Dog in hospital past 5 days for staph pneumonia; not much improvement.

Hello all,

I recently adopted a two-year-old Border Collie Labrador Retriever mix from an animal shelter in Arizona on Sunday, March 4th. Upon bringing him him, I noticed he wasn’t eating. I tried feeding him numerous brands of dog food, boiled chicken, steak, and baby food over the course of a couple days. Of everything I tried to feed him, he only ate a few pieces of steak and a bite of the boiled chicken. The next day, I tried again, and he wouldn’t eat anything though he was drinking plenty of water. It was at this point that I also noticed he was having heaving amounts of discharge coming from his nose and eyes and a hacking cough. I consulted a friend who is also a dog owner, and she informed me that since I did get him from a shelter he may just have a cold and kennel cough and that I should just monitor him closely over the next few days. That night he had very rapid breathing and wasn’t sleeping well. I wouldn’t leave his side for fear that his sickness was getting a lot worse. The next morning, Wednesday, I called the vet and made an appointment for Friday (the earliest appointment they had). However that night his breathing became worse, so I took him to the vet the next afternoon. The closest vet to where I live is 1.5 hours away. The vet took an x-ray of him which appeared very cloudy. She informed me that this was an indicator of a very server infection that was potentially life threatening. I agreed to have him admitted to the hospital right away. Not knowing how I was going to cover costs, I put some money down and made a bunch of calls and e-mails to the shelter the next day. They told me that he was in perfect health and that he had just been seen by a vet a week prior to me adopting him. The director shared in my sympathy and agreed to cover Kye’s treatments in full. One less burden I had worry about. I was very thankful. Now fast forward, and Kye is on his fifth day in the hospital. The doctor informed me while he isn’t getting worse, he isn’t making much improvement either. He current treatment consists of the following: IV fluids, Unasyn injections, Enrofloxacin injections, Cerenia injectable, Dexamethasone SP, Nebulization, and Catalyst Chem 10. The doctor called me again with an update this morning stating that he still isn’t eating and that she took another x-ray and he hasn’t shown much improvement from the first. She said that she would like to take a culture sample and test for other illnesses such as Canine Flu, Valley Fever, and more, but wants to wait to hear back from the County as this tests will add up and be pretty expensive. I’m really stressed out, and not knowing what Kye is sick with is driving me crazy. He is an amazing dog. Everyone compliments him on how well-behaved and friendly his is to people and other dogs, and they tell me how lucky I am to have gotten such an amazing dog. All I wish is for Kye to come home healthy.

Has anyone else experienced a case similar to this one with their own dog or a dog they know? Please, any insight would help. When I go to see him, he’s extremely happy and get really excited when I take him on walks. He doesn’t seem as tired as he was at first when we would go on walks. Appearance wise, he looks much better to me, but the x-ray still shows that there is still a lot of infection in his stomach. He deserves a chance at life. I really just want him to get better.

Jasz