Upper Respitory Infection in Great Dane - Answered by Dr. Van Lienden

[sedwick]

This is my second thread... first I wrote about the gurgling sound in my Great Dane's throat, I took him to the vet and he was diagnosed with an Upper Respitory Infection... I was given antibiotics (coprofloxacin) for one week and told to call back in a week if he wasn't better, which was the case... he seemed fine except for this gurgling in his throat, the vet gave him another week of antibiotics... yesterday... Saturday, was the third day on the second week of the antibiotics.
Around 3:00 in the afternoon he started coughing and throwing up, I rushed him to the nearest vet that was open on Saturday's, i.e., not my regular vet.
His tempeture was 106!!!! This vet acted like that was no big deal!!! He gave me a new perscription (baytril) which he claimed was a stronger antibiotic and sent me on my way.
I went to the store and bought a thermomater and Buffered asprin and went home, but a wet towel on him and it took until 1:30 a.m. to get his tempeture down to normal.
I am going to take him to my regular vet on Monday.
I am writing to ask if anybody has any opinion on this, or experienced anything similar.
Thank you.

[Bugsy]

How terrrible... sorry I have no insight on this :sad: . I do hope he feels better though. How is he doing now?

Please keep us posted on his progress.

[SSAC]

Has anyone done a chest x-ray?

[sedwick]

I will discuss this with my vet tomarrow.
Thanks.

[petdr]

Fever is an important fiding: now the important work is to determine why fever is present. Infection is one cause, neoplasia (cancer) is another, among other causes, My first suggestion is a chest radiograph (x-ray) to determine if pneumonia is evident. At the same time I would urge blood work--a complete blood count, biochem. profile and thyroid screen along with an auto-immune profile, urinalysis is also indicated. An oral exam of the deep throat is helpful and may need to be done under sedation.

Further diagnostics may be required, potentionally CT scan or MRI. My rule-outs include: laryngeal paralysis, hypothyroidism, myasthenia gravis, esophageal dystonia, dilated esophagous, pneumonia, oral tumor. And the list can go on...

Bottom line is to start the detective work and discard the items on the problem list as the physical exam/history/diagnostics start to accumulate a body of information. Don't be content to throw any more antibiotics at this problem: please have your veterinarian dig deeper. If he is unable, then consult with a referral practice or a veterinary school.

Laryngeal paralysis is more common than thought in Great Danes.

Dr. Van Lienden

Dr. Raymond Van Lienden DVM
The Animal Clinic of Clifton
12702 Chapel Road, Clifton
Virginia, U.S.A. 20124
703-802-0490