Why is my dog coughing persistently and clearing her throat?

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.

Poor Tess! This sounds like quite a severe cough, so I would recommend taking her to the vet for an exam to find out what is causing it. Some common possibilities in an older dog like this would include heart disease, chronic bronchitis, a collapsing trachea, or a respiratory infection of some kind. Your veterinarian can listen to her heart and lungs, and may recommend chest x-rays or other testing if needed to help diagnose the problem and see what kind of treatment is needed.

I certainly agree with your veterinarian that the symptoms you are mentioning do sound consistent with heart failure. If your veterinarian has not yet taken an x-ray of her chest, that would be the next thing I would recommend doing. It will confirm if there is fluid in her lungs. There are a number of medications that can be used for heart failure. A diuretic is only one of them and diuretic doses do have to be adjusted to each patient. I am attaching a handout below with more information on heart failure and medications for you. https://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=1968 Another option would be to have a consultation with a cardiologist who can do an ultrasound of Roxie's heart (an echocardiogram) and will be able to help decide on the best medications for her based on that information. You can find a cardiologist near you here. http://find.vetspecialists.com Good luck! I hope that was helfpul. Thanks for using PetCoach.

I'm so sorry that Jenny isn't feeling well. You are correct, it sounds like she is showing signs of congestive heart failure. Unfortunately there are no over the counter medications you can give her for this. She really needs to see a vet. She needs diuretics, ace inhibitors and a drug to help her heart contract better (pimobendan). With these medications on board many dogs can live for quite some time and have a good quality of life. Without the medications I am afraid she won't well. I found this website that may help you in finding some low cost vet care in your area: https://www.rspca.org.uk/whatwedo/care/vetcare I hope this helps. Best wishes to you and Jenny.

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.

I would always be concerned about the development of a cough in an older dog. Firstly it could be due to an infection, chest infections can be serious. It could be an inflammatory conditiion such as bronchitis or asthma. Of course it could be a heart issue like you say and there is the possibility of masses also. The best plan would be to go to the vet for sn examination, an xray may be needed to get a diagnosis.

Poor Cherry! I'm sorry to hear that she's having this problem. There are many things that could cause coughing and difficulty breathing along with congestion in the lungs - some common possibilities would include heart disease, pneumonia, or even cancer. It would help to have more information about what your vet found during her physical exam (such as whether she has a heart murmur or not), as well as some additional diagnostic tests such as blood work, an echocardiogram, etc. to help diagnose the problem. Treatment and prognosis will depend on what the underlying problem is, so without this information, it isn't really possible to tell you whether she will be okay or not, or what you can do to help her. I would recommend calling your veterinarian to ask for some additional clarification on what they believe is wrong with her. If they aren't sure, or if they don't have any additional suggestions for how to proceed from here, you can get a second opinion from another local vet or request referral to an internal medicine specialist for further work-up.