Thursday, August 8, 2013
The Cough - Part II
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.
Minnie, Mack and Mario
08/08/2013
Boy, I bet Luna was glad to get home.
It’s always good to know but….
Healing juju for Luna!
Waiting to hear the treatment plan.
Drools and licks,
Minnie, Mack and Mario