasal discharge, seem to have less congestion also. The thing that keeps worrying me is the deep cough with the gag at the end. She hardly ever spits up anything, but it just keeps continuing. She still has a week of baytril and clavamox left, and then we re-X-ray. I keep wondering if the coughing is still due to the pneumonia or is she having an elongated soft palate issue already? Can they show signs of that this young? The coughing seems worse at night if that means anything. It's definitely exhausting me, because it wakes me up several times a night:(. Any ideas? Suggestions?

The pneumonia can take a long time to clear up.... palate issues can show some signs at a young age, but from what you are describing, it seems the pneumonia is still causing havoc for her --- stay with the vaporizer at night to help her.

continued prayers and positive thoughts
 

Ronky

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Mar 6, 2016
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My breeder has some information on her website about Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome. I'm just not sure if I'm allowed to post her web link here or not. If I was to screen shot the information it may take up pages LOL. She has worked with a University in understand and dealing with a lot of the bulldog issues. I'm not sure if your interested or not. Or if its of any help.

I'm so sorry to hear your little one is sick. Sounds like the meds are helping. Which is good.
 
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Jenni23

Jenni23

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I haven't been online for a little while. We had spring break and went home to see family. I wanted to give a quick update on Gigi. Her pneumonia recheck and third set of X-rays were done yesterday and we did not get good news. I kind of knew we wouldn't based on her overall improvement, or lack there of. The X-rays showed no improvement in the pneumonia. They refilled her baytril and clavamox, this is her third refill of those. They gave her a steroid injection, and if she shows any improvement in the next 48 hours, they will prescribe her an oral steroid. They also want her on a bronchialdialator, it has to be made at a compound pharmacy, so she hasn't started that yet. If all of this fails, they want to try a tracheal wash. They are extremely hesitant about it because she has a severely narrowed trachea. In addition to all of that, the megaesophagus that was present on her very first X-ray, has not improved at all, and she has had some regurgitation issues. She is still holding down most of her food, but the vet recommended an elevated feeder and maybe a mostly canned diet. Right now, she's on mostly kibble. She eats Acana pork and squash. Is anyone feeding a canned diet that works well? Can y'all recommend a canned food that you like? Keep in mind she's only 4 months old, so I guess a puppy canned diet would be best. I saw that wellness had a puppy canned food, but it contains chicken, and I know many Bulldogs don't do well on chicken. Any advice on anything I've mentioned would be helpful and appreciated, this is new territory for me.
 

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