October 13. 2008

Sure enough I had to take Jonas in as an emergency yesterday morning. He was still having a lot of difficulty breathing; very wheezy and open mouth breathing on and off. He was at the vet for about 5 hours and got an injectable steroid and injectable aminophylline. He was also getting oxygen. They did a chest xray to make sure he wasn't having any cardiac difficulty but that came back okay so it was definitely his asthma. This time of year seems to be very bad for any animals that have allergies. I'm thinking next year I'm going to start medicating him with preventative steroids at the beginning of September. My husband has COPD, and he is usually worse at this time of the year also.

I don't think I'll ever find a home for Jonas; it's tough enough trying to adopt out healthy animals, never mind an animal with a chronic health condition. I also think a lot of people would not even recognize the early symptoms of asthma, most people would just chalk up the coughing to a "hairball".

I hope everybody is having a nice holiday today; the weather is beautiful!! I only worked a half day today at the kennel so I'll get to enjoy some of the day anyways.