An adult brown dog with darker markings around the face and ears resting indoors. 9:40
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Oxygen helps a 12-year-old boxer breathe easier

Bailey is a 12-year-old boxer, and she has had bronchitis for a long time. By the day she is rushed into Cipher Animal Hospital, it has turned into severe pneumonia. more

Her breathing is labored, and she has been throwing up a lot. X-rays from her regular vet show deep damage to her lungs from long-term bronchitis. That vet couldn't keep her after hours. Cipher can, with patients staying the night under watch.

Her mom, Robin, is frightened. "I can see she's suffering," she says. "When I saw her last night with that labored breathing, I said, that's it." The family took Bailey in at 2, from a neighbor who couldn't find her a home, and she has been daddy's little girl ever since.

Bailey lies still while a stethoscope goes to her side. Dr. Blue has seen the X-rays, and he doesn't like them. "Those lungs. They don't look good at all." He's sure it is pneumonia, but not yet whether a virus, bacteria or a fungus is behind it.

A person presses a stethoscope to a brindle dog lying down and holds the dog's side with one hand. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Bailey lies still while her chest is checked with a stethoscope.

Testing for the cause right now could make her worse, so he treats for all of it at once. Bailey gets IV fluids, antibiotic shots, medicine to open her airways and medicine to calm the swelling. Without care, he says, this could be fatal.

Then the coughing gets bad. Dr. Blue has Becky give Bailey oxygen, because she's in real distress and her airways cannot keep up. She also gets nebulizer treatments, oxygen with medicine turned to a mist she breathes into her lungs. "Mama loves you, baby," Robin tells her, and Bailey settles in for a stay of a couple of days.

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When her coughing turns bad, Bailey goes on oxygen to help her breathe.

In the morning, Dr. Blue calls Robin with an update. Bailey ate her whole meal, and the hard breathing through her mouth has stopped for now. She still coughs, but he tells Robin that doesn't mean she is not getting better.

By about day three she looks a whole lot better, and her tail is wagging. New X-rays still look rough, but they beat the first ones. There's less congestion, and she's not wheezing the way she was.

An adult brown dog with darker markings around the face and ears resting indoors. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Bailey is a 12-year-old boxer, and she has had bronchitis for a long time.

Four days after she came in, Bailey is ready to go home. When Robin's husband, Michael, walks in, she goes straight to him. She is still daddy's girl, and her energy is through the roof. Dr. Blue sums it up as chronic bronchitis that snowballed into pneumonia.

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Four days after she came in, Bailey is well enough to leave the hospital.

She'll keep a cough, since the old damage to her lungs doesn't go away, and some medicine will stay in her life for the long term. At home, Bailey can't stand to be out of the spotlight. Here she got her wish. As the most serious case in the place, she was handled and held all day long.