My dog is vomiting, eating grass, and coughing foam. What's wrong?

Hi there and thank you for using pet coach to address your concern. Coughing can be a symptom caused by many different things. Heart failure, respiratory infections, collapsing trachea, allergies, etc. Can cause coughing. It best to have a veterinarian examine Aurora to rule out different causes. I would consider having chest x-rays done to assess the chest for disease. I hope this helps! Please feel free to contact me with any further questions or concerns that you may have.

If the age you put in, 20, is really correct I would say that you should have her evaluated for cardiorespiratory disease. Mitral valve disease in small dogs is extremely common particularly at an older age. Coughing is often the first sign of heart disease that we see. Another structural issue that occurs in smaller breed dogs is called a collapsing trachea. A chest x-ray should be considered strongly regardless of the veterinarian's physical exam findings. The consumption of grass is often associated with GI upset or nutritional deficiencies. Depending on what the condition is, medications that might be considered are bronchodilators, antibiotics, steroids, and diuretics. More information will be required however before commencing any therapy. Hope this helps.

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 Lucy, if her breath has very suddenly gotten worse then it would suggest to me she has either developed a bad mouth infection or is dehydrated. Considering she also has mucus in her faeces and s eating grass it sounds like she may have a gastrointestinal upset which makes me think dehydration is likely. There are always many possibilities for a gastrointestinal issues, cancer is a possibility but it is far down the lost when compared to more common issues such as indiscretion or infection. It does sound like she is pretty poorly though, to be honest with you aside from encouraging her to eat and drink you can do little for her at home. If she is unwell as an owner you have a duty of care to get her medical attention so I would encourage you to try and find a way to get her to a vet asap. Many simply treated ailments can become much more serious if left too long.

It sounds as Lucy is suffering from a gastrointestinal condition, possibly an infection. it could also be due to ingestion of a foreign body material. i would recommend taking her to the vet the first chance you get, she will need to be checked first, if the vet thinks it's a simple gastrointestinal infection she will need an anti vomiting injection, antibiotics and a special food for a few days in order to get better. if the vet thinks it is more serious she will need a blood test and possibly an ultrasound in order to find out what is wrong.

Considering your description I would consider the cough as the primary sign, whereas the vomiting episodes could be secondary to intense inflammation of the trachea and potentially bronchi. This kind of cough could be due to infective causes (like kennel cough syndrome), which is usually self limiting and does not require treatment (maybe that is the case of Buddy, the older one) unless systemic signs are present. Having said that, considering that there are systemic signs of lethargy I would recommend a check up as antibiotics may be needed.

Cough can be caused by an infection, heart problem or lung condition, it is important to first know the cause before treating it as treatment is different from condition to another. The most common disease causing cough is a viral infection called Kennel cough, this disease usually resolves without treatment within a couple weeks but if the cough is too severe it is recommended to go to the vet in order to get cough medicine and antibiotics.