Seasonal breathing difficulties

[gwynapnudd 0]

I'll admit straight out, I do have two deerhounds, but I don't hunt witthem. Even though, thinking about it, they'd probably do really well. I am, however, desperate to solve a recurring health problem in them.

Every May and September/October, at least one of them becomes ill with breathing difficulties. My vet, who is usually very good with them, has no clue what is wrong.

 

The symptoms begin as heavy breathing, like they've had hard exercise when they've actually been sleeping or resting, and a slight bit of drool and weepy eyes. This can quickly become a racking chest infection and running eyes quite quickly. I thought we were alone in having this problem, but since I posted a message like this on the deerhound forum, another owner has come forward with similar symptoms, developing in one of her dogs into heart problems:

 

Perinent details: We both walk our dogs on or near farmland, but where we walk is not sprayed with pesticide.

Whatever it is is not contagious.

Antibiotics don't really seem to help, but have been prescribed along with anti-allergens, steroids and bisolvon

My house backs onto a field that is primarily used for hay, and fattening cattle, again, no apparent pesticides/ chemicals used.

Lots of japanese knotweed though.

My two dogs live in outside kennels, with heating, plastic beds and quilts. None of which were changed just before they became ill.

Their food wasn't changed recently, nor the cleaners I use in their kennels.

 

I know some of the information may be either irrelevant, or incomplete, but if someone could point me in any direction whatsoever at least it would be something. I have e-mailed a wolfhound owner to see if it may be occurring in their breed, and am planning to put up a notice in the local shop to see if any other dogs in the area are affected. It's horrible when your dogs are ill, especially when you don't know what's wrong and can't fix it. And i think that by now I've paid off the vets mortgage.

 

Nia

[kev2010 8]

Welcome to the site.

Sorry to hear your dogs are not well.You seem to have covered pretty much everything i could think of.How old are they & how long have they had this problem?

Sorry i can't help,but hopefully some one on here maybe able to.

Good luck.

Atb. Kev.

[CarraghsGem 92]

dont have a clue what to say except maybe next time try a greyhound vet, they have more specialist expertise when it comes to sighthounds

[Mrs A.R.D 53]

just curious have they been tested for lung worm?

[sandymere 8,263]

Your description suggests there could be two possibilities the first, and most likely, is am allergic reaction similar to hay fever and the second, and less likely, would be a viral infection such as kennel cough. Do the medications help? If they don’t seem to you could, under the guidance of your vet, treat one and not the other then see if there is a difference, ie give one the antibiotics for a bacterial infection and the other the antihistamines and steroids for an allergy if one gets better quicker then you have an answer if there is no difference then it could be a viral infection. It’s unlikely to be a heart problem if it just happens in the spring and not after hard exercise at other times. Are they related?