Pet Forum / Miscellaneous / Animal Health / August 2004

Hi,

I can't recall that I've ever had a dog with a cold, but cats get them, or
something like them. So first off, do dogs? They must, right? Horses, pigs,
cows, and rats do.... There's a cold-type virus variant out there for every
mammal, right?

I'm sure that's what's up with 6-month-old Saskia (Great Dane). Two days ago
she started with very occasional sneezing, like once every few hours, so I
decided maybe I needed to vaccuum under the furniture. Yesterday, she was
still doing it, but not worse, but was a little off her food--didn't eat
breakfast, very small lunch. Big dinner, though. She also added occasional
gagging--nothing that really alarmed me, just every now and then a little
hack. The first one was after a sneeze, so I figured she got some mucus in
the back of her throat. In the night last night she had four solid reverse
sneezes in a row, one immediate gag, and then waggingly climbed onto the
foot of the bed and went back to sleep. This morning the sneezing is so far
all that I've seen, and it's still occasional, but it sounds a little bit
wetter and there was some snot from one nostril. Her nose certainly is NOT
blocked up, but I would call this occasional nasal discharge for sure.

Updated to add--a couple of hours ago I was sitting by her and she
manifested a wet "phlegmy" sound when she breathed in, did it again,
coughed, and swallowed. Just like when I have a bit of a phlegmy cough. This
has not been repeated. She has not sneezed in three or four hours. Her
breathing still sounds and looks 100% normal no matter what she's doing or
what position she's sleeping in.

She has no fever, does have normal giant-puppy energy levels, ate a big
breakfast today, is drinking plenty of fresh clean water, and everything
else is moving along and out as it should.

We've just had a shift from not-very-cold but severely wet and miserable
weather, in which she got quite wet a couple of times (she gets excited by
rain, so we keep her exercised even if WE'RE hating it), to warmer, clear
weather overnight--yesterday being the first sunny day.

She is indoors most of the day but not with a sealed air-conditioning system
or anything, she plays just about every evening with groups of other dogs
for up to an hour and has an auxiliary Frisbee session in the late morning
or early afternoon, and on two consecutive days very recently there were new
puppies out there. She also drank from a mud puddle in an area where lots of
dogs are walked. So getting exposed to some little doggy virus is easy
enough. She has had all the shots that apply here, as had the puppies (14
weeks and six months old, respectively) which did include what the Dutch
call "sneezing sickness". Not certain which one that is in English. There
are no known dangerous dog viruses going around here right now, and she's
frontline-sprayed and regardless I have not seen any ticks on her dead or
alive. She sleeps indoors in a warm environment, and has not been shocked by
going suddenly into cold areas. This "problem" is clearly not really
bothering her. Breathing normally through her nose is causing her no
trouble, and since she's eating well today she clearly can smell.

She's been on generic Keflex (?--called cefa-cure here, a safe low-impact
antibiotic for her mild follliculitis) for a few weeks; we're nearly done
with that, based on how the skin thing is going, and every night she gets a
"Yakult", with her vet's approval--this is a for-humans cocktail of live
yoghurt cultures geared to keep the intestinal flora in order. She has shown
no sign of runny stool or nausea or anything. I'm pretty darn sure this
isn't suddenly causing a rhinitis problem or something.

I'd like her to be over it by Tuesday for her first class in Young Dog
School, but if it doesn't get any worse I guess I see no problem in taking
her--last night she played as normal with her friend the Greater Swiss
Senner pup, ate as normal, woke up restless as normal today, and insisted on
having some exercise instead of just sedate walks, so I let her run around
the basketball court chasing sticks for a little while--she's obviously not
*really sick*. I guess we'll probably take her tonight as usual for her
regular evening fun run with the "dog pack", too. This is a suburban Dutch
family neighborhood--all of these dogs are well cared for and up to date on
their shots, there are no strays, and we tend to gather at about the same
time every evening at one of the big grassy areas and let them tear about.
It can be anything from 2 to 8 dogs, sized Jack Russel to (our) Dane and an
aging Newfoundland. Does that sit well with the more knowledgeable folks
here as OK in her condition? The dog class too?

If she was a cat, I have more experience with little things like this and
would just ignore it while avoiding temperature extremes for a few days to
see how it went, and try a vet at a week or two of no change. Is this a good
approach with her? Does it sound to you folks like "just a bit of a cold" or
doggy equivalent? If so, any advice on home treatment to speed recovery
along? It's Saturday. If I should "do something", do I (barring sudden
worsening) just limit exercise, do I watch and wait until Monday and call
our regular vet, or do I call the emergency vet for advice?

I seriously doubt this, but could the fact that I bought generic Bully
Sticks a week ago for her for the first time have anything to do with it?
She's been chewing on them since then. We take them away after 2 days when
they start looking pretty yucky and don't dry out completely anymore. (Oh,
and please nobody warn me not to buy "foreign" dog products. I'm in the
Netherlands, and thus I AM "foreign" as people usually mean it when they
level this warning, and the practices that make people say it are not done
in the EU anyway. Our animal products are well produced without arsenic or
anything and are kept dry or frozen or sealed in a vaccuum or whatever is
best in the case of each product.)

Thanks,

Katrina