Jessie has pneumonia and has been in the ICU at Purdue Veterinary Teaching Hospital since Saturday night. She is being given antibiotics, fluids, and oxygen. They did x-rays that night which showed she had pneumonia. They repeated them today and there hasn't been any change; we were hoping for some improvement. She is comfortable and is eating. They did have to increase the oxygen slightly last night because her respiratory rate went up a little.
Many of you remember when she went to Purdue in mid- August for a cough. They x-rayed her lungs at that time and saw what was either a mild disease process or normal changes for a dog her age (she's eleven). They did a tracheal wash and grew mycoplasma bacteria from one of the cultures and she was given doxycycline for 6 weeks but the cough did not resolve. The x-rays last week showed no changes so they examined her bronchial passages with a camera and found a lot of mucus and inflammation. They also did a bronchoalveolar lavage, meaning they flushed some areas of her lungs with a saline solution and then sucked it out. They try to grow cultures of bacteria with the material from the lavage. The results should be back in about a week. We took her home Friday evening and were told to monitor her for increased coughing, lethargy, and difficulty breathing. Some coughing is normal after these procedures; the camera irritates the bronchial passages and there is some fluid left from the lavage. We became concerned when she began coughing more often on Saturday and although she wasn't panting or breathing rapidly, she seemed to breathe a little harder than normal. We called Purdue and the emergency room doctor thought it would be good to check her so we brought her in. When they did the x-rays, they were surprised at the extent of the pneumonia because she wasn't acting like she was in distress and her oxygen levels were only slightly below normal.
Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers; this has been so hard to cope with. We love her so much; thanks.