sinus problems in my mini

[kevin mcnichols]

We have a mini who developed sinus problems almost 5 years ago, and it keeps getting worse. We have spent countless time and money taking him to specialists, we finally got a definitive answer. Supposedly he is allergic to his own mucus membranes. Has anyone out there heard of this. We are desperate for a solution, he is a happy dog but he gets sick every couple of months, and drugs only provide temporary help.

[Mark]

Hi Kevin,

I'm no expert, but no - never heard of any dogs being allergic to their own mucus. Anythings possible, I guess . . . with a brief search I did find one site that may or may not be relevant at: http://www.pon.com/fyi/allergie.htm
and I'm sure there are others to be found.

Good luck and keep us posted,

Mark

[Percy & Pepper 's Mom]

Kevin, my mini dachsie developed this sinus problems and her vet kept telling me she had developed allergies. Not so, so please discuss this with your vet! The problem was discovered by her new vet during teeth cleaning. A disease destroys the roots and upper portion of the tooth (in her case, both of the canines) while leaving the lower tooth intact, and the tooth and the gum looking completely normal. When the vet's tooth probe sunk under her gum, they x-rayed her mouth and discovered the problem. The two canines were pulled, and my dachsie never had another problem with her sinuses! I always felt bad about the suffering she must have endured for a so easy-to-treat problem! I hope that this helps your baby, too!

[kevin mcnichols]

Percy and Peppers Mom - Can you tell me what kind of symptoms your dog had? Ours has a lot of mucous that comes comes out of his nose and he sneezes often. How old was your dog when she started developing the sinus problem? Thanks for your help.

[Percy & Pepper's Mom]

My dachsie was quite old (about 13 yrs.) when she developed this problem, but it is (apparently) not age related. The symptoms began gradually, as any infection might. But, eventually, she had the mucous from her nose, the sneezing, & the sensitivity about her nose/mouth. As it grew worse, her bed would be soiled with blood. Small spotting at first, hardly noticeable. But, one morning I woke to find to find the entire pillowcase stained with a bloody mixture. (She slept on a down pillow with flannel pillowcase.) If you can believe it, her vet still insisted it was allergies. The new vet tried treatments and, as I said, stumbled across the problem when doing a tooth cleaning. It should be easy to detect if the vet uses a probe (as with people to remove tartar) and tests the gumline and doesn't get any resistance. If there is any question, I would ask for an x-ray of the mouth area. My vet recognized the problem immediately and saved both the x-ray and teeth to show me. The teeth were white, but from the gumline up, the roots were black and so deteriorated as to hardly have anything there. It was rather awful, yet her gums and teeth looked fine. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to e-mail me direct at kav@gateway.net