Dogs May Inhale Their Food - Literally.

By the time you read this we will be on the way to California to visit our son and his wife, and our two grandchildren, Sam and his little sister, Katherine. Katherine is learning to talk earlier than Sam did, and one of the first words she learned was "mine!", exclamation point included. Sam added that word to his vocabulary at about the same time, and for the same reason. "Mine!" forms the basis for many of their disputatious conversations regarding property ownership and custody.

I get the idea that Riley has much the same relationship with his "little brother" Zander. The two miniature Schnauzers both had their eyes on the same piece of French bread and when Riley got his teeth on it, in his haste he swallowed the whole thing in one protracted gulp.

He had been coughing and retching off and on when I examined him a day or two later. He didn't look too bad but there was something unusual about the chest X-Ray we took. We thought he might have inhaled some of the French toast. We sent him home on antibiotics and I called the next morning, he was still coughing, and not eating. We decided to take another look at him. He was bright and alert, but breathing a little rapidly. We repeated the X-Rays and this time it was clear there was something bad going on in his lungs. Like aspiration pneumonia. His Mom agreed to take him to a specialist at the Washington State University veterinary teaching hospital.

Riley was lucky enough to get Dr. Michelle Patrick. Her dog had aspiration pneumonia when she was a veterinary student. She knew what to do. She hospitalized Riley and began therapy with IV fluids and a nebulizer to keep his lungs and airways moist. They began regular "coupage" - a fancy word for thumping on Riley's chest with a cupped hand, in a very particular way - to help loosen up the foreign material in his lungs. The lungs naturally produce mucus that traps foreign material like dust and little pieces of French bread. There are also tiny hair-like "cilia" that move the mucus out of the lungs and into the airways so it can be coughed up and spit out or swallowed. The IV fluids, nebulizer, and coupage helped this mechanism work better and the next day it was safe to send Riley home.

His owner continued the coupage and gave him antibiotics. She encouraged Riley to move around on little walks to gently agitate his lungs. He steadily improved and his latest X-Rays were completely normal. The coughing is gone.

A day or two after Riley inhaled the French toast, Patch, a little Border Collie puppy, found a feather boa and decided to try it out as a dietary supplement. Now he was, like Riley had been, bright and alert but coughing and retching. It seemed like déjà vu all over again.

But Patch's X-Rays were normal. Patch probably didn't inhale as much as Riley did, and the mucus in his windpipe probably trapped the little pieces of feathers before they got deep into the lungs. Patch was back to normal in a day or two.

Many dogs are enthusiastic and indiscriminant eaters. This sometimes results in vomiting, and vomiting carries a small but significant risk of aspiration. I think it is surprising that aspiration pneumonia is not more common than it is. The symptoms, at first, may be relatively mild but it pays to be careful. Prompt diagnosis and early treatment can make the difference between life and death.