I went to work for 2 hours this morning and pupster seemed fine, although had to be encouraged ( by me carrying him out to the garden! ) to have his first wee. Hubby picked me up, we got home and found that he didn't want to go for his walk and had started shivering. He refused his breakfast but went out for a wee but then did 2 sloppy poos. The shivering got a bit worse and he seemed very lethargic, was walking instead of trotting as usual. We got a vet appt. for 8.30 - he was thoroughly checked and it turns out he has an upper respiritory infection so had a jab to bring his temp. down and also an antibiotic jab along with a week's course too.

He is very shivery so I was wondering whether to lightly cover him.  His breathing is a little laboured and he has brought up bile twice. He seems very uncomfortable, keeps moving from bed to bed to cold floor and is now hiding under the table!

I've never had a dog been ill with an infection before, so not really sure what to do. The vet has said to not worry if he doesn't eat but to make sure he drinks and to come back if he gets worse :(

Is there anything I can do to make him more comfortable?

Thanx

i wouldn't cover him if he has a temperature but others may say different.
Not a lot you can do for now apart from keep him quiet and encourage him to drink plenty. the antibiotis should kick in pretty quickly and hopefully he bounce back to his usual self.
their like children, they can go down hill very quickly but also recover as fast.
try giving him ice cubes and see if he'll eat them, helps keep fluid levels up and very small amounts of food, something that will temp him.
i'm sure he'll be feeling a lot better within a couple of days, then you just need to build his strength back up.  i wouldn't try an exercise him, it will be too much for the next week but that depends on how he's recovering.
hope he's better soon.    

Thanx bear - I'll try him with some chicken breast later. I don't think he can keep anything down, just yet - he's just brought up a great puddle of frothy saliva, luckily it's very thin at the moment.

Tried him in the garden for a wee, but he just stood there shivering and looking sad!

ah bless,my pug has this upper thing at the mo,he is clingy but does not want cuddles if that makes sense.Just keep everything calm for him,they sense it,plus i think with the type of dog they are,it always looks worse,My pug is coughing up saliva foam and snot as well as blowing it out his nose,
give your frenchie a big snuggle from me
jo

I agree with Bear, the idea is to get the temperature down so do not cover him. It is a worry but the ABs should bring the more usual lad back within 48 hours if not sooner - in fact I would say if he is not showing signs of getting better in 48 hours I would be back to the vets to see if a change of ABs was called for.

i don't expect he needs to toilet very often at the moment anyway seeing as he isn't eating or drinking much. i'd only take him out if he looks restless and seems to want to go out. if he has an accident at the moment it's not the end of the world.
lots of sleep and rest and he'll be better soon.

Sadly we had to have PTS our darling boy. By lunchtime we were back at the vet as he was a little worse. They took bloods and a few unsedated xrays. His white count was very low and there was a small mass on one lung. We were sent to a specialist vet, but by then he had started bleeding from his sweet little nose. They worked on him for a long while but his oxygen saturation was dropping. By now he was bleeding from his gums and lungs too - he had lungworm. We had been using Advocate monthly, but had missed Junes treatment but done July's.

We were told there was nothing more they could do. We held him so gently as he slipped away.

Please, if you know or suspect you live in a lungworm area, if your dog even eats grass - stick to a monthly worming routine. We missed one month but we thought we were safe as Pierre didn't eat slugs or snails - it was the eggs on the grass. We failed him.

Run free my precious Pierre, please forgive us. xxxxx

Killichchick I am so sorry to hear your news, there is nothing I can say to make you feel any better but you are in my thoughts.

Oh that is awful,I feel so sorry for you.Please don't feel that you failed him-I don't think there are many people at all who keep to a monthly worming schedule,I only worm mine about twice a year but it seems the incidences of lungworm are increasing and your post has made me think thats not enough.You have been so unlucky-I just don't know what to say-my thoughts are with you xx

so sorry to hear your news,my thoughts are with you.

so so sorry for your sad news,run free little one,please dont blame yourself,god bless
x

I am so sorry to hear this but echo what everyone else has said and please don't blame yourself

So sorry to hear this, please don't blame yourself, who could know that missing one dose could be so serious?  Most people don't dose monthly.

Oh boy what a weekend.

Sorry to hear your baby's plight.  i don't even treat for lungworm, so had better get advise from my vet.  Its only recently that I've seen info on this.

I thought it was only carried by mossie's like heartworm and told not in this country.  i have a lot of slugs and snails in my garden so will get them protected.

Don't blame yourself for what's happened.