Page 10 - Winter 23/24

A weird case – Think outside the box! By Doerte V. Bremen, Denmark
day with an intense smelling disinfectant. As the small dog walks on the wet floor several times per day while passing through on her way going outside and coming back, she inhales the aerosols filled with halogens every time.
That my guess is right becomes obvious after a couple of days during which she took Pina on her arm every time passing the corridor and there haven't been any respiratory symptoms or coryza since.
This case showed me the different impact of intense smelling disinfectants on small dogs, as they are much closer to the floor and walk barefoot, also licking their toes.
Sometimes it is needed to think outside the box to find the reason for your patient’s symptoms.
Pina the sweet, sneezing bully
A couple of years ago I had the black French bulldog Pina as a patient. The first time I saw her she was two years old. She is a lively, bright, very sweet little lady, not spayed and has seen me for various reason during the last two years, from intestinal problems to lactio falsa and hypersexual behaviour.
In spring 2020 the young owner calls me for respiratory issues of her dog. For some time now, every now and then, Pina has coryza, is short of breath and has profuse salvation.
I tried to get more information about any modalities and accompanying circumstances by questioning the dog owner, but it turns out to be very unproductive. The only symptoms I get are profuse, liquid, transparent and mild coryza. There are no hints of amelioration or aggravation. It occurs only sometimes, indoors at outdoors, at any day or nighttime, regardless of the weather.
As it is no acute infectious disease and no life-threatening situation, I'm reassuring the owner and ask her to watch out carefully when the dyspnoea and coryza occurs again. During the following weeks we keep in touch by phone for several different problems, mainly because of a reappearing lactio falsa after two years without any. I prescribe her constitutional remedy Phos C 200, hoping to cure the respiratory issues at the same time.
End of July the young woman comes along with her dog
on her way from Munich visiting her parents in my neighbourhood to fetch some medicine for her holidays in Italy. She reports about her dogs dyspnoea and coryza the day before. During my examination of Pina I cannot detect anything conspicuous. Heart, lungs and mucous membranes are all totally normal. But I can't deny the feeling, something is missing, and I have no clue as to what it is. So, I ask the owner to watch her dog very carefully during her holiday. But during these three weeks there aren't any symptoms and I forgot about it because she didn’t contact me again afterwards.
In January 2021 she calls again because Pina showed dyspnoea the day before. It happens more often now and at much shorter intervals.
In my perplexity I ask her
to tell me her daily routine.
While listening to her story I recognise she mentions several times the corridor, the marble floor and wiping.
Finally, it turned out that the dog’s dyspnoea and coryza always happens after they passed the corridor where the facility manager – due to the COVID situation – wipes the floor several times per
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