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Dogs Are Being Affected by Mystery Respiratory Condition, This Could Help · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:15
  Good morning, and welcome to the second hour of The Morning Show with Preston
• 0:20
  Scott. I'm Preston. That's grant not to be engaging in any hyperbole,
• 0:25
  but the next couple segments could save your dog's life. A few weeks ago,
• 0:34
  I came across a story and discussed it on the program. And it's
• 0:41
  a disease known as K nine infectious respiratory disease complex c IRDC, and there's
• 0:50
  some mystery to it. And we talked about the fact that this was becoming
• 0:56
  a deadly problem for in the western part of the country and in the northeast.
• 1:03
  And I hypothesized that with the traveling season we were about to enter with,
• 1:08
  you know, families traveling back and forth, they bring their pets with
• 1:11
  them, that it was likely a matter of time whether it was someone bringing
• 1:19
  their pet with them to the west or the northeast, or pet from the
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  northeast to the west coming here interaction and boom, we would we would have
• 1:26
  it here and lo and behold, we are seeing this show up in the
• 1:30
  area. And and in fact, doctor Steve Steverson, our resident expert in
• 1:37
  our Pause for Thoughts segments, joins us this morning from the Bradfordville Animal Hospital
• 1:42
  and doctor Steverson. You have seen this condition in our area here we have
• 1:48
  Preston. You know, it is all over the country now and it's even
• 1:51
  here in Tallahassee. Pretty pretty nasty infection that occurs. Still, don't know
• 1:57
  exactly what the cause of this thing is, whether it's a virus or some
• 2:00
  sort of a bacteria. Of course, the theory is that some type of
• 2:04
  a virus the way it's so contagious and spread so quickly, but it does
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  cause all kinds of problems in these pets. It can. It certainly starts
• 2:13
  out much like your typical case of what we call kennel cough. The dogs
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  have a you know, a sudden cough that appears, and they may be
• 2:22
  sneezing as well, have runny eyes and running nose, and they start acting
• 2:27
  a little getting a little fever and acting pretty lethargic, which doesn't only happen
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  with a typical kennel cough case. And these dogs have this respiratory disease complex
• 2:36
  come in feeling feeling terrible with a pretty high fever. Tell me, though,
• 2:40
  let me let me ask you a question first and foremost, As you're
• 2:44
  describing these symptoms. How do you know if your dog has a fever,
• 2:49
  Well, usually if they have a fever, you know, a dog's tempter
• 2:51
  normally runs warmer than hours. A dog's normal body tempters anywhere from about one
• 2:54
  hundred to one hundred and two. So if you just feel your pet,
• 2:57
  you say, oh, he feels warm, And we see client spring of
• 3:00
  pets and all the time he feels warm. Well, that's their normal body
• 3:02
  kimter is warmer than us. So they are all going to feel warm to
• 3:05
  us. But beyond that, you can't gauge it by just how they feel
• 3:08
  when you feel them with your hand, right, so they use are lethargic.
• 3:12
  They're laying around okay, just don't want to get up and move,
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  And so can tell this by their actions. They're kind of lethargic that they
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  probably have a fever. Do they tend to drink more water or eat less
• 3:22
  food when they're feverish? Exactly, they can do both of those, Preston.
• 3:27
  They typically are drinking a little more water and definitely are off their food.
• 3:31
  One of the things that I've noted and I sent you some information and
• 3:37
  we're going to take this into the next segment. As well. Is there
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  are people that are in essence, you know, stumbling into what they think
• 3:45
  is a treatment that's working because their dogs were not getting better under standard treatment.
• 3:52
  So let's talk about the protocols for treating this. Where at what point
• 3:58
  do you cross over that line and say I can't do this at home.
• 4:02
  I need my pet to see a veterinarian. Yeah, it starts displaying all
• 4:06
  those symptoms we just described. I definitely think I have them checked out just
• 4:11
  to be safe, and your venoran can look and listen very often these dogs
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  if it If it does like most of these cases, we put them on
• 4:20
  the standard treatment for what we call the common kennel cough and he saw to
• 4:24
  respond and they do fine. Now the cough may linger, and that's kind
• 4:27
  of frustrating, but they're not sick. They just have this lingering, post
• 4:30
  conditioned cough that has to go away. Now. If they aren't feeling better,
• 4:34
  they don't respond to that treatment, or when the veteran examines them,
• 4:38
  he determines they have a pneumonia, which oftentimes we can tell either with the
• 4:42
  stethoscope. We can hear the moisture and the crackles and rails in the chest
• 4:46
  or through an X ray. That's a whole different ball game. Then these
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  dogs need to put on something much stronger in medication. All right, we're
• 4:53
  gonna we're gonna pause right there, We're gonna come right back. Doctor Steve
• 4:55
  Steverson with us from the Bradverordvilla Animal Hospitality. I don't care where you're listening
• 5:00
  to me from, whether you're in the region, whether you're in the Tallahassee
• 5:03
  region, Panama City region, or anywhere else in the country listening on iHeartRadio.
• 5:09
  This is a thing. It's a very serious thing, and you need
• 5:12
  to be aware of it. We're going to talk more about the treatment side
• 5:14
  of this next on the morning show. I am there, I am good,
• 5:17
  I'm a happy example, Glenn Is on nine to noon. I Am
• 5:21
  Stronger every day on WFLA back with doctor Steve Steverson of the Bradfordville Animal Hospital.
• 5:39
  We're talking about this respiratory condition. Steve, what I've noticed, as
• 5:46
  you know, I send you a couple of articles, and one of them
• 5:48
  in particular, what stood out is this particular dog seemed to have stumped the
• 5:54
  veterinarians and they didn't know what to do, and so they sickly went to
• 6:00
  treating this dog with something. I guess it's sort of off label, is
• 6:05
  the way doctors would refer to it, chlorum fenocol. And so question one
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  is, are we talking about something that's a little bit different that's going around
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  now that doesn't fall into the standard protocols and treatments. Sometimes it does,
• 6:23
  preston most of the time, it does respond well to some conventional antibiotics,
• 6:27
  and there's a typical protocol we use in these dogs that so far here in
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  tallahassee from what I hear, they all have responded well to the standard treatment.
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  If there's something resistant in there and it doesn't respond to that conventional treatment,
• 6:42
  then we start reaching for other options. And this article you sent to
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  me about chlorin finocol, it sits under that category. Clorin feniccol is a
• 6:51
  great antibiotic. It's been around for years and years and years. The problem
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  is it has some pretty serious side effects. Yeah, not our first choice,
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  but if we have a dog we think that's the only option, absolutely,
• 7:01
  we're going to use it. You know, it got to be really
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  careful how you use that drug. But you know, we wouldn't hesitate if
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  we thought that was a drug to use. It just depends on the situation
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  if we would if we go as far as reaching for chlorinmphinocol or not.
• 7:14
  What's interesting is you pointed out that the FDA has even removed this from from
• 7:19
  the marketplace for humans because of the potential dangers. Oh yeah, exactly.
• 7:26
  This This drug is has been reported to cause a bone marrow damage or shut
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  down a person's bone marrow, as well as kidney damage. It's got some
• 7:34
  in the cases where it has side effects, they are very very serious,
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  and so as such, the FDA is removed it from a human market but
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  Earians can still get it, so we can still use it, but we
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  don't even keep it on our shelf. It's one we usually have to uh
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  uh prescribe specifically and because we have to be very very careful how it's used.
• 7:53
  If a pet has if a dog has this respiratory condition, they've got
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  these symptoms. How how long are we talking about in terms of how long
• 8:01
  is the treatment protocol and how long are symptoms likely to linger before you might
• 8:07
  need to circle back and see your vet again. Yes, typically the standard
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  treatment for these guys is about two weeks. Two weeks of antibotics and most
• 8:16
  of them will clear up the infection. They're doing great, they're feeling good.
• 8:20
  The cough may last six to eight weeks, so even though they're feeling
• 8:22
  good and eating and drinking everything else is back to normal, they still have
• 8:26
  these fits of coughing. Just like a lot of people that get upper respiratory
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  condition, they have a post viral cough. Present company, we see the
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  same thing and these dogs they'll come back in they're feeling good and acting fine.
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  They're still coughing, and there's maybe some cost suppress cost suppress and will
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  make them a little more comfortable, but it doesn't get rid of the cough.
• 8:48
  It just takes time for the lung tissue and the bronchial tissue to heal,
• 8:50
  so the cough goes away. Lastly, let's circle back to symptoms again
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  and how soon after I mean, is it the recommendation to see of that?
• 9:01
  Is it on the basis of all of these symptoms, some of the
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  symptoms, or the severity of the symptoms all the above preston if your dog
• 9:11
  has it just a sudden onset of a coughing and sneezing some maybe some nasal
• 9:16
  or eye discharge. Haven't checked out, just to be safe, because it's
• 9:20
  much much easier to treat this condition if you catch it early. When the
• 9:24
  dog comes in and he's lethargic and has a fever and he's got a severe
• 9:28
  pneumonia, that's a whole different ballgame. Then we're talking iv atbiotics and oxygen
• 9:33
  therapy in the whole nine yards. And if we can avoid that just by
• 9:35
  being a little bit proactive. We need to be that way. And this
• 9:39
  is a condition that is making its way around the region now. I mean
• 9:45
  we can officially say to be on the lookout for this. It's here,
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  So try and avoid doggie day here and boarding and grooming for the next few
• 9:52
  weeks if you can. I'm sure there's gonna be another outbreak or a bump
• 9:58
  up in this condition after the christ Us holiday. Absolutely, just be aware,
• 10:01
  all right, Doctor Steverson, thank you so much for making time for
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  us, and we'll be talking again later this week. I appreciate it great.
• 10:09
  Thank you, Preston, Thank you, sir, doctor Steve Steverson.
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  He's our normal veterinarian expert. For pause for thought. But this is a
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  newsworthy topic and we hope this will be useful to you dog owners out there,
• 10:22
  wherever you are listening to the Morning Show with Preston Scott