My dog has COPD

And we don't know why. Now keep in mind that this poor hound started out her life in a frat house at the University of Washington, so there's no telling just how much dope this dog was forced to smoke as a puppy. And her second owners we don't know much about, but we have an inkling that the husband was abusive.

But with all that said, we've kept her healthy. She used to run with me until we noticed she couldn't keep up any more. The vet kept saying she was healthy, but that her joints just couldn't hold up. OK, well, walks are good as well. And then we moved, and things seemed to improve. But a while ago the Mrs. gave her a vaccination for Kennel Cough, and that's when everything went downhill. It started off as light coughing, and just kept getting worse, until last week the poor dog was hacking for ten minutes straight, and I watched a friggin' BUBBLE two inches across come flying out of her mouth and float away.

Vet time.

So since we've moved, we're at a new vet, and this vet is pretty good. She's checking the dog out, starts crossing out all the things it couldn't be (blood test says no kennel cough, no heartworm, etc). Finally after poking and prodding and much listening to the lungs, she says it's COPD. The second case she's ever seen in a dog.

So my dog is now on antibiotics and Prednisone.

You want to know what really scares me? If Obamacare passes, my dog will have better health care than we humans will.