What could make a dog's respiratory issues worse at night?

[Katika]

(Not sure if this belongs in WYP, but since I'm looking for management advice, rather than actual support, I figured I'd try it here first.  So sorry if I posted in the wrong spot!)

Long story short, my 11.5 year old Belgian Malinois developed a super mysterious upper respiratory issue when she was around 4 years old.  It involves a deep, rattling and sometimes productive cough/choke/heaving and a lot of thick, yellowish nasal discharge.  PLEASE NOTE!!! Telling me to take her to the vet is not helpful at all at this point - she's been seen by 8 different clinics since this began, from normal vets, to military vets, to University vets, to specialist and referral clinics; at least 10 different doctors across 4 different states have tried to figure out what is actually wrong with her to the tune of a small fortune, and the best we've been able to figure out is that she's allergic to a LOT of things and seems a little less affected when we're super diligent about keeping the house clean and not a lot is growing outside.  She has had bronchoscopies and radiographs and cultures run from her lungs and nasal passages and nobody can figure out what is actually the cause of what's going on.

That said, the past few weeks, she has seemed significantly worse at night, usually between the hours of about 1 and 4am.  Her cough/congestion will wake her up during the night and it'll take her about an hour to settle down again, only to have it wake her again thirty minutes later.  During the daytime, she can sleep through full naps just fine without issues, but at night, it's rough on both her and me because I wake up and worry over her until she can settle down again.  My question is, can anyone think of anything that could be happening exclusively at night that could cause this?  I don't know enough about weather/whatever to be able to tell if it could be a humidity thing or a pressure thing or what, but it's just a really, really strange coincidence to me that she can be fine during the day but probably 5 nights a week is when she's at her worst.  Our treatments for her condition so far have been primarily high-maintenance management for her, and I would be willing to try anything to fix this part, too, but I just don't know where to start on tweaking the environment this time.  Thoughts?  Experience?  Advice? 

Thank you, if anyone has any suggestions   I know it may be a long shot.

[kaoskat]

Could be a temperature change or it could be a plant that blooms at night? I know my allergies are always worse at night too for some reason.

[cuddlebuggy]

I just figured out that since smoke is one of my daughters triggers, during winter when everyone has fires going at night she would always cough. I would assume that whatever it is, you already are using anti allergy meds so my suggestion would be to treat her like she has asthma and give her breathing treatments before bed. Are you using a nebuliser?

[ponies4me]

I am currently going to school to become a vet tech and I work as a vet assistant at an animal hospital right now. This sounds like a trigger more than anything. Something at night is triggering her symptoms. Have you tried a humidifier in the room she sleeps in? Have you changed your house air filters in the last year? Have you steam cleaned your carpets? Have you tried different diets? There are so many things that can trigger this. She may have an allergy to a dust in your house which is why it's important to change out your filters and clean your carpets. It can also be caused by the food she eats. Some dogs have severe reactions to chicken and certain types of kibble. Or the air might be too dry. These are only a few things I think might be causing this. Most veterinarians automatically think this to be a type of 'kennel cough' and stress you to vaccinate her with the bordatella vaccine. This is untrue if she does not hang out with other dogs.
The only other thing I can think of is she may have inhaled some food into her lungs, in which the only thing you can do is put her on oxygen, which can only be done at the vet. At that point, nature will take its course in bringing up the foreign material from the lungs.

I wish you the best of luck in finding out what is wrong! I would love an update on how she's doing! I hate seeing or hearing of animals in distress.

[Karma]

So, probably not that helpful, but like humans, dogs immune systems go into "rest mode" at night. That's why humans get higher fevers and in general just feel more icky.
I hope the other comments will help!

[enabler]

Our dog goes through fits of reverse sneezing/hacking and the only thing that has ever helped her is a small dose of steroid. Our vet (PetSmart/Banfield) in some states is reluctant to give us steroids for her so often but she has had xrays and everything else they could think to do to look for the cause of her doing it and finally just had to accept that every now and again she is just going to have to have a steroid and to stop giving us trouble when trying to get it.

Now, that being said, hers seemed to act up more at night also. Didn't matter if she was sleeping on her bed on the floor or on the bed with us. Well, last week we washed our comforter on our bed and it seems to have helped out with her not having issues so much at night. As you said you are pretty diligent about keeping the house clean, but that helped us out some. Otherwise, the steroids are the only thing that helps other than over the counter Claritin during the changing of the seasons.

[melodys_angel]

Sounds like you have a bit of advice <3

Sorry I cant really help you out.  I had heath issues with my little shih Tzu but his was skin related

[Chi]

I would think to wash the dogs bedding and keep the floor around where she sleeps (ESPECIALLY THOSE TWO THINGS!!!) and other surroundings clean and chemical-free.
My dog has severe allergies and the bedding/surroundings being dusty or covered in her hair make her cough and rub her face non-stop (she also wakes up with red eyes when the allergens are around). The vacuum, washing her bedding with dye-free laundry soap, and some hands-on cleaning keep her allergies at bay. She's 12 now and the allergies have always been a problem. Occasionally she will need Benadryl, but not much else.

I'd also consider changing foods to a limited ingredient diet if you haven't.

[Katika]

I am currently going to school to become a vet tech and I work as a vet assistant at an animal hospital right now. This sounds like a trigger more than anything. Something at night is triggering her symptoms. Have you tried a humidifier in the room she sleeps in? Have you changed your house air filters in the last year? Have you steam cleaned your carpets? Have you tried different diets? There are so many things that can trigger this. She may have an allergy to a dust in your house which is why it's important to change out your filters and clean your carpets. It can also be caused by the food she eats. Some dogs have severe reactions to chicken and certain types of kibble. Or the air might be too dry. These are only a few things I think might be causing this. Most veterinarians automatically think this to be a type of 'kennel cough' and stress you to vaccinate her with the bordatella vaccine. This is untrue if she does not hang out with other dogs.
The only other thing I can think of is she may have inhaled some food into her lungs, in which the only thing you can do is put her on oxygen, which can only be done at the vet. At that point, nature will take its course in bringing up the foreign material from the lungs.

I wish you the best of luck in finding out what is wrong! I would love an update on how she's doing! I hate seeing or hearing of animals in distress.

About two years ago, we almost lost her to a bizarre case of bloat (she baffles every vet that has ever seen her... there was no clear cause of her bloat, she never twisted though the vet didn't know how that happened with how she was distended, and she continued to refill with gas for about 8 hours and had to be drained of it manually four times.  Her health issues are WEIRD), and so she's on a super-strict diet based off fish and oatmeal because of that scare.  Most of our house (including the room that she sleeps in) has hard wood floors, though I may consider switching out her bed.  I never thought of an allergen living in the actual mattress part of the bed she prefers at night, so thanks for that thought!  I've been debating an air purifier, but we had one a couple of years ago that did no good except for just be really, really loud, and so we got rid of it and I'm not sure if getting a higher end model would be beneficial or not so have been reluctant to do so.  Our other house filters, and our vacuum filter are all changed regularly, but I also know that there's no way to get ALL allergens out of the air.  I've thought about humidifiers or dehumidifiers, but haven't been sure which one would actually be the "right" one.  You think a humidifier would be better?

As far as steroids go, I had her on them for about a year and they did help a ton, but with her other weird health issues, my vet sat down with me to weigh pros and cons of long-term steroid use and we opted to take her off of them and try to manage her environment.

[Chi]

A humidifier might help for sleep, actually. It'll keep her lungs nice and moisturised, which will also help to expel any mucus in there. Oddly enough, upgrading our vacuum helped our dog as well. It was on sale on Amazon, but I'd take it one step at a time.
 

[enabler]

Air purifiers and humidifiers helped when we were in our house in Indiana. We lived right across from some farm fields so it was always dusty, dry, and allergen filled.

Hey, its worth a shot anyways right?

Hope you get something that will help the both of you rest.

[joce]

Might have missed if this was mentioned but a lot of times problems just at night with lying down can be a sign of heart issues. It can be slightly enlarged and they may need somethig like a diuretic or somethig more serious. Common in dobes, not sure about mals?

Sounds just like my friends sheltie who would cough at night, be anxious etc. finally got diagnosis of enlarged heart and is now sleeping.

[Katika]

Might have missed if this was mentioned but a lot of times problems just at night with lying down can be a sign of heart issues. It can be slightly enlarged and they may need somethig like a diuretic or somethig more serious. Common in dobes, not sure about mals?

Sounds just like my friends sheltie who would cough at night, be anxious etc. finally got diagnosis of enlarged heart and is now sleeping.

I never even thought of that...  But an enlarged heart would likely show up in chest rads, wouldn't it?  Her last shots (abdominal, but her lungs were fully visible in it, so I'd assume her heart was too?  I didn't get to see the shots myself, just went off what my vet said) were done just a few weeks ago and nothing was mentioned then.  I do know that after her bloat, she had some heart irregularities that seem to have cleared themselves up since she's recovered.

[joce]

I'm not sure how bit it has to be to show up? Maybe one of the techs would know? Fluid can collect around it to but think fluid does show easy on X-ray?