Young labrador with chronic cough

RE: Young labrador with chronic cough

Anthony Todd — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 15:25:57 GMT

[quote user="Anthony Dennison"]

Update - the owner contacted me today to say the dog had spent the weekend in the lakes being run hard with no sign of coughing. Looks like it's got better on it's own!

[/quote]

Another advantage of the "B12 & Bets" school of veterinary therapy; you would have got the credit rather than the dog's immune system....

"Say something, do something, give something"

Gave meself 1 star anyway.

RE: Young labrador with chronic cough

Anthony Todd — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 15:22:21 GMT

[quote user="Julian Earl"]Any suggestion of laryngeal paralysis? [/quote]

Don't you get sounds on inspiration and expiration?

RE: Young labrador with chronic cough

Julian Earl — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 18:56:17 GMT

Labrador? Honking cough? Any suggestion of laryngeal paralysis? Apart from this one, that is!robably too young I suppose? Has to be radiographs next though, surely?

RE: Young labrador with chronic cough

mariette asselbergs — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 16:21:57 GMT

[quote user="Richard Carter"]

we had young labrador that ended up fungal pneumonia - did live on farm so whether that had anything to do with it? Unfortunately a working dog so owner pulled the plug before we had even tried a treatment.

[/quote]

Did he play bagpipes?

Mariette

RE: Young labrador with chronic cough

Anthony Dennison — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 14:18:54 GMT

Update - the owner contacted me today to say the dog had spent the weekend in the lakes being run hard with no sign of coughing. Looks like it's got better on it's own!

RE: Young labrador with chronic cough

Anthony Todd — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 14:12:42 GMT

I suppose most dinovets played percentages; "kennels" and "coughing" tended to ring obvious bells so we gave our favourite AB but stopped the cough with a short acting steroid with, generally, 100% success within a day or two.

We sort of worked on the principle that cough < irritation < cough and >cough > irritation > cough.....

Obviously after, say, < a week then we explored the non-responders but I don't think we ever missed a megasophagus as the signs are different.

RE: Young labrador with chronic cough

Iain Richards — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 13:44:20 GMT

If I have the timings right, is this just not within the expected normals and therefore just normal KC? Curious the the trachea clear though. It does sound like a spectacularly sensitive inflammed larynx based on the GA response. I don't think you've missed anything, I'd do a BAL and keep on antibiotics if bacteria present, I'd skip the steroids though (unless dog is distressed - and I mean dog, not owner). Bordetella can hang around for up to 14 weeks.....

RE: Young labrador with chronic cough

Richard Carter — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 13:20:35 GMT

RE: Young labrador with chronic cough

Anthony Dennison — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 08:56:28 GMT

Thanks everyone for the advice. He's booked in next week for a work-up, will let you know what I find.

RE: Young labrador with chronic cough

Laura Kidd — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 16:22:40 GMT

Haematology and BAL at same times as chest rads. Sometimes presence of eosinophilia can be helpful in establishing cause e.g. parasitic/ allergic basis

RE: Young labrador with chronic cough

Utlendigur — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 15:06:09 GMT

Another vote for radiographs. Had a similar case a few years ago - young lab cross, coughing after kennels (as was the other dog in the house), didn't settle so eventually xrayed. Had a megoesophagus. Have since seen another couple of chronic coughs in labradors that also turned out to be megoesophagus

RE: Young labrador with chronic cough

Bob Russell — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 14:59:52 GMT

Standard milbemycin treatment every three months is unlikely to be enough to rule out lungworm. If you choose to believe Bayer then a dose of Advocate will cure lungworm. Sensible people would probably opt for fenbendazole.

Does sound more like a stubborn URTI. Bordetella in humans is called the hundred days cough!

If the owner is getting sniffy about your inability to cure the dog then perhaps treat for lungworm but warn the owner that it is still on the cards that your initial diagnosis is right. Time will sort it out.

http://www.newstatesman.com/lifestyle/2015/04/100-day-cough-back-town-and-we-still-don-t-know-how-cure-it

Radiographs perhaps to cover one's derrière!

RE: Young labrador with chronic cough

Anthony Dennison — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 14:30:35 GMT

Not that we have found, and we have been looking for it. The dog is regularly wormed with milbemax too, and has been since the coughing started. If the owner agrees to repeat work-up it's something I will check for though.

It seems like an URT cough - only comes on when the dog is excited or wound up.

RE: Young labrador with chronic cough

Thomas Johnson — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 14:24:44 GMT

[quote user="Anthony Dennison"]

16 month old ME labrador, started coughing in August after staying in a kennels. Tracheal pinch positive, chest clear, no temp. Treated as Kennel Cough with meloxicam. No improvement after 10 days, if anything worse. Started on amoxiclav, still no better after a week. No pyrexia still.

Due to lack of improvement, I did a bronchoscopy. Larynx was inflamed, really red. Trachea fine, bronchi fine. No inflammation, no secretions or exudate. I didn't do a BAL because there didn't seem any reason to at the time because there was nothing suggesting bacterial infection or inflammation (I realise this was an error now). The only thing noted was when I moved the scope forward or back the dog would react and start huffing and puffing under GA, even when quite deep. I thought this was due to tenderness of the larynx.

Due to lack of response to NSAIDs I started on prednisolone and doxycycline (in case there was Bordatella). Mild improvement, but as soon as the medications stopped the cough comes back. The dog was on a slip lead, and has been switched to a harness, but still coughing.

I'm planning on repeating the bronchoscopy and taking chest radiographs to find anything I may have missed. Is there anything else I should be considering?

[/quote]

Do you have lungworm in your area?