4_2_10 Update

Randall came in this morning with the news that Elvis did very little coughing when he first got up. Just the usual bit when he first begins moving around when he comes out of his crate, but nothing more.

Since I get up an hour or so later than Randall (he's up at 6:30; I'm up about 8:00)and then feed shortly after I get in the den, there's a pretty good stretch of time for Elvis to either settle down or keep coughing. When I got up and in the den, there wasn't any coughing to be heard. I went ahead and dialed the Lasix back to .75 ml.

So it looks like Elvis has an allergy to oak mold, which really isn't surprising considering our house has three huge live oak trees and the amount of leaves on the ground in the spring is unbelievable. And, well, since his coughing really seemed to get worse as the oak mold count climbed, it wasn't rocket science. Obviously allergies aren't the only problem, but they do seem to exacerbate his heart condition and the breathing problems he has.

So with that in mind, we'll be careful about opening the house for the next couple of weeks (the green hairies will be falling from the trees soon), though we'll probably try opening the house a bit in the morning and then shutting it up in the afternoon and running the house fan.

(Oh. And he had his heartworm pill last night, and there's no coughing from it, either. This is the second month now that he's not coughed the day after the treatment.)