Wednesday, August 28, 2013
We started Luna on her FlowVent inhaler a little over a week ago. I was very anxious to start Luna on the inhaler because I was curious if it was going to help her cough. We have gotten to a point that none of the other medicine was working, so we had a lot of eggs in the inhaler basket.
We gave Luna her first puff of the inhaler at night so we could be around to see if she experienced any negative side effects. After her first dose, the rest of the night went awesome! Luna's cough was significantly less, not gone, but a lot better. We were like play by play commentators all night because Luna would do something and we would be like, she didn't cough! She always coughs when she jumps up the step coming into the house or some other ordinary thing. To say we were a little excited would be an understatement.
After a few days passed and Luna had a few more puffs from the inhaler, Luna's cough got even better. Granted, she still has breathing and coughing issues, but she is certainly doing a lot better.
I was very concerned with how Luna would do taking her medicine, but we have a pretty good system in place to make sure she gets her meds. It is a two person job, but so far it has been working well for us.
One of us sits behind Luna and keeps her still, while the other one puts the mask on Luna's face. The AeroDawg chamber has a little indicator that lets us know if Luna is breathing in or out. It is also a good way to know that we have a good seal with the mask on her nose. When Luna is breathing in, we push the inhaler and keep the mask on for 3-5 breathes so she gets her medicine. As soon, as she is done, she promptly gets rewarded with treats and lots of praise. Of course, her brothers are right next to her during this whole procedure encouraging Luna to breathe faster so they can get to the treat portion of the ordeal faster.
We are stepping Luna down off the prednisone to see if we can get her completely off that drug. In another week, we will have a better idea of if we can get Luna completely off of prednisone.
We are super excited that the FlowVent inhaler is helping Luna. If Luna is going to be taking the inhaler long term our next task is to find out the best place to purchase it from as it is quite pricey (~$200 / 120 puffs). The best we have been able to do locally is $178 from the Sam's Club pharmacy.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Huckle mentioned in the comments that one of her pugs can not take Theophylline because it makes them jittery. That reminds me of a funny story, well funny now, that I would like to share.
On Christmas day last year Benny had a serious case of the jitters. He couldn't settle, was panting and acting totally out of character. He was giving us a pretty good scare and I was thinking that we might have to spend part of Christmas day at the emergency vet.
Our first thoughts were that he got into something that he wasn't supposed to. We had a houseful of family so our routine was off, but everyone is really good about making sure they don't leave anything around that the pugs could get in to.
I was replaying every second of the day in my head and then it hit me - I gave Benny Luna's breathing pill!
Luna gets her breathing pill tucked inside a biljac treat. Even though the boys don't get a pill, they get a treat. As I was replaying things, I remember accidentally giving Benny Luna's treat. Suddenly, things were making a lot more sense. One of the side effects of Luna's medicine is jitteriness. Sol suffered from this a bit, but not too bad, Luna has absolutely no signs of the jitters whatsoever. And, well, now we know that Benny will never be able to take Theophylline because that boy was a mess all day!
Once we knew what was wrong with him we couldn't help but chuckle because Benny probably has 10 pounds on Luna and her dose of the medicine was wreaking havoc on his system. We have always said that Benny is very sensitive and once again he proved it.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
I think this is Luna's way of getting my heart rate up. I find her sleeping like this from time to time and it always gives me a start. Luna has always been the type to pass out on her side after a big day, but now that she doesn't hear so well, she no longer pops up when you enter the room. With her recent breathing troubles can you tell that I am a little paranoid?
Monday, August 12, 2013
Thanks for all the good thoughts and warm wishes for Luna. We really appreciate it!
We picked up Luna's inhaler late last week and we are still waiting for her mask to arrive in the mail. Luckily, she isn't scheduled to start on the inhaler until the antibiotic kick some of the bronchitis. From the sound of her cough, I would say that the antibiotics are working.
I'll keep you updated.
Friday, August 9, 2013
The first plan of action was to start Luna on a round of antibiotics to help clear up the mucus and suspected bronchitis. We also took Luna off of the diuretic she was on for the suspected pulmonary hypertension. For now, we are keeping Luna on the prednisone and Theophylline, but we are going to be starting an inhaled bronchodilator.
Yep, Luna is going to need an inhaler!
We purchased a special mask used to administer the meds. I have no idea how this is going to go. Luna is a good girl, but I'm not sure she is going to like the mask.
Once Luna is on the inhaled steroid for 2 weeks, we will try to ween her off the prednisone. It takes a while for the inhaled steroid to build up in her body so we don't want to ween her off the prednisone to early.
I'll let you know how things go with the inhaler. I am hoping that it will be a much more effective treatment and will bring the little girl some relief from her pesky cough.
Have a great weekend!
Thursday, August 8, 2013
The morning of our appointment with the specialist Luna was a little cranky. She didn't get to eat her breakfast and she found out that her brothers quickly scarfed down breakfast while she was made to go potty outside. Another interesting thing happened on the day of Luna's appointment, her cough was non existent. At the vet's office we were flabbergasted. We couldn't make the girl cough if we wanted to. We really didn't know what to make of it because Luna has "good" days, but those days don't include a day without coughing.
We met with the vet and described Luna's issues and came up with a plan for the day. Luna was going to have an ultrasound on her heart to determine once and for all if she had pulmonary hypertension. They would also draw blood and take an x-ray of her lungs. If pulmonary hypertension was ruled out by the ultrasound they then wanted to do a scope of her airway. This procedure would require Luna to be sedated. We agree to all the tests and left Luna in their care for her battery of tests.
Later that afternoon, they called to let us know that the ultrasound confirmed that Luna did not have pulmonary hypertension, so she was going to have the scope of her airway done. We were most worried about this test, but we knew that the scope would more than likely provide us with the best information of what was going on. Sol, had a scope of her airway done and it helped us determine exactly where her trachea was collapsed and unfortunately let us know that there wasn't anything we could do about it.
The scope revealed that Luna has a very mild trachea collapse, but that the mainstream bronchi on both sides were about 50% collapsed. Furthermore, several of the second and third generation bronchi were collapsed almost 100%. Many of the airways contained a moderate amount of mucus, especially the areas where the collapse was the greatest. A lung wash was performed and the fluid obtained was submitted for cytology and culture.
As we suspected, the scope was the most revealing procedure. Luna's trachea isn't the real culprit, it's her mainstream bronchi and lower airways that is giving her trouble. In addition, the mucus also leads them to suspect that Luna suffers from chronic bronchitis.
More on the treatment plan that we will be starting tomorrow.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
In an effort to get to the bottom of Luna's cough, we made an appointment with the specialist to have further tests done. We know from Solsey that there isn't a lot you can do with a collapsing trachea, but Luna's cough and symptoms have been different enough that we aren't 100% sure that Luna's cough is caused solely by a collapsed trachea. In addition, the number of medications that Luna is on to control her cough seems unreasonable for the results that we are seeing. In short, for as much meds as Luna is on we feel like we should see better results if we were treating her for the right thing.
Sol had the classic goose honk type of cough that was associated with a collapsed trachea. Her condition didn't fluctuate much. Sure, some days were better than others, but the cough was there no matter what and it was the same type of cough. Luna is all over the map and her cough is more like a gagging than a goose honk. The thing that concerns me the most is Luna has a lot of mucus. Sol never had any mucus.
So, we set off to the specialist to see if they could help us figure out what is going on with Luna. I'll let you know about our visit to the "special" vet tomorrow.
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