How Long For Antibiotics To Clear A Respiratory Infection?

[Freela]

Just looking for some insight here. Hadley is being treated for a potential respiratory infection. Her only real symptoms is intermittent hooting that stops and starts. Otherwise her appetite is fine, her activity level is fine, she has no nasal discharge or eye discharge, and when the vet listened to her on Friday (when she was not hooting, of course) her heart and lungs sounded clear. They put her on an antibiotic just to be sure. I thought it was helping as I didn't hear her hoot yesterday, but today she has been back to hooting intermittently at rest. Again, otherwise seems fine- begging for food, eating normally, active, etc.

How long should it take for the hooting to stop if this is a respiratory infection? She has been given a 7 to 10 day course... should it take the full 7 to 10 days? And if it doesn't stop, I am thinking that I will take her back after a week and ask for a chest x-ray to look for enlarged heart/fluid in the lungs, as I understand hooting can be a heart problem sign. Does this sound reasonable?

After losing Sundae very abruptly on Friday, I'm just very anxious about Hadley... I'm also not sure if she even has a respiratory bug, as she doesn't have many signs I would associate with one and at least part of the diagnosis is based on her having a cagemate who showed some respiratory symptoms like watery eyes in the hours prior to her passing, but really Sundae was about 7 years old with multiple comorbidities and even she did not have a runny nose or audible chest congestion when assessed prior to her death, so I'm not even sure if she had a respiratory infection!

 

[Wiebke]

Just looking for some insight here. Hadley is being treated for a potential respiratory infection. Her only real symptoms is intermittent hooting that stops and starts. Otherwise her appetite is fine, her activity level is fine, she has no nasal discharge or eye discharge, and when the vet listened to her on Friday (when she was not hooting, of course) her heart and lungs sounded clear. They put her on an antibiotic just to be sure. I thought it was helping as I didn't hear her hoot yesterday, but today she has been back to hooting intermittently at rest. Again, otherwise seems fine- begging for food, eating normally, active, etc.

How long should it take for the hooting to stop if this is a respiratory infection? She has been given a 7 to 10 day course... should it take the full 7 to 10 days? And if it doesn't stop, I am thinking that I will take her back after a week and ask for a chest x-ray to look for enlarged heart/fluid in the lungs, as I understand hooting can be a heart problem sign. Does this sound reasonable?

After losing Sundae very abruptly on Friday, I'm just very anxious about Hadley... I'm also not sure if she even has a respiratory bug, as she doesn't have many signs I would associate with one and at least part of the diagnosis is based on her having a cagemate who showed some respiratory symptoms like watery eyes in the hours prior to her passing, but really Sundae was about 7 years old with multiple comorbidities and even she did not have a runny nose or audible chest congestion when assessed prior to her death, so I'm not even sure if she had a respiratory infection!

It can take the whole period of the course. Have your vets listened carefully for any narrowed airway/lung disease? The fact that she is hooting when at rest could be an indicator for that. I had a two year odyssey for my Ffraid's recurring crackly breathing, which in the end was neither a heart problem or URI, but upper and lower lung disease. But it took a very experienced vet with a very strong stethoscope to diagnose it.
My Hywel was suffering from off and on hooting in the last year of his life; in his case I was advised to keep the air moist and prepare to use a nebuliser if things got worse.

However, any vet will treat for URI first and foremost before considering other avenues.

 

[Freela]

It can take the whole period of the course. Have your vets listened carefully for any narrowed airway/lung disease? The fact that she is hooting when at rest could be an indicator for that. I had a two year odyssey for my Ffraid's recurring crackly breathing, which in the end was neither a heart problem or URI, but upper and lower lung disease. But it took a very experienced vet with a very strong stethoscope to diagnose it.
My Hywel was suffering from off and on hooting in the last year of his life; in his case I was advised to keep the air moist and prepare to use a nebuliser if things got worse.

However, any vet will treat for URI first and foremost before considering other avenues.

The vet did give a good listen to her airways and at the time they sounded clear (she of course was not hooting at all for the vet.) She has not yet had x-rays or other diagnostic work done though, I will ask for that if the antibiotics don't fix the problem. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Wiebke]

Please finish the course of antibiotics in any case. If symptoms persist or recur not long after the end of the course, then I would look at other potential issues, considering that indications for an acute URI are fairly low.

 

[Freela]

Please finish the course of antibiotics in any case. If symptoms persist or recur not long after the end of the course, then I would look at other potential issues, considering that indications for an acute URI are fairly low.

We will definitely give her the full 10 days and then monitor her closely. She has not made any unusual noises today, so keeping my fingers crossed that yesterday was just a minor setback.