I'm sorry this is a few issues behind, I am trying to catch up!
 
Our little Boo Bear seemed to develope a cough overnight.  Hard, dry cough
that would last about 10 seconds and then stop.  The first time she did it,
it sent Phil and I diving to the floor to get her from under the bed.  She
regarded us with sleepy annoyance and seemed to be fine.  She woke me up
later that night doing it again, so I put her in a carrier, fearing maybe
she had eaten something bad.  I took her to our wonderful vet that next day.
 
Besides getting a surprise Distemper shot (she was not amused), she was
pronounced with a cold.  He asked if we had any sick visitors, or if we
ourselves had been sick, or we had taken our babies anywhere (which we do
not out of extreme paranoia).  When I told him that while we were not ill,
everyone at the Best Buy I work for seems to be dropping like flies with a
cold/flu virus.  He sort of chuckled and said, 'You can expect to be next!
She has a cold!'.  He took her temperature, which was fine, did the
unpleasant task of prying her Great White jaws open to see her throat
(which indeed was dry and red) and listened to her chest, which did not
sound wet or wheezy to him.
 
He gave her an anti-biotic, a medicine to give her after that so she
wouldn't develope a yeast infection and then had us get her a DM cough
medicine.  We found a great Diabetic DM, so we give her that.  While we end
up wearing most of all of it (she's only 6 inches long, explain why she
always wins battling two big humans!), it has been helping.
 
She's been eating fine, playing great and pooping normally, so I'm not
worried any longer, and none of the other 4 seem to have developed it!
 
Who knew!  8) Guess I will be getting one of those dreaded flu shots this
year.  Ug.
 
Julie
[Posted in FML issue 2437]