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Mystery Lung Inflammation

Please help- we have a 4 year old aussie/border collie mutt.  She is a wonderful dog with lots of energy and has never been sick before.  About 2 months ago we noticed she was making slight wheezing noises while she was breathing.  We brought her to her normal vet, who took xrays and asked whether she had inhaled toxic fums (to our knowledge that did not happen).  He said he lungs were inflamed and it looked like she had air in between her lung cavities.  He sent us to a specialist.  Since then she has had a bronchoscopy which looked for bacterial infections, a puncture in her esophagus, fungal infections etc.  They found nothing during the bronchoscopy.  She has not been tested for blasto, bacterial cultures, lung worm, etc.  Everything has come up negative.  Her symptoms are: shortness of breath after very slight exertion (like jumping on the couch or coming in from outside), rapid breathing (has ranged from 30bpms to 60 bpms, she is currently in the fifties pretty reliably), runny nose, and heavy breathing.  We have had her on a round of de-wormer and antibiotics.  She is currently on steroids, and we just put her on a new antibiotic to see if they will work.  Does anyone have any ideas what could be wrong?  Our vet is stumped, as is the other specialist vet in the area.  She seems to be getting worse slowly, and with the heat of the summer coming she seems to have more trouble breathing then.  Any ideas at all would be great- thank you!
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Avatar universal
I don't have an answer, but my female, year old Aussie is having the same issues.  Noted wheezing while running/playing w/her outside.  We're on second course of Antibiotics, after mild improvement on the xray.  Heart worm was ok, not anemic, trachea intact so they don't think this is aspiration, heart looks fine on xray, anti-histamines didn't work - now also on steroids to see if this improves.  Did this problem resolve for her or was a related problem id'd?  
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Avatar universal
I do not have the answer and I se this post is several years old but did you ever find out what was going on? Sounds like the same thing my dog is going through and I fear he will die if we don't solve this.
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462827 tn?1333168952
Hello again..I assume your Vet has done a complete blood panel? Did by chance it show that your dog was Anemic? Has Tick Born Disease been ruled out? How about Heartworm Disease? These are my first thoughts.....

I was reading an article on Anemia in dogs & ran across a lot of the symptoms your dog is showing.....The breathing problems is what caught my attention! Here's the link:   http://www.2ndchance.info/anemia.htm

Just wondering how things are going.....Please, let us know....Karla
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462827 tn?1333168952
Bumping up.....Anyone with any ideas to help this woman???
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Avatar universal
***I meant she HAS been tested for blasto, bacterial cultures, lung worm, etc.

Thank you Jerry for the support!  We are trying every avenue we can to try to figure this out- and I really appreciate your time in reviewing the post.
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612551 tn?1450022175
I is not surprising no one here, yet, has come up with ideas.  Given the excellent and loving effort (and $$) you have gone through to find the cause clearly puts this in a category well beyond anything I can help with, other than to post a reply and assure you many must be reading your post but haven't answered because they don't have any answers.

Please let us know of progress, especially of good news, and why/how.

Best to you and you dog that is lucky to have you.
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