In January, my beloved dog of 17 years, Taylor, a American Eskimo mix, was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. This was done thru unusual results in his blood test and was not confirmed by ultra sound. At 17, it seemed worthless to confirm a diagnosis that nothing could really be done. He was growing very weak, had episodes of collapse, not knowing where he was, onset of blindness. His blood sugar was very low(40). The vet said to treat the symptoms and put him on Prednisone, 5 mg, twice a day. While it seemed to improve his blood sugar(I tested his blood), he had periods of excitement and heavy panting for hours. I was concerned about heart attack and I cut his dosage to 5mg three times a day, then 2.
After a month of so, he started to develop a severe cough. Dry, but with almost every breath. This continues today, after 4 months. Out of desperation, I cut medicines out completely after dropping the dosage slowly for a week. He immediately developed extreme amounts of fluid in his lungs. Voluminous amounts of clear mucus with his now very bad cough. He would cough, then swallow the mucus until he would regurgitate it in mass. It was terrible and I considered putting him down. He was drowning in mucus. Again out of desperation, I put him back on Prednisone, 5mg twice a day and his cough returned to a dry hacking, with nearly every breath, but brief periods of calm. He's exhausted from coughing though.
I considered putting him out of this misery again but thought, maybe this is drug related, not a medical condition(he has no fever and his lung x-ray look normal). But it breaks my heart to see him cough so much. He does however have times when he seems fairly happy despite his cough. He walks around, somewhat wobbly, and seems interested in his surroundings. He is nearly blind depending on the light. I try to be honest about his condition but still feel it would not be fair to put him down if his condition is drug related.
Advice??