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coughing


D'Elle
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Jester has started coughing occasionally....usually at the beginning of a play session with frisbee or when starting out on our run. He just sort of "huffs" at first, then coughs, and this will go on for about a minute or two, and then it stops and there's no more until perhaps that night when he starts to play, or the next day. I thought it was just getting dust in his throat, but it has become an every day thing. This started a little over a week ago. Should I be concerned and take him to the vet, do you think?

thanks

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A week of exercise induced coughing would definitely concern me and have me on the phone to the vet. It could be anything from a virus to parasites to heart problems.

 

It would be helpful if you brought a toy to the vet and showed them. Ben had a cough that was apparently unrelated to anything in particular. I took him a couple times to the vet about it and she couldn't find anything - and of course he'd never cough at the vet. Finally during one of our [very frequent] visits for something else, he did it and she was instantly able to identify it from the sound - and it was something fairly benign and easy to treat.

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Dublin does that. At first, I chalked it up to him running a lot on a hot day. Then he did it the first time on sheep...in November. I took him to the vet and they checked his heart and lungs - everything was fine, perfect actually. He had recently had a heartworm test but after Miztiki's experience, I had them run the more thorough heartworm test. That also came back fine. Meanwhile he was scheduled for another run on sheep and the vet asked me to tape it so he could get a better idea of what I meant. Of course Dublin didn't cough then..sigh... My vet is stumped.

 

My herding trainer thought maybe having him drag the line was causing his throat to be irritated so the next time he kept the line off and there wasn't any coughing...but then he put the line on - and there still wasn't any coughing...until ~an hour later on the drive home....

 

It is really hard to find a pattern or a definite cause.

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Well, the vet put Jes on antibiotics and cough medicine on Friday, andsaid he should be all better by Monday. Since he was still coughing on Monday she changed his antibiotic to a different one. He seems a lot better today; only coughing slightly when he gets excited, but he can run chasing the frisbee for 20 minutes and not cough. Still, the vet wants to test for Valley Fever tomorrow. Please wish us luck.

Thanks

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When I got Quinn at 9 1/2 weeks, he had a cough, usually during the night and in the morning. Oh, yeah, the breeder forgot to tell me that he "must have picked up kennel cough at the vet's." Okay, I'll just panic on Labor Day about my new pup possibly having distemper or parvo or the new Dog Flu that everyone was talking about at the time. He wasn't acting sick and the cough didn't prove contagious with my dogs or anyone else's. Antibiotics did seem to help reduce the coughing in those early weeks.

 

He's now 6 months old, with great energy and attitude. He almost never coughs at night, usually just soon after rising, though every so often at other times during the day. We might even have a day here or there with no coughing that I notice. His lungs are always clear when the vet listens. The vet wants to do some x-rays, so I need to set that up. I think it may just be "one of those things" and have actually been much more concerned about trying to get rid of his giardia, which is not going away easily (the coccidia he also arrived with was treated in one dose of antibiotics).

 

But still, it would be nice to know what the heck it is.

 

Liz

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Good news. The vet doesn't think that there's much chance of Valley Fever after all because he responded so well to the second kind of antibiotics. He seems to be much better, just a slight lingering occasional cough. So I think we are in the clear. :rolleyes:

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