How a Skilled Vet Conquered Boxer’s Pneumonia | The Vet Life | Animal Planet

So what's going on? Mom wanted me to bring her straight to the back. She said she's having, like, some labored breathing. Okay. And they just took x-rays on her, and she said she's been having a lot of vomiting going on, too. A lot of vomiting? Mm-hmm. Yeah, she's having some stroke on her breathing. Bailey is a 12-year-old boxer that came in as an emergency from another veterinary hospital. I can clearly see on the x-rays that the other vet took that Bailey has some severe lung trauma just from long-term bronchitis. This is really bad. I'm gonna go talk to her about this. Bailey actually came to me because at the level that she needed to be treated, the previous vet didn't have after-hours available. At Cypher Animal Hospital, our patients can be hospitalized and monitored overnight. I know we're concerned about Bailey. I can see she's suffering and stuff, and it just, it scares me. When I saw her last night with that labored breathing, I said, that's it. I said, we got to bring her in. Bailey is 12 years old. Right. We got her when she was 2 years old from a neighbor. From a neighbor? Mm-hmm, yeah. They couldn't find a home for her, and she's been with us ever since. She's been Daddy's little girl and sometimes Mama when she's sick. That sounds like most kids. Yeah, like, I need a house. That's what I'm dealing with at home. When did that start? It's been about 6 to 8 months, and we've had medicines in her. We've tried everything. It does say that we have a history of bronchitis. Yes, I don't understand what's going on. Bailey has actually been to a couple of vets, but with a long history of bronchitis, it can be very difficult to get those lungs working properly. And we're seeing an episode where she's waxing and waning, and right now she's in a bad case of the bronchitis, which could have led to pneumonia. Yeah, I know, you see Mama cry. I know. Okay. Well, I did see the x-rays that were done, and those lungs, they don't look good at all. It's quite severe. I'm 100% convinced that we do have pneumonia going on. What I am not sure of is if we're dealing with fungal, bacterial, or viral, or some form of a combination. Right. And in the state that we are, I'm just concerned about running specific diagnostics that could cause more trouble. So for the time being, we're going to do everything that we can to remedy the situation, and we're going to cover with several different medications. And then once we become more stable, we'll try to get a little better sample. You need to have Bailey here on IV fluids, and I'm recommending injectable antibiotics. We're also going to need to do some bronchodilators and some anti-inflammatories. Give me a couple of minutes to get a treatment plan, and Becky will come back and go over that with you. Okay, thank you so much. You're feeling bad, baby. She's not herself. Bailey's mom, Robin, she's been doing everything that she can to help Bailey. If Bailey was left untreated, I think the distress that she's in right now could not only get worse, but it could be fatal. You know, I would imagine it's almost feeling like somebody was kind of holding off the air a little bit. So her lungs are working overtime, so there's definitely some stress and discomfort. Bailey. No, come on. Come on. Can you go get Becky? Go get Becky. She was coughing up, she was trying to cough up stuff, but she didn't throw anything up yet, but she got real bad. We want to maybe have her on some oxygen. Let me go get... Bailey has a history of bronchitis. I think that what's going on is just actual exacerbation of her previous condition. And I'm really concerned that the history of bronchitis is actually going to complicate the disease that she has, and it's pneumonia. I'm going to take her into radiology. Come on. I have Becky giving Bailey oxygen. Because of all of the pneumonia that's going on, the airways aren't capable of breathing like they would normally do. There's heavy, heavy breathing. Thus, she's in respiratory distress, and I need to aid her by giving oxygen. It's extremely important in Bailey's state that we keep her here in the hospital. There are treatments that we can do here that cannot be done at home, like nebulization, which is giving her oxygen with medication that is vaporized into her lungs. Mama loves you, baby. I know. You're going to get to feeling better, okay? Bye. Bye, sweetheart. You be a good girl, okay? After giving Bailey anti-inflammatories and more oxygen, we're going to let her rest until we start more treatments a little bit later. She's going to be here for a couple of days. This is Robin. This is Dr. Blue of Red Cypress Animal Hospital. Yeah. How are you feeling today? I am feeling okay. We always give a call in the morning to let you just get a slight update about what's going on with your patients through the evening. Bailey is doing fair. Okay. We are currently giving the medications. Bailey did really good with her meal this morning. She ate the entire meal. She ate? Oh, my goodness! She's not having that kind of blowing through her mouth, hard breathing right now. I think the nebulization and the medication is helping already. We still have a cough. Just because we still have a cough doesn't mean that we're not doing better, we're not improving. Okay. We've collected a sample for the respiratory panel. That's good. So I'll send that out just to see if we can identify what's going on as the cause of this. Okay, that sounds really great. We're just going to keep going forward with the treatments, and we'll give you a call if there's any other developments. Okay, well, thank you so much. All right, you're very welcome. You have a great day, and I'll talk with you later. How's it going? It's going great. She looks a whole lot better, tails wagging. See you later, Bailey. Say bye. Looking at the x-rays of Bailey after she had been here for about 3 days, though it looks bad, this is better than it was. Bailey came in with severe pneumonia. The actual lung tissue looks a lot better. There's less congestion. She's not wheezing like she was before. So I'm very happy with that, and we're going to continue to make improvement as we remain on medication. We're in a good place. Bailey the boxer came in 4 days ago with pneumonia and a really bad cough. Hey, Daddy. She went straight to Daddy. I told you, Daddy's girl. She's doing much better, and she's all ready to go home. That's what you call reuniting, and it feels so good. Dr. Blue, this is Oscar. Oscar. And this is my husband, Michael. Well, I guess I should have shook your hand first. Nice to meet you, sir. She is so happy. Oh, her energy is through the roof. Oh, I'm so glad. It's much, much more than it was initially. He missed her. It was tough. She looked really sad just before she left. Oh, yeah. We still have a cough, okay? Expectations that we're going to not cough is not real. Okay. And part of that is the long-term damage to the lungs. There was a history of bronchitis. Yeah. She's smiling more. She's just happy. A couple of medications that you need to go home with and continue those until those are completely gone. It shows on the report on the upper respiratory panel that we don't have any viruses or bacteria that are causing this. Yeah. However, what I don't have back is the fungal test. If Bailey's respiratory infection is fungal, antifungal drugs should help clear the infection. And if this test is negative for fungus, then she should continue to improve all on her own with the other treatment and medications. I think what the diagnosis at this time is going to be, you know, a chronic bronchitis that snowballed into a pneumonia. Yeah. Did she do a lot of barking? No, she didn't do a whole lot of barking. At home, she does. Whenever somebody's there, she cannot stand to not be the center of attention. Really? Yeah. She was the center of attention. She was, like, our most critical case. She was being handled and held all day long. I am so glad we came here. Thank you so much. You're very welcome. I'll be giving you guys a call within the next 4 to 5 days with some results, okay? Thank you. Nice to meet you. Having Bailey come in the way she did, I'm really excited that she's going home. She's feeling much better. Y'all take care. Okay, you too. I am so glad that you're back. Long-term, Bailey will continue to be on medication because of the long history of bronchitis. But as far as antibiotics, once the infection is cleared, we won't need to be on those any longer. Come on. Let's go. Come on.