Symptoms of pneumonia in dogs

General clinical symptoms vary depending on the cause of infection, but usually dogs will have cough, fever, difficulty breathing, decreased activity, loss of appetite, weight loss, and yellow discharge from the nasal cavity and other symptoms.

Introduction to dog pneumonia

Pneumonia is the abbreviation for inflammation of the dog’s lungs. The lungs are the organs that provide oxygen to the body. They are mainly composed of the trachea, bronchi, alveoli and blood vessels and perform gas exchange. In order to obtain good gas exchange function, the alveoli and blood vessels are almost overlapped to facilitate gas exchange, discharge carbon dioxide from the body, and transport oxygen in the air to blood to various parts of the body.
If the trachea, bronchi, alveoli, and inter-alveolar tissues become infected due to various factors, the most direct impact will be a decrease in gas exchange function, and dogs are prone to hypoxia. If the condition is not well controlled, it often causes irreparable damage.

Common causes of canine pneumonia

The causes of canine pneumonia can be divided into inhalation, bacterial, immune, fungal and lung infection.
1. Inhalation: Foreign objects enter the respiratory system and cause infection. These foreign objects include vomitus and food. This phenomenon often occurs in dogs with abnormalities of the upper gastrointestinal system (such as paralysis of the throat and structural abnormalities of the esophagus). In addition, improper anesthesia handling and improper force-feeding are also easy to cause.
2. Bacterial: Bacteria enter the lungs through the oral cavity or nasal cavity, further causing infection in the trachea, bronchus and alveoli. The incidence rate is higher in working dogs weighing more than 12 kilograms, hunting dogs and dogs that exercise a lot. It can occur at any age, but it is more common in children under 1 year old, and the incidence rate is higher in male dogs.
3. Immunity: Mainly occurs in Siberian Huskies because of congenital immune deficiency causing lung infection. In addition, heartworm infection is also a major cause.
4. Mold: Mold or yeast in the environment or other organs in the body enters the lungs and causes infection. Common sources of infection include Blastomyces, Histoplasma, Coccidioides and Cryptosporidium. It usually occurs in large dogs, but certain molds are more likely to appear in breeds such as Cocker Spaniels and German Wolfhounds. The age of onset is usually within 4 years old, and the incidence rate in male dogs is 2 to 4 times that of female dogs.
5. Injury to the lung itself: mainly damage to the tissue between the alveoli and the alveoli, which is the most common problem associated with canine distemper infection.