Hello all,
Our precious guy Beans (just turned 2 on June 4th) has been dealing with ongoing respiratory issues since having a polypoid polyp removed from his ear canal back in December 2018. We had a biopsy done on the polyp prior to the surgery and unfortunately it became infected a week later, likely from him sticking his dirty little toes in his ear... We first thought the polyp was growing because during the two weeks following the biopsy it was suddenly and very clearly visible in the canal when it originally couldn't be seen w/o peering deep inside the ear... but it turned out that it was actually infected and this wasn't discovered until he was in endoscopic surgery. The exotics vet noted that pus had come out of the polyp when he resected it and he flushed the canal immediately with saline before removing the polyp at the stem via cauterization. The polyp has not grown back but instead we have been dealing with respiratory issues since the surgery in Dec 2018.
Immediately following the surgery once Beans had woken up he had extreme labored breathing which was thought to be a symptom of pain but he also had congestion/wheezing and in addition to pain meds I immediately put him on doxy/baytril. About 10 days later he worsened and I rushed him back to the vet...lots of x-rays and it appeared he had a possible partial collapse on his left side in the lower lobe (IMO indictive of aspiration)..
Long story short we placed him on a doxy/baytril/azithromycin combo plus lasix that day. He seemed to partially improve after about two weeks on that combo then declined some around 3 weeks after starting the combo and I pushed for nebulizing injectable enrofloxicin/Albuterol and 3% hypertonic saline for 14 days. We ended up up extending the this to over a month of nebulizing along with the combo of oral meds, the addition of nebulizing seemed to have helped but it took some time...fast forward to April 2019 after stopping the nebulizing but continuing the azithromycin/doxy and adding oral baytril, Beans' lungs looked "OK" in x-rays and he improved significantly in regards to his respiratory rate with no suspicious lung sounds...but he still had some pretty crappy breathing that would come and go, likely from scarring(??)... He had 3.5 months of good lungs and breathing up until mid July 2019 although he had several follow up vet visits to monitor his improvement. FYI he has also been evaluated about 5 times for possible CHF/heart issues (via x-rays etc) and it has been confirmed that his symptoms are not heart related and he does not have CHF. There are also no CHF or heart issues with his brother and I've checked w/ the breeder and the rest of his siblings are free of heart defects as well.
So, his breathing suddenly turned for the worse again on July 19 2019 and after a visit to the vet the x-ray showed "polkadot" spots on the left lung with some on the right including the consolidation that was seen/similar in his two x-rays in December 2018 and early January 2019, but somewhat worse. Beans has been on azithromycin/doxy/baytril and lasix for about 6 or 7 months and was still on the combo during the July 2019 visit.
He was placed on a different combo of doxy/azithromycin/clavamox on July 19 with prednisolone every other day and seemed to have some improvement in about 5 days but about two weeks ago on about August 31 2019, he became worse (very similar to when he exibited symptoms in Dec 2018). We added in the nebulization with enrofloxicin/Albuterol/3% saline and today is day 6...he seems to be responding to the treatment (he is still on oral azithromycin/doxy/clavamox) but it isn't as significant of a recovery like it was back when we first added the nebulizing, but we are continuing it for another two weeks, including the oral antibiotic combo, lasix (3x daily) and Pred every other day likely for life. He still has some labored breathing (it has improved some), occasional "whooping" in the chest and some congested sounds mostly in the left lung.. Aside from this he is active and seems very happy,has lots of energy, plays with us and his brother, has a great appetite and is enjoying life.
I'm asking for any thoughts on his current treatment and/or guidance on trying different drug combos or thoughts on what this could possibly be... I'm pretty certain this is related to some infected material aspirating into his lungs during the surgery and that we have been dealing with abscesses in the lungs due to this...but I'm not a doctor and I can't say for certain that this is the cause and his exotics vet had denied the possibility. He believes it is myco related which it could be as well..
Thank you so much for taking the time to read through this and for any help or advice you all may be able to offer!
Our precious guy Beans (just turned 2 on June 4th) has been dealing with ongoing respiratory issues since having a polypoid polyp removed from his ear canal back in December 2018. We had a biopsy done on the polyp prior to the surgery and unfortunately it became infected a week later, likely from him sticking his dirty little toes in his ear... We first thought the polyp was growing because during the two weeks following the biopsy it was suddenly and very clearly visible in the canal when it originally couldn't be seen w/o peering deep inside the ear... but it turned out that it was actually infected and this wasn't discovered until he was in endoscopic surgery. The exotics vet noted that pus had come out of the polyp when he resected it and he flushed the canal immediately with saline before removing the polyp at the stem via cauterization. The polyp has not grown back but instead we have been dealing with respiratory issues since the surgery in Dec 2018.
Immediately following the surgery once Beans had woken up he had extreme labored breathing which was thought to be a symptom of pain but he also had congestion/wheezing and in addition to pain meds I immediately put him on doxy/baytril. About 10 days later he worsened and I rushed him back to the vet...lots of x-rays and it appeared he had a possible partial collapse on his left side in the lower lobe (IMO indictive of aspiration)..
Long story short we placed him on a doxy/baytril/azithromycin combo plus lasix that day. He seemed to partially improve after about two weeks on that combo then declined some around 3 weeks after starting the combo and I pushed for nebulizing injectable enrofloxicin/Albuterol and 3% hypertonic saline for 14 days. We ended up up extending the this to over a month of nebulizing along with the combo of oral meds, the addition of nebulizing seemed to have helped but it took some time...fast forward to April 2019 after stopping the nebulizing but continuing the azithromycin/doxy and adding oral baytril, Beans' lungs looked "OK" in x-rays and he improved significantly in regards to his respiratory rate with no suspicious lung sounds...but he still had some pretty crappy breathing that would come and go, likely from scarring(??)... He had 3.5 months of good lungs and breathing up until mid July 2019 although he had several follow up vet visits to monitor his improvement. FYI he has also been evaluated about 5 times for possible CHF/heart issues (via x-rays etc) and it has been confirmed that his symptoms are not heart related and he does not have CHF. There are also no CHF or heart issues with his brother and I've checked w/ the breeder and the rest of his siblings are free of heart defects as well.
So, his breathing suddenly turned for the worse again on July 19 2019 and after a visit to the vet the x-ray showed "polkadot" spots on the left lung with some on the right including the consolidation that was seen/similar in his two x-rays in December 2018 and early January 2019, but somewhat worse. Beans has been on azithromycin/doxy/baytril and lasix for about 6 or 7 months and was still on the combo during the July 2019 visit.
He was placed on a different combo of doxy/azithromycin/clavamox on July 19 with prednisolone every other day and seemed to have some improvement in about 5 days but about two weeks ago on about August 31 2019, he became worse (very similar to when he exibited symptoms in Dec 2018). We added in the nebulization with enrofloxicin/Albuterol/3% saline and today is day 6...he seems to be responding to the treatment (he is still on oral azithromycin/doxy/clavamox) but it isn't as significant of a recovery like it was back when we first added the nebulizing, but we are continuing it for another two weeks, including the oral antibiotic combo, lasix (3x daily) and Pred every other day likely for life. He still has some labored breathing (it has improved some), occasional "whooping" in the chest and some congested sounds mostly in the left lung.. Aside from this he is active and seems very happy,has lots of energy, plays with us and his brother, has a great appetite and is enjoying life.
I'm asking for any thoughts on his current treatment and/or guidance on trying different drug combos or thoughts on what this could possibly be... I'm pretty certain this is related to some infected material aspirating into his lungs during the surgery and that we have been dealing with abscesses in the lungs due to this...but I'm not a doctor and I can't say for certain that this is the cause and his exotics vet had denied the possibility. He believes it is myco related which it could be as well..
Thank you so much for taking the time to read through this and for any help or advice you all may be able to offer!