More snot!

blackcob

blackcob

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Poor Ricoh is having a recurrence of his snot thing - periodically sneezing up thick, stringy yellow snot and a constant clear drip. He had it a couple of months ago, antibiotics made no difference (vet assumed it was a respiratory infection) but an antihistamine made a difference within hours and he subsequently had one tablet a day with no further issues.

Now it's back, the antihistamine isn't touching it, vet has prescribed a further two varieties but they aren't working either. His temperature is normal, lungs/heart etc. absolutely normal, he was bright and well in himself up until today but he had a horrendous night last night and didn't get a wink of sleep for all the snorting, snoring and snottling.

He's going back today, they're going to take a sample of the snot to culture it and see if there's anything sinister, an x-ray/scan was also mentioned to rule out any foreign bodies - unlikely, given that it's bilateral, but possible. Just so fed up with it, poor lad is miserable today and there is snot everywhere.

He also had another wee leak yesterday, I think because he's run down, so as well as antihistamines and decongestants he's going to have to be dosed up on propalin again, I'm amazed he doesn't rattle when he walks. :eek:
 
I have a horse on loan who has a tendency to having a snotty nose especially in winter. Had it tested by the vet and they found nothing. Tried anti-biotics too and it would clear up and then come back again. I now find that if I keep him well rugged when it is cold and wet it clears up. Vet thought it may be because he has had equine flu at some point and it is a hangover from that.
 
Unusually for this time of year he hasn't been exposed to any cold and wet, he lives in the house so no extremes of temperature, we haven't even walked in the rain in weeks. For a husky he lives a very comfortable and pampered life!

I have now scared myself silly with the idea that it could be a nasal tumour, might have to crack out the insurance papers again and insist on a scan. :(
 
He's booked in for tomorrow, endoscope up the snout, samples to be taken for culture, x-ray. :(

Typically he seemed much better in the surgery :rolleyes: but lying down in the house he is just miserable, blubbering snot everywhere.
 
Fingers crossed its nothing bad and can be treated and they get to the root cause of the problem so it dosnt reoccur. A terrible worry for you though and the only advice I can give you is to stay off google.

Hope all goes well tomorrow.
 
Sort of good news in that it's nothing sinister, they just found 'an astonishing amount' of pus! :eek: A lovely festering abscess-y infection of the nasal cavities, the five days of antibiotics he had first time round probably knocked it back but didn't finish the job, hence it being worse a few weeks on. He's had some intravenous antibiotics and when the results come back from the lab they can target it specifically.

Seeing as it's an insurance job he's also taken bloods for an allergy panel wotsit, it's possible that an allergy to something is leaving him open to this kind of thing, hence the reoccurance and the initial response to the antihistamine.
 
So pleased its nothing sinister and is fully treatable, dont blame you for going down the allergy route to rule everything out. I wonder whether his immune system was comprimised before you had him and if there is something you can give him to boost it given that the abs would have lowered his immune system further.
 
I wasn't supposed to pick him up until five, they called me half an hour ago to see if I could come straight away because 'he really wants to go home'. I could hear him howling from reception. :o

Poor lad, at least he has a temporary respite as they flushed his nose out with saline.

I think he is just a sickly dog in general DG, he has that weird wee/bladder issue as well, he had godawful diarrhoea for the first week we had him home and, with hindsight, was quite underweight (apparently he came in really overweight :confused:). He is not a good example of the breed and though of course we'll never know he probably came from some dodgy BYB to end up where he did.
 
Poor boy:( glad it's nothing serious and can be treat hopefully pretty quickly.
I had a one sided runny snot fested nose when little, they where going to operate and connect some kind of tube:eek: thank fook i grew out of it and it stopped dripping.:D
 
Glad its something thats treatable, hope its soon sorted. LOl at vets asking you to get him early, when Pickle was in for neuteuring the vets phoned just after lunch to say he was wide awake and ready to be picked up. :)
 
The results of the culture came back today - he had a thriving population of pasteurella bacteria up there which, apparently, 'is not something you expect to find up a dog's nose'. So something is compromising his immune system and allowing these odd opportunistic infections to take hold...

Queue the results of the allergy screen which had a significant indication for mite allergy. What kind of mite we won't know until next week after another round in the lab but in all likelihood it will be house dust mite which is a pain in the arse, next to impossible to eradicate or even keep levels down. :(

He's got to stay on the antibiotics for a full six weeks, then long term it'll be a case of eliminating whatever he's allergic to. The second I graduate we'll be trying to find somewhere where we have a choice about the floor coverings (industrial vinyl would be a favourite :p) and with outside space in which to erect a kennel and run.
 
Had a horrendous night with him, poor mite hasn't slept a wink, going back to the vet this afternoon. He's getting very distressed in the night because he can't breathe properly, I've had to wash his legs this morning because he's blubbed snot all over himself and it's dried on (never mind the furnishings, carpet, walls...).

He had a huge improvement in the first few days on the new antibiotic, just a clear runny discharge, but now we're back to really thick dark mucus. My poor wee man. :(
 
He's been scoped and all they found was a ton of pus, he had it flushed out with saline, can't be anything else up there now! It's just a really dirty infection that has taken hold for whatever reason. :(

He's also dribbling wee again, only a spot here and there, we never did come to a satisfying conclusion on that one but he's obviously feeling run down.
 
He dribbled a couple of drops of wee while at the vet so we took another urine sample (he last had one in August when he first had the weird wee symptoms, the results of which were normal) and it was almost pure water - expressed in numbers normal concentration is about 25, his was 4.

This has now thrown open the possibility that he's actually ill from a completely different condition and the respiratory infection is just an opportunistic thing that's taken hold as a result of his depressed immune system. Addisons and diabetes insipidus has been mentioned. He has been drinking more than normal. :(

More bloods have been taken and sent off, I've got to collect another two urine samples to see if it's consistent and monitor his water intake. More antibiotics to try and hammer the infection.
 
Poor poor boy he must be feeling dreadful, BC can you pinpoint when this all started and was it after the cat incident, Im just thinking maybe the cat scratched /bit him and it went unnoticed and thats when the infection set in.

I hope the vet can get this sorted and it must be a nightmare for you both.

Sorry Ive just realised it was your other dog.
 
It was the 'orrible D-dog who had the cat, we didn't get R until the end of June. First urinary symptoms were in August, first visit for the snot thing in November. I'm almost certain he hasn't been injured in any way except for a couple of bee or wasp stings way back in the summer, being mostly white you can see any nicks or scrapes easily.

He's just had another huge drink, this is a fairly recent development, only in the past three days or so has he started doing this. :(
 
He's drained the (large) water bowl. :(

Thank god for insurance is all I can say davisn, the investigations into the urinary thing were £800, current bill for the snot thing is coming up to that amount again, for god's sake everyone make sure your animals are insured! :p
 
Two more very dilute wee samples but a third was within normal limits so he's definitely processing stuff, diabetes insipidus therefore ruled out, blood test has ruled out Addisons as well. Basically we have no idea why he's drinking loads more except, as you say, to produce more snot! :o

The second lot of allergy results came back this morning and he is severely allergic to pretty much every type of mite including house dust mites. My washing machine is hating me right now as everything washable in the house is now going through at 90c, lots of damp dusting, windows open even when it's below freezing, at least I can't hoover any more than I already do. :rolleyes:
 
The cynic in me is wondering if that's the case but he was with his fosterer for 3 months, you'd think she'd have noticed any symptoms? Though he was in a pack of something like 13 dogs and I remember her saying she had laminate and vinyl floors down, maybe he spent more time outside there too, I don't know. These things can crop up at any time, maybe we've just been unlucky. :(

I have managed to get some relatively cheap mite-proof bedding protector things on eBay so every dog bed and sofa cushion is to be sealed in and then covered up with something easily washable at a high temperature like vet bed or fleece blankets. The only real problem is that there's carpet in two rooms including the room he likes to sleep in, there's no way we can rip it up, I can't really afford to have it steam cleaned either (and it's so old it'd probably dissolve if we did :o) so it will just have to be sprayed with Indorex and hope the other measures will keep the mites down.

He's on two antibiotics now, one long and one short term, and an antihistamine. He's curled up on my feet blowing snot bubbles as I type. :p

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