Muddy is still coughing

[Karen]

I am so glad that Muddy is such a loved doggie, and that the community of Pet Talkers has been able to help you. Keep us updated, I am glad you are asking your vet about the gabapentin!

[Emeraldgreen]

I am so glad that Muddy is such a loved doggie, and that the community of Pet Talkers has been able to help you. Keep us updated, I am glad you are asking your vet about the gabapentin!

Oh yes, he is one loved guy! He is such a good boy and he adores his pawpie. He loves me too but he follows his pawpie's every move to see what's next, what's happening, where are we going etc.. I'm more of the snuggly friend that gives him yummy things and tucks him in at night. But that is an important role too!
I am very grateful for the information provided to me in this thread and in all threads that I've received support and information. It truly is invaluable. Where else can you go and find multiple contributions from people who have gone through the exact same situation? It is the best.


Thank you Critters for that link with regard to splints. I haven't checked it out yet but I will tonight!

Cinder & Smoke wrote:

Here's the PT thread that started in November of 2006 >>> Bowser needs Prayers ... Old Age is catching up ...
http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthread.php?t=116267

The Prayer Pups will keep Muddy in their prayers!

I just finished reading the thread on Bowser. Once I got into a rhythem with the 'Bowser Speak' it WAZ NUFFIN'!
I was really interested in each of your posts and laughed quite a bit with regard to the lights and cowbells the dogs were all wearing and the 'deer hunt' followed by 'deer pharts'!

We are having a terrible day today. Four days ago Muddy was running around fairly normal but yesterday and today he is a different dog. The vet prescribed Benylin DM for him (50-60mg every 8 hours). The cough syrup thing was a disaster so I found some Benylin DM cough caps that the pharmacist told me only had DM in it and none of the ingredients that the vet told me to ask her about (their names escape me now but sound like Guaphanine, sudephedrine and something else...)
Each cap has 15mg in it so I gave him 4 caps every 8 hours. He turned into a zombie who could barely walk. The coughing stopped but he can hardly walk a straight line and collapses to the ground over and over.
We were particularily concerned about him last night because he hadn't eaten his breakfast (the new feeding time to try and avoid overnight accidents). We didn't like the idea of all these meds on board and no food in his tummy so we gave him crumbles mixed with some canned food around 7:00p.m. I knew I'd most likely have a pile to clean up in the a.m. but nothing could have prepared us for what we found this morning. In his drugged stupour, he wandered all over their room pooping everywhere and it was diarrhea. It was on both their beds, all over the floor and sprayed on the walls!! It was on all four of his legs too. My husband was very frustrated and for a brief moment thought this was no way to live for Muddy or for us but I reminded him that this would never have happened if we hadn't drugged him and fed him wet food and fed him at 7:00p.m. I cleaned up the room and plan to be the first on the scene from now on for any future clean ups and my husband has agreed to let me try everything to help Muddy without getting upset. I'm just so frustrated that this stupid cough is happening at the same time as the other ailment because we have to get rid of the cough, he's so uncomfortable, hacking throughout the day but the meds required to do it are literally knocking him on his rearend.
I'm bringing in a urine sample to the vet tomorrow morning and I will ask for the Torbutrol for the cough. The vet said it was ridiculously expensive for larger dogs and that is why she suggested the Benylin but I can't keep him in this state. It's not only affecting his balance but his eyes look like he's had a labotamy and he sits and stares at the wall as if he is hallucinating and he pants and pants, even when it's cold. We decided to stop altogether with the Benylin and he has now missed his 7:00p.m. dose and already started coughing a few hours ago.

And to make matters worse, our cat Jimmy, who we rushed to the vet 2 weeks ago was very unwell this morning. Of course it is Sunday! I called my vet and the answering machine said another vet hospital was on call. I called her and she was at a party I think. She was very short with me and basically said that if I were to bring him in she'd have to start from scratch and do every single thing that the previous vet did (xrays, blood work, urinalysis) and all at emerg vet fees. She was basically trying to talk me out of bringing him in. I was so mad when I got off the phone. This is the holistic vet that I had been planning to take Jimmy to in the near future but not anymore. He's doing a bit better now and has begun eating a bit of dry food.


Below are two videos. Before and after. The first one was taken on the evening of September 18th and Muddy is running around the yard feeling pretty good. The following video was taken about an hour ago and he is so different. Just out of it. He falls down in one part of it and it just broke my heart.

[lizbud]

I'm so sorry that Muddy is having these problems. I can see a real
difference in him with the two videos. Maybe the dosage is too much for
him. I sure hope that Muddy & Jimmy are doing much better very soon.

[katslady]

My thoughts and prayers are with you and Muddy, I hope he gets better soon.I hope the Torb. will help and he can function better on it. katslady

[Emeraldgreen]

We got Muddy off the Robitussin right away because the sedating effects were just too powerful. I picked up a prescription for Torbutrol 5mg and he gets a half tab in the morning and another at night. It worked so well for the first 3-4 days but he has started coughing again. It is not as much as when he is not on any meds but he is still coughing. I left a message with my vet but haven't heard back from her yet.
From what I understood, we were trying to get him to stop coughing for a long enough time so that the inflammation in his trachea/throat area would go down. Each time he coughs, it is supposed to be making the inflammtion worse and the inflammation is making him cough.
I don't know if the fact that he has started coughing again means that his dose needs to be increased or if he has something else causing the cough, like a foreign body that the xray didn't pick up.
The other thing is that my dog Finnigan coughed last night in exactly the same way Muddy has been. It was only the one time and he might have just had some food lodged the wrong way, he eats quickly. But now I'm wondering if it is something that is contagious.
They are never in contact with other dogs (because Muddy is not good with other dogs, he's a bit aggressive) and we walk them everyday but around our property, not in public where they might come across other dogs. We have some acreage so they have lots of room to run.
I do think the wolves come around at night and walk through our property and I don't know if there is something our dogs could catch from them?
There is one pack that frequents our area and I just found out they killed another dog about a block away from where we live. My neighbour says they travel through his property and ours on a regular basis at night but I have never seen them. Our dogs sleep inside with us so they haven't had direct contact with them.

But I don't think it is a contagious thing he's dealing with because the xrays showed a clear view of a collapsing trachea with inflammation of the tracheal sac. The vet said an irritant of somesort could have started it.
I'm waiting to hear back from the vet if I should increase his meds or change them.

I gave my vet the information about the Gabapentin that I received in this post (thank you guys for that!!) and she was really interested in it. She called in a prescription for a month's supply. I picked them up but don't want to start Muddy on them until I get him through this coughing/hacking problem. It makes him so uncomfortable.

[jennielynn1970]

Awe... poor Muddy! That 2nd video showing how he acts when he's on the cough medicine is just a heart breaker. I'm glad you found something else for him, but I hope you can find something that will stop the cough all together, or be able to reduce the inflammation so that the coughing stops all together. I hope Finnegan doesn't get it. Geez...

Thoughts and prayers going out to you and your crew. Hope Jimmy is doing better as well. How are the two new kitties doing??

[Emeraldgreen]

Awe... poor Muddy! That 2nd video showing how he acts when he's on the cough medicine is just a heart breaker. I'm glad you found something else for him, but I hope you can find something that will stop the cough all together, or be able to reduce the inflammation so that the coughing stops all together. I hope Finnegan doesn't get it. Geez...

Thoughts and prayers going out to you and your crew. Hope Jimmy is doing better as well. How are the two new kitties doing??

Thanks Jenn.
Finnigan hasn't coughed since that one time so I think it was just him eating too fast. Phew! I called the vet but she wasn't in so I spoke to a different one. She asked what the dose was for Muddy and seemed surprised that he was only getting 1/2 a 5mg tab twice a day. She said there was alot of room to increase the dose and she increased it to 1 tab twice a day. I picked up a two week prescription so hopefully this will knock this cough out!

Jimmy is doing really well. Thanks for asking about him. His belly is still bald from the ultrasound and looks like trout skin, it is so cute. He is on a 2 week treatment of Metronidazole which he hates but he is so frisky and happy lately, it is all worth it. I haven't given him anything but Gastro dry food and Hypo Gastro wet food. It's very bland but he is like a different cat, I'm so grateful.

The new guys are fabulous. Wallace is very shy but we're working on it. I wish I knew more about his injuries from the raccoon attack he suffered before he was surrendered to the SPCA. I think he has some nerve damage because he walks a little funny. He's very slow moving sometimes and almost seems traumatized. I'm going to see if I can get his vet records and once I get through the Muddy/Jimmy health issues, he will be next to the vet.

You probably didn't see my p.s. at the bottom of my post in the thread about Splinter but I'm a huge Indigo Girls fan. Love the new addition to your siggy