My dog coughs, gags, and struggles to breathe. What should I do?

These are alarming symptoms indeed. For an older dog with coughing and lethargy, my top suspicions would be: heart disease, heartworm disease (if he is not current on heartworm prevention) primary lung cancer, pneumonia or a heart based tumor. He is at risk for all of these based on his breed. I would highly recommend taking him in to your vet for bloodwork analysis and chest radiographs to properly diagnose him based on the many possible causes stated above. Poor guy. He sounds very unstable for now and the quicker you can get him in to a vet the better. I hope that this is something you can treat for, but the odds of it being something major are high in an older large breed dog. I send you all my best in getting Casper well again. Take care and best wishes.

Poor Maggie! There are quite a few things that could cause this type of cough in a 12-year-old dog. The most common possibilities would include chronic bronchitis, a respiratory infection, heart disease, and even cancer. An exam and chest x-rays would be needed to determine the cause, so I would recommend taking Maggie to the vet when you are able to. He/she can prescribe appropriate medication to treat the cough depending on the underlying problem.

In a dog her age and breed, my first though is a cardiac issue (like heart failure). Fluids start to back up into the lungs and cause coughing/gagging especially when laying down. I suggest you get her to your vet for an exam as soon as possible. I would be worried about these symptoms.

I am concerned that she is having such trouble breathing. This could be another pneumonia, an upper respiratory infection, a fungal infection, a congenital heart problem and much more. If your vet has already done X-rays and they were normal, you may want to talk to them about having an ultrasound of the heart done. Also, I would have her blood work checked to see how her liver and kidney values are and see what her white blood count looks like. Finally, I would talk to your vet about whether see needs some antibiotics and medicine to help her breathing. I hope this helps and she starts to feel better soon.

Hello and welcome to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Coughing and bringing up clear liquid could be coughing up stuff instead of vomiting. This is important to try to differentiate. Coughing up liquid is more consistent with heart disease. The x-rays are difficult to read as the image transfer through is of poor quality and to really assess the lungs you need good quality images, however the heart does look a bit enlarged and the lungs do look a bit 'white'. I cannot assess the liver on these radiographs as you cannot see them. An enlarged heart, white lungs (fluid in the lungs), and an enlarged liver is consistent with both right and left sided heart disease. I recommend you return either to your vet, or another vet, and get a specialist ultrasound of the heart (an 'echo') to determine if heart medications are required. Your vet can also listen to the heart to see if a murmur is present in the heart, or 'crackles' are heard on the lungs. Heart disease is very serious and needs medications to manage. Without these Lily unfortunately will essentially drown in her own lungs, if heart disease is the problem. I suggest a recheck as soon as possible to get this figured out. Best of luck with Lily, I hope she feels better soon.

I would discuss other treatment options with your vet. I understand that ultrasound can often be cost prohibitive, but your vet may be able to prescribe medications based on their best guess of the cause of the illness. Based on the labored breathing, weakness, and gagging, I would be worried about Donny's heart and lungs. I know heartworm disease is not terribly common, but it is still a possibility. Other possibilities include heart failure, pneumonia, hypertension, or cancer. You might discuss radiographs with your veterinarian to look inside Donny's chest. Increased potassium could indicate lab error, renal failure, gastrointestinal issues, or possibly Addison's Disease, or it could be normal. Elevated white blood cells can indicate bacterial or viral infection, inflammation, or cancer.

In a dog Miller's age, this cough and heavy breathing could be due to something serious like heart disease. Unfortunately, heart disease is common in old dogs, and while it cannot be cured, its symptoms can be managed with medication. I think it's really important that he sees a vet as soon as possible, so I would recommend taking him into see his vet this weekend. I hope this helps.