Diabetic dog has been diagnosed with COPD. Any suggestions for treatment?

She's a tox fox terrier, nine years old. She's had diabetes for about 3 years. We give her insulin every 12 hours. Vet had her on antibiotics for COPD but don't seem to help much. She still breathes from her stomach mostly instead of her lungs. She coughs a lot and cough meds has hydrocodon in it and I don't want her 'Drugged" out all the time. She's still very lively at times, plays with toy's, etc.

Get rid of all your carpet. Be sure to remove the dog from the house during the time that you are taking the carpet out, and make sure to use air filtering machines to clean the dust from the air inside your home before bringing the dog back inside.Find out exactly how much your dog *should* weigh, and how much food she should get to become the correct weight.Immediately cease any and all overfeeding. Also cut out the treats completely.Put the dog on the BARF diet. It is the natural way for dogs to eat, and dogs who have diabetes often see great improvement on this diet.These are the best things you can do in this situation.Carpet is evil. Bad for humans and dogs, especially those with allergies or breathing problems.BARF diet is mostly raw meat, read about it here:http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm#started

How exactly did you vet diagnose COPD? I ask because COPD is mostly seen in the horse and cat, but very seldom in the dog. We do tend to see chronic bronchitis and collapsing trachea (usually seen in the small breed dogs) in the dog, but not COPD. Both are very different in the cause of the diease and the treatment. I feel a second opinion or further work up is needed here. Chest radiographs are the most diagnostic. They need to be taken in several series - right lateral on inhalation and exhalation, on her back, and again in left lateral on inhalation and exhalation. This gives us the best picture of her lungs and trachea without superimpostition of other structures, like the esophagus. The chest radiographs will also tell us is the coughing could be related to cardiac disease. A enlarged heart and/or heart murmur may lead us to a cardiac ultrasound, EKG, blood pressure monitoring, etc to appreciate her disease. If your pet does indeed have a collapsing trachea (which is what I suspect), there are numerous ways to help control this. First off, antibiotics do nothing for the disease - it is not caused by bacteria. Treatment includes relaxing smooth muscles, suppressing the cough and if neccessary decreasing inflammation caused by chronic coughing. Brethine (terbutaline) is used to relax smooth muscle and lessen the urge to cough. Hydrocodone can be used to suppress the cough. Prednisone and methyl-prednisone are steroids used to decrease inflammation. Steroids must be used with caution in diabetic dogs, as this may make her diabetes more difficult to manage. A short course of steroids may be fine, but if she needs chronic steroid therapy, you will need to work closely with your vet to make sure her diabetes is kept well control when on long-term.Keeping your dog in a cool environment to desease panting is recommended as well as keeping your dog at her optimum weight, or slightly below. Obesity can complicate any respiratory or cardiac problem. Also, avoid items around her neck, like collors, bandana's, etc that many trigger her to cough. Pollutants can definately irritate the trachea, so if anyone in the house smokes, they should consider going outside or quiting. You should also avoid using aerosol sprays, heavy purfumes, etc around her. Allergies are usually not a component of the disease as in people, because dogs do not have many histamine receptors in their respiratory tract, but mainly in their digestive tract and skin.After reading the first response, I do not recommend changing your dogs diet without the specific consent of your veterinarian as this can be devestating to the management of your pet's diabetes. Also, if your dog has been eating dog food, it's GI tract may not be suitable for a raw meat diet and may give her pancreatitis. Pancreatitis in her case may worsen her diabetes and could prove to be potentially fatal. I find this recommendation to be comepletely irresponsible. Good luck! She sounds like she is very well taken care of.