Pawsitive thought for Zeke, please; UPDATE Post 15

[Seravieve]

For the past month or so Zeke has been having a coughing and breathing problem. We've taken him to the vet twice and both times they said it looked like Tracheal bronchitis (aka Kennel Cough). He has taken antibiotics and two courses of cough suppressants.

(Side note on the Kennel Cough suggestion... We don't vaccinate for it because our dogs RARELY interact with other dogs and we do not board them, ever. So we thought it was an odd diagnosis.. especially since the other two 4leggers haven't caught it.)

This past weekend he got worse. He started panting and drooling. He also began to turn away from his food. He's a VERY food driven dog, so you know something's up when he lets the other two eat his food.

We took him to the vet this morning and had an Xray done. They were going to take more but didn't want to chance it. Once they placed him on the table for the first Xray, on his side, he began having a very hard time breathing. They took the first one and it shows LOTS of fluid in his chest. =/ So much so that they didnt want to roll him over, because he wouldn't be able to breath. Also in the Xray, she could see that the windpipe was pushed up horizontally, instead of the usual diagonal position. All of this is why he stands around instead of laying down.

The next step was a chest tap to drain some fluid and see what is causing it. Our vet thinks its one of the following, cancer, tumors in heart, or heart disease/chf. There was so much fluid in the chest, that she couldnt see the heart in his Xray, so she can't say if its enlarged or not. She called back after the tap and said there looks to be blood in the fluid and we should here back from them in 24-48 hours for the test results. She took out about 3/4 c of fluid and said he was more comfortable now and able to lay down.

I know I don't post much on here, I mainly just reply to others' threads, but I'd appreciate some good vibes for Zz dog. He's my gf's dog.. and it's really hard on her to hear all of this. We're all keeping our paws and toes and fingers crossed in our house for him.. =) Thanks!