Uneven And Labored Breathing?

[Zoey's mom]

I have a 5 month old Abyssinian who is a bit of a medical mystery. I took her to the vet about a month ago because she started coughing frequency. She got diagnosed with mild pneumonia and we started Baytril twice a day for 10 days. It is hard to say if it actually helped or not, she still coughed but maybe once or twice less per day than she was doing. We then started Doxycycline twice a day but she had a bad reaction to it and we took her off of that after about 4 days. We gave her a couple days and then started another round of Baytril which her coughing is less, but her breathing is abnormal. Her sides are going in and out very rapidly, and occasionally she makes a clicking noise (not teeth chattering) but not consistently. She is eating normally, she runs around when I open the door of her cage, no eye discharge. The weird part about her breathing is that it goes fast for while and then it literally stops for a full second or two, and this has been going on for probably about 2 weeks. The vet has said that if the Baytril didn't work there really isn't anything medically wise they can do, it would just be to wait and see if she overcomes it on her own. The stopping of breathing I notice more in the evenings, not sure if that is relevant or not. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Wiebke]

Hi and welcome!

Has your vet checked the heart and the chest cavity?

 

[Zoey's mom]

The vet said that her heart sounded fine from what she could hear through her constant teeth chattering. She also said that her lungs sounded a little bit uneven and it could possibly be the fluid from the pneumonia. We have not done an x-ray, I have lost a piggy to anesthesia and am a bit timid for that reason, and since she is so young I really don't want to risk it unless absolutely necessary. What is unusual to me is the fact these symptoms have lasted so long and she is still with us. From other threads and websites I have seen of piggies with the same symptoms they succumbed to their illness in a matter of days, and with Zoey we are about a month in.

 

[helen105281]

If she has fluid would your vet consider giving diuretics too to help clear it. My Buzz had pneumonia and was on both antibiotics and diuretics. Also you could ask about a conscious x-ray? That way they would be able to see if the heart is enlarged or hidden by fluid.