Among these study dogs, aspiration pneumonia was associated with a high survival rate. The presence of more than 1 underlying disease associated with aspiration pneumonia did not adversely impact survival rate. Interestingly, radiographic severity of disease and duration of hospitalization were not associated with overall survival rate.

In dogs, aspiration pneumonia was often associated with abnormalities in pulmonary auscultation in the absence of objective changes in physical examination findings. However, neutrophilia, hypoalbuminemia, and hypoxemia were frequently detected, and radiographic evidence of infiltrates in the right middle lung lobe was common.