[angie001]

ok, so about 3 weeks ago i noticed my 5 year old springer having trouble walking and taking really short, shallow breaths. i thought he had pulled in a muscle in his armpit area and was panting through pain. we took him to the vets where my housemate works to get some pain killers but he got worse before we made it there, after blood tests, x-rays etc. etc. it was discovered he had had a spontaneous pneumothorax (a part of the lung burst causing air to leak into the chest cavity meaning the lungs cannot inflate so he cannot breathe properly) he was treated with a chest drain, the lung looked as though it was healing, he came home 4 days later.

it happened again 3 days later, went back to the vets, treated, refered to langford vet school for treatment. they treated him there, we picked him up 6 days later.

it is now 11 days later and it has just happened again last night. we took him to the vets who drained the chest and have sent him back to langford for more treatment.

it seems the only option is surgery.

there are patches on the lung that are reducung with the antibiotics he is on, so we are hoping it is just an infection, nothing more sinister, could there possibly be scar tissue in those areas that has been weakened so keeps bursting?

has anybody experienced this before? how long is the recovery period from the surgery and how does it effect the quality of life afterwards? he is only 5 so i really don't want to have him put down unless i really need to.

 

[Holly]

I haven't seen a dog who had this surgery but I've heard surgery is the only real option if he has these bulla that are rupturing. Lets just hope they're confined to one lobe of the lung. Do they know if it's multiple ones or just the same one rerupturing? I'd find that out first before deciding on the surgery (CT scan probably).

Tough situation, good luck. I, too, would do as much as possible for a 5 year old dog.

 

[angie001]

thanks. He is being preped for his surgery as we speak. if i had had him put to sleep then a post mortum showed it was somthing that could have been treated, i would never be able to forgive myself.

 

[Holly]

thanks. He is being preped for his surgery as we speak. if i had had him put to sleep then a post mortum showed it was somthing that could have been treated, i would never be able to forgive myself.

I know the feeling-- that's EXACTLY why I didn't do a necropsy on my last cat, even though I was almost certain it was something non-treatable based on all of my diagnostics. Good Luck.

 

[Holly]

Any update on your pup?

 

[angie001]

he has woken up nicely, he is eating and is having the time of his life on IV morphine and he is out of the critical 48 hour period. so all is looking good.

there were 2 bullas on the left lung and some scar tissue which they removed, there was also one on the right lung which didnt look like it was causing problems so they laft that one as they would have removed too much of the lung in one go. the surgeon said if it does cause problems in the future when ronnie had healed and adapetd to the amount of lung he has been left with, they will then be able to remove it.

the vets he is at would have done a postmortem as it is a vet training place. i would have been able to request not to know the results though.

fingers crossed though, its looking good so far!

 

[angie001]

he had 2 operations and had over 50% of his lungs removed. then it happened again. they could not remove any more lung, he had to be put to sleep last wednesday morning. im absolutley devastated, little ron was my world.