Chef is sick

August 24/07

It's been a very difficult week for our family, and especially for Chef. He has been quite sick with pneumonia, but tonight he seems to have come around. He's spunky and hungry and ate his first big meal in days. He is visibly thinner and he really needed that meal to give him strength.

A couple of weeks ago, he was diagnosed with kennel cough. He had that in May, but unlike then, his vet did not prescribe an antibiotic this time to combat a secondary infection like pneumonia. I questioned her about that but she seemed comfortable with letting it run its course without preventative medication. He seemed to be rallying but suddenly his cough got worse and he began bringing up white foamy mucus. It was very frightening. I called the vet and her colleague also said he didn't need an antibiotic. On Tuesday morning, Chef nearly collapsed. Morrie was with him at the time, thank goodness. He said Chef's muzzle and gums went white and he seemed to be just shutting down. He rushed him to the vet and they got him on an IV immediately. His colour returned right away, which led the vet to believe he'd been in anaphylactic shock. She ran blood and urine tests, as well as tests for various illnesses, and everything came back negative. He is scheduled for an ultrasound next week, though, just to rule out anything devestating.

Chef is still coughing every now and then, but he doesn't seem lethargic anymore and he really does seem so much better. But it's hard to get our hopes up. We were just thrown for a loop with this and we are exhausted. We haven't recovered enough to become totally optimistic. There are still some tests I want done to rule out other possibilities. If those tests are negative, I suppose we'll just assume he was fainting from the pneumonia, as humans do, and put away the Epi-Pens. Until then, we are worried for his health and pray we never see our sweet boy in so much trouble ever again.