temblabamomo
Senior Member
Bear has an appointment this evening with a vet I've never used before. Long story short, my vet keeps rejecting the idea that he could have a heart problem. I was ready to go back to him and work to figure out what's going on with Bear, but he can't see us until next week.
History: June 1 Bear had some sort of respiratory attack, he was cool as a cucumber one minute, I tried to pick him up and he panicked and began gasping for air. His nailbeds looked a touch cyanotic to me. He calmed down, but we saw the vet the next day. He was 530 g. His lungs sounded okay, a tad on the harsh side, so Dr. P put him on enro (.1cc at 50mg/ml twice daily) and doxy (.1cc at 25mg/ml twice daily).
At this point, I thought for sure we should be looking at a heart problem, since he'd had no signs up URI, and his lungs sounded pretty good to the vet, just a touch harsh. I didn't think a touch of harshness should cause an attack like the one he had.
He did not get better, but didn't get worse until June 30th, when he began breathing heavily from his sides. Dr. P said his lungs were much worse. Started him on azithromycin (.4cc at 40mg/ml ONCE daily). Dr. P did not want to give it in conjunction with any other drug, since he didn't know interactions. At the time, I could not remember if it was best in combo with doxy, or enro. After 5 days, he was worse, having minor panic attacks. Not in distress, just very uncomfortable. I upped the zithro to twice daily and added enrofloxacin. The panic attacks seemed to stop.
He has stayed on these meds since 6/30, and there has been no change. I am going to run out of meds soon, and the vet said they could not refill them until Bear had his recheck. Yet they can't see me until next week, unless I do a same day walk in appointment and pay an extra fee to see some vet other than Dr. P, who will likely tell me to come back when Dr. P is available. I adore Dr. P in many ways, but his clinic makes me crazy sometimes :wallbang:
We were also supposed to start nebulized amikacin on 6/30, but Bear became so frantic and stressed by the nebulizer that we have stopped doing it, he is much worse after a treatment than before.
I don't know what to do. I would like to try this new vet and hope they'll be more open to my suggestions, but I find myself at the point where I no longer know what to suggest. I was certain we were looking at a heart problem, but Dr. P said the heart sounds okay, and the lung sounds are more dry than wet, so he doubts it the heart. I don't even know what to ask this new vet this evening, I think I mostly made the appointment out of frustration with my vet, and the feeling that I need to do something besides just sit back and watch Bear fade away. Does anyone have any suggestions? Should we still be attempting to diagnose CHF despite Dr. P's theory?
Sorry for the long post. Just didn't want to leave any details out.
History: June 1 Bear had some sort of respiratory attack, he was cool as a cucumber one minute, I tried to pick him up and he panicked and began gasping for air. His nailbeds looked a touch cyanotic to me. He calmed down, but we saw the vet the next day. He was 530 g. His lungs sounded okay, a tad on the harsh side, so Dr. P put him on enro (.1cc at 50mg/ml twice daily) and doxy (.1cc at 25mg/ml twice daily).
At this point, I thought for sure we should be looking at a heart problem, since he'd had no signs up URI, and his lungs sounded pretty good to the vet, just a touch harsh. I didn't think a touch of harshness should cause an attack like the one he had.
He did not get better, but didn't get worse until June 30th, when he began breathing heavily from his sides. Dr. P said his lungs were much worse. Started him on azithromycin (.4cc at 40mg/ml ONCE daily). Dr. P did not want to give it in conjunction with any other drug, since he didn't know interactions. At the time, I could not remember if it was best in combo with doxy, or enro. After 5 days, he was worse, having minor panic attacks. Not in distress, just very uncomfortable. I upped the zithro to twice daily and added enrofloxacin. The panic attacks seemed to stop.
He has stayed on these meds since 6/30, and there has been no change. I am going to run out of meds soon, and the vet said they could not refill them until Bear had his recheck. Yet they can't see me until next week, unless I do a same day walk in appointment and pay an extra fee to see some vet other than Dr. P, who will likely tell me to come back when Dr. P is available. I adore Dr. P in many ways, but his clinic makes me crazy sometimes :wallbang:
We were also supposed to start nebulized amikacin on 6/30, but Bear became so frantic and stressed by the nebulizer that we have stopped doing it, he is much worse after a treatment than before.
I don't know what to do. I would like to try this new vet and hope they'll be more open to my suggestions, but I find myself at the point where I no longer know what to suggest. I was certain we were looking at a heart problem, but Dr. P said the heart sounds okay, and the lung sounds are more dry than wet, so he doubts it the heart. I don't even know what to ask this new vet this evening, I think I mostly made the appointment out of frustration with my vet, and the feeling that I need to do something besides just sit back and watch Bear fade away. Does anyone have any suggestions? Should we still be attempting to diagnose CHF despite Dr. P's theory?
Sorry for the long post. Just didn't want to leave any details out.
