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Treatment

The definitive treatment is to treat the primary cause, discontinue inhalation anesthesia, or provide adequate ventilation during anesthesia. Your veterinarian will begin by providing adequate ventilation into the air cells of the lungs. If your dog is anesthetized, your doctor will accomplish ventilation manually or mechanically with an anesthesia ventilator.

Non-anesthetized dogs with severe pulmonary or central nervous system disease can be treated by mechanical ventilation with a critical care ventilator, but the dog may require heavy sedation for this treatment. Supplemental oxygen will be determined by the primary disease, since providing supplemental oxygen without providing ventilation generally will not correct hypercapnia.

Living and Management

Your doctor will assess the effectiveness of supportive (ventilation) and definitive treatment. This should result in a decrease in the respiratory effort. Arterial blood gas will be evaluated to determine improvement, and to assess the adequacy of your dog's ability to take in adequate amounts of free oxygen as needed.