Thursday, August 5, 2010

Aspiration Pneumonia....

Who would have thought I would be talking about Aspiration Pneumonia...but sadly I am.

Poor little Snickers had a little choking episode early this evening and was not quite the same since it happened. He was trying to vomit, coughing, and whining in pain for about 30minutes. We decided to call our vet (thank goodness she is a family friend and is always willing to help us). We brought Snickers into the vets and the x-ray confirmed everything that had happened.... when he choked, he also aspirated some small pieces of the food and other yummy stuff into his lungs. His left lung is full of fluid that will need to taken care of.

The poor little guy ended up getting a strong injection of anti-biotic and an injection of pain medication (since he was in so much pain). I never knew aspirating could cause so much pain, but every time you touch his little chest/belly/lung area he would cry. He will have to continue taking pain medication for the first several days and an oral anti-biotic for two weeks. We will then follow back up with our vet in two weeks to see if his lungs have cleared, if not he will need to be placed in the animal hospital with IV fluids and IV anti-biotic!

Please say a little prayer for our little guy, we are hoping for a full recovery without having to take him to the hospital. If you know me and my husband at all, you know that our pups (Snickers and Sophia) mean the world to us, so it has been a pretty stressful evening!!

For now, Snickers is pretty sleepy from the IV pain medication and all the events that have occurred this evening. He is still in a little bit of pain, but much better from before. He is also still coughing, which the vet said could occur for the next 3-5 days. We will be watching him close for the next couple of days- I will keep you guys posted.

Here is a picture of the poor little guy.... curled up in his favorite spot on the couch with his favorite blanket!

3 comments:

  1. poor thing! hope he makes a speedy recovery!

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  2. poor baby!! He looks so pitiful!

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  3. Thank you for following Hollywood Chic, favor returned. Aspiration Pneumonia is horrific, I had this myself two colonosocopys ago. Of course I was asleep when I aspirated, however, they say the only thing that *saved* me was that I was on my side and it was projectile.

    However, when they tried to wake me up I had 12 nurses surrounding me. I was coughing and I couldn't catch my breathe and kept coughing. It went on for about 20 minutes.

    It took 24 hours to get the pneumonia, even on oxygen. I felt worse then when I went in and I went in for pain control of terminal illness. it was aweful.

    Best Wishes,
    Amanda
    Praying for the Cutie

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