Lung Infection

by Marie
(Ballynahinch co. Down northern Ireland)

My 2 week old was wheezing so the next day i took her to the vets, the vet said that the pup had a very bad lung infection, he couldn't hear the heart beat as he was wheezing so bad, the vet give him 2 sets of injections & told me to bring it back in 2 days later, I am worried so much , the little pup is still sucking from it's mum & has not lost any weight, but he is still wheezing.

His mum most know there,s something wrong as she is nursing it a lot, It was 1 of the strong puppies, will it be ok i am so worried about it, The vet also checked for a cleft palate but he said it was fine & he took took a temperature & said that was ok also, Please help.







Hi Marie
I'm sorry to hear about the difficulties this little puppy is having, but I'm not a veterinarian so I really can't help more than your vet already has.

But, I can say that is seems as though your vet has done everything that I would have thought of and hopefully the medications will help your pup make a full recovery.

In a puppy as young as this, my first guess would have been that he'd inhaled some milk into his lungs that caused the wheezing. The most common cause of this is a cleft deformity and your vet has checked for that and given him the all-clear.

When a pup inhales fluid it can set up an infection, eventually leading to pneumonia if it's not treated. Lucky for this little guy, you caught it early and he's been given antibiotics (presumably) so any infection that's there should be eliminated.

If he does continue to wheeze though I would take him back to your vet. They can put a pup in an oxygen tent to help them breathe and give IV's if necessary. If he was one of the strongest, hasn't lost weight and is still nursing, then he has a good chance of pulling through this.

All I can recommend is that you make sure and get him back to the vet if he doesn't improve, and follow all instructions exactly. I wish you the very best of luck and hope that he is 100% better soon.