allergies, coughing and reverse sneezing...

[Jill Robinson]

My awesome 4 year old mini goldendoodle is having some issues :( 

She's had a hacking cough for a long time, which was misdiagnosed as kennel cough about 2 years ago; the cough has come and gone for that 2 years.  We recently switched vets and she was put on doxicycline for 4 weeks - it kicked the cough out for a while, but it's back (not as bad).  Meanwhile, she is having bouts of serious sneezing - usually at night time, and sometimes it's 10-12 big sneezes in a row - so bad last week that she had a bloody nose.  Mixed in with all of this is reverse sneezing.  We had been giving her benedryl for the allergies - but it seemed like it wasn't working any longer.  We are now trying chlorpheniramine for the sneezing, in hopes that it may tackle the reverse sneezing too.

Has anyone ever had this trifecta of conditions in your dog? We are going to take her to an internal medicine specialist if things don't get better.  It is spring time here in Michigan so there is a lot of things to cause allergies out there.  My big concern is the cough - could it be a defect in her trachea?  I don't know...just thought I'd check here to see if any of this sound familiar to anyone, and if so, what was the remedy?

Thanks...

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Thanks so much for the update and for adding to our education about dog illnesses.  Here's hoping that she is one of the dogs who outgrow it.

[Linda, Charlie Brown and Beau]

Just read through your post. I am so glad you posted - hopefully this will be of help to others that have a similar issue.  I hope your sweet doodle is feeling better soon and the treatments keep her that way. BTW - your mini doodle is a doll!

[Jill Robinson]

She is responding really well to the prednisone so far - it's a 4 week dose with a week overlap with the Flowvent.  By the way, they do make a device for giving dogs inhalers called an Aerodawg...you learn the craziest things when you need to!

Also, our vet at Oakland Referral Veterinary Services (ORVS) found us Flowvent - which is about $200 for one inhaler in the US - the same thing in Canada for $80 including shipping and they are sending it right to us.  So if your dog needs a medicine that people take, shop around for sure...

[Amy and Annabelle]

I have heard really good things about that place, I wish we lived closer to it.

[Lauraleen Patterson-Gilwee]

Our 13 month mini doodle is sneezing and reverse sneezing and our vet diagnosed her with allergies.  We tried Benadryl but it did not work just made her tired and suppressed her appetite.  The sneezing seemed to start in the beginning of Spring.  She does not have any nasal discharge or coughing, just sneezing a lot.  If not allergies, what could it be? 

[Jill Robinson]

It could be something similar to what Lucy has - the whole sneezing & reverse sneezing being tied to allergies seems to get different answers depending on who you talk to.  It could be GERD, IBS, or in our case, pulmonary infiltration with eosinophilia  (PIE) - which is triggered by allergens.  We gave Lucy Benedryl for a while, which seemed to help until it completely stopped working and she got worse

This article has some other symptoms: https://www.vetstream.com/canis/Content/Freeform/fre00901

If it gets bad or you don't think your vet is on the right track, I'd really recommend getting a second opinion or seeing a specialist.  I wish we hadn't waited so long...

[Lauraleen Patterson-Gilwee]

Thank you.  What do you think the long term damage be if it went untreated?