I am fostering a dog that has been diagnosed with pneumonia. He had been found in the desert, ill and malnourished. He has been with us 6 weeks now, and the pneumonia is still present, in spite of ongoing treatment. As of today, he had a chest x-ray, we were also given a 2nd antibiotic, and then later, one of the people from the rescue with more experience with injectables, came over and gave him his 1st injectable antibiotic, too. He is supposed to continue the injectable antibiotic 3 times a day for a week, along with the 2 types of pills he's already taking. I am giving probiotics, too, but here's a question...this poor guy has some lung scarring, and as a young dog, approximately a year old, he potentially has a long life with susceptibility to re-infection...is there ANYTHING I can do, barring a huge cost, to help this guy's lungs improve?? Anything beyond the vet care he is already getting?? Anything that I can do to help him get better faster? So far, he's made slight improvements, and then gotten sicker again within a week. This time, with all the drugs he is now on, I think it would be awesome if this could be the last of the drugs for him for now. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. As I said, he is a rescue dog, not my own, and I really can't afford to spend a whole lot of my own money on him, but if there is something else I could be doing to help him heal up, I'd like to know, and try to work on it if possible. Thanks! I have to leave for now, but I will come back tomorrow and check to see if anyone has ideas. Thanks again!
Laurie

A couple years ago, my then-one-year-old dog got aspiration pneumonia. Long story short, he was trying to vomit, inhaled some of it, and it set up a severe inflammatory reaction in his lungs. A different set of circumstances than your foster, but I just wanted to share my experience.

In my dog's case, it was a matter of time, lots of time. He was on antibiotics of course, for a long time, but even afterwards, his stamina and exercise tolerance were severely affected. It was probably seven, eight months before I felt he was back to himself. I wouldn't be surprised if he still has some scarring in his lungs, but so far, we've not had any further problems.

I am not a veterinary professional, but money aside, I'm not sure there is anything you can do to hurry the recovery along. When your vet okays it, I would start a very gradual reintroduction of exercise to improve his stamina, but this will likely be a long road.

Thanks Cheri for your input. I guess I was looking, not just to speed recovery, but give him extra healing if possible, so he'd be less likely to have continual respiratory issues, but I don't know if that's even possible.

This dog's energy is actually pretty high. When he came to us, he was definitely not feeling well. Within a week or 2, though, he was obviously feeling better, and now, he can go on nice long walks with no problem at all, and acts like he's ready for more, even when we are done. We've been sick, too, though, so it's not like he has been getting out a whole lot. I'm sure he's stir crazy. I let him run around a bit in the yard, which gets him coughing, but on walks he doesn't even cough much, once he calms down off the initial excitement.

I'm just hoping I can do what I can for him while we have him, because as soon as the rescue thinks he's ready to be fixed and adopted, and once he's no longer with us, I can't do anything to help him anymore. (We had a rescue with chronic ear infections, and once he was adopted, the adoptive family apparently maybe finished his meds and then never took him back to be re-checked, and he ended coming back to the rescue again with a very serious ear infection. :-()

Anyway, thanks, and if anyone else has any extra healing ideas, I'm all ears! LOL
Laurie