Hound laryngitis: When all the baying stops
Voice problems in hounds and the lore surrounding their treatments
By Ben J. Character, DVMThe baying of the hounds is music to a 'coon hunter's ears. But what happens when your best Treein' Walker loses his voice?
That was the question asked of me recently and I'd like to share my answer.
The question presented to me was concerning a folklore treatment for a laryngitic hound. It said, "my dad has coon hounds and he wanted to know if anyone had ever heard of giving a dog LA-200 orally as a remedy for a dog losing, at least partially, his voice."
He went on to say that the problem, "usually happens in the spring when the dust and pollen are bad so he thought it might be an upper respiratory infection that caused the dog's voice to get weak."
To answer this question lets first get a few things straight.
Number one: Never use a drug in a way that it is not prescribed. Injectable drugs should not be used orally, and oral drugs should certainly not be injected.
Number Two: So that everyone is on the same page, LA200 is a common injectable antibiotic used in cattle for respiratory diseases.
That said, the idea of using a drug like LA200 for the loss of voice was not too far off. In fact, the class of drugs that LA200 falls into, called tetracycline, is usually very effective against upper respiratory tract (URT) infections such as the kind that might cause a decrease in vocalizations.
So the idea presented is not necessarily a bad idea, it is just being applied in the wrong way. Loss of voice in dogs is nearly always due to some form of pathology to the laryngeal area, the voice box.
| About Ben Character | |
|
Dr. Character is a freelance writer and private veterinary practitioner
concentrating on sporting dog issues. He has practiced large and small animal medicine and surgery since graduating from Auburn University. Recently, he went on to complete post-doctoral studies at Mississippi State University. Dr. Character is a certified PennHIP member and writes for magazines such as Retriever Journal and Pointing Dog Journal. He is an avid outdoorsman who resides in Union, Alabama, south of Tuscaloosa, with his wife and two children. |
The most common infectious organisms to cause problems here are the kennel cough complex of viruses and bacteria. But since antibiotics (even oral ones) work by getting into the bloodstream and being taken to the infected area, I doubt that splashing some LA200 on the area would have much effect on an infection of the of the pharyngeal (tissues of the back of the mouth) or especially the laryngeal tissues — since they are located at the top of the windpipe area and would not come in contact with liquids swallowed orally.
But using a tetracycline antibiotic for an URT infection would be a good idea. For kennel cough infections, my drug of choice is Doxycycline because it doesn't have to be given as often at tetracycline (requires 3x per day treatment), and it has a larger number of bugs that it can kill.
As far as why this dog has problems in the spring, there are two reasons that I can think of. I know where I grew up we didn't do much coon hunting in the winter months, so if the dogs had not been hunted for a while their voices would sometimes need longer time to recover than when they were used to barking all night long. If this scenario held true, then it might also mean that the dog was now around lots of other new dogs again, which would give him ample opportunity to acquire a kennel cough infection.
The point to remember is that drugs should always be used according to their directions unless a medical professional has given alternative instructions. As far as voice problems in hounds go, they are seen occasionally and are likely due to a problem in the URT, primarily involving the larynx. The possibilities include: infections, trauma (collars to tight, pulling on leashes or check lines, swallowing [aspirating] foreign objects such as grass seeds or other plants while hunting, etc), or even tumors. To know for sure it's best to have them examined by your veterinarian.
