What is canine pneumonia

Pneumonia is the abbreviation for inflammation of the lungs in dogs. The lungs are the organs that provide oxygen to the body. They are mainly composed of the trachea, bronchi, alveoli and blood vessels and perform gas exchange. In order to obtain good gas exchange function, the alveoli and blood vessels are almost overlapped to facilitate gas exchange, discharge carbon dioxide from the body, and transport oxygen in the air to blood to various parts of the body.

If the trachea, bronchi, alveoli and alveolar tissue are infected due to various factors, the most direct impact is a decrease in gas exchange function, and the dog is prone to hypoxia. If the disease is not well controlled, it often causes irreparable damage.

Causes of lung disease

The causes of canine pneumonia can be divided into inhalation, bacterial, immune, fungal and lung infection.

1. Inhalation: Foreign objects enter the respiratory system and cause infection. These foreign objects include vomitus and food. This phenomenon often occurs in dogs with abnormalities in the upper gastrointestinal system (such as throat paralysis and structural abnormalities of the esophagus). In addition, improper anesthesia handling and improper force-feeding are also easy to cause.

2. Bacterial: Bacteria enter the lungs through the oral cavity or nasal cavity, further causing infection in the trachea, bronchus and alveoli. The incidence rate is higher among working dogs weighing more than 12 kilograms, hunting dogs and dogs that exercise a lot. It can occur at any age, but it is more common in dogs under 1 year old, and the incidence rate is higher in male dogs.

3. Immunity: Mainly occurs in Siberian Huskies, because congenital immune deficiency can cause lung infection. In addition, cardiac filamentous infection is also a major cause.

4. Mold: Mold or yeast in the environment or other organs in the body enters the lungs and causes infection. Common sources of infection include Blastomyces, Histoplasma, Coccidioides and Cryptosporidium. It usually occurs in large dogs, but certain molds are more likely to appear in breeds such as Cocker Spaniels and German Wolfhounds. The age of onset is usually within 4 years old, and the incidence rate in male dogs is 2 to 4 times that of female dogs.

5. Injury to the lung itself: mainly damage to the tissue between the alveoli and the alveoli, which is the most common problem associated with canine distemper infection.

How to diagnose canine pneumonia

General clinical symptoms vary depending on the cause of infection, but cough, fever, difficulty breathing, decreased activity, loss of appetite, weight loss, and yellowish nasal cavity are common Secretions etc.

1. Blood test: The main purpose is to understand blood changes and understand the degree of infection.

2. Chest X-ray: During the chest X-ray examination, photography should be taken while the dog is breathing because the diagnostic effect is best. Through this test, we can understand the B position of the lung lobes (the left lobe has two lobes and the right lobe has three lobes), which is basically infected. First determine the cause (such as aspiration lung disease)inflammation).

3. Sampling and culture: tracheal washing (injecting normal saline into the trachea and then withdrawing it) or bronchoscopy (endoscope), bone marrow sampling, cerebrospinal fluid sampling, lymph node sampling, etc. The main purpose is to collect the source of infection in the lungs for laboratory culture of pathogens and drug resistance tests to select the most effective drugs.

Treatment method of canine pneumonia

1. In fact, the most effective treatment method is to first find out the source of infection, and then give effective drug treatment according to the source of infection. Therefore, X-ray diagnosis only determines whether the dog The degree of infection of dog pneumonia also needs to be matched with sampling examination for further selection of drugs.

2. In addition, it is very important to add enough water, because when infected with pneumonia, the lungs need to cough these sources of infection out of the body. If your dog doesn't have enough water in his body, the phlegm in his lungs will be too thick to be excreted.

3. Another treatment method is aerosol treatment. It can be used to assist with expectoration and provide medication. In terms of diet, it is recommended to give dogs easy-to-digest and high-protein food. If the dog's physiological condition is not good, intravenous nutrition injections or gastric tubes can be buried if necessary.

Condition after treatment

The treatment effects vary depending on the source of infection. For example, young puppies infected with bacterial pneumonia may easily develop chronic tracheitis after recovery. Therefore, attention should be paid to prevention. For another example, anesthesia often leads to vomiting and aspiration pneumonia. Therefore, if a dog needs anesthesia or sedation, it should first fast for 6-12 hours.

In addition, regular preventive injections and the administration of heartworm preventive drugs can reduce the chance of infection.