Why is my old dog coughing and breathing heavy when excited or sleeping?

I'm sorry to hear of your concerns with Grizzly. Labored breathing and coughing with exercise or excitement can be indicative of an underlying heart condition. Other possible causes for these symptoms include collapsing trachea and asthma. I would recommend that you have Grizzly examined by a veterinarian. They will perform a physical examination and may recommend chest x-rays to better determine the underlying cause for Grizzly symptoms.

Hi. It sounds like he is having respiratory signs. This could be from many things such as....upper respiratory infection, cardiac disease, primary respiratory disease, cancers, or other infectious causes. With his age, he needs a full exam, labs, and chest x-rays. If he is in respiratory distress, you will want to go to the ER.

Poor girl. Heavy breathing that just starts in an older dog is highly suspicious of things like heart disease, a primary lung disease or even cancer. The next best step here would be to get Lady to your local vet for an x-ray of her chest. This is a great diagnostic tool to help up definitively say what is causing her breathing issues so that we know how to proceed with Lady and get her breathing as normal as possible again. I hope that you are able to get Lady checked out soon! Best of luck and take care.

I would be extremely concerned about her having a cardiac issue. Please take her to your vet so they can check to see if she has a heart murmur as that can lead to heart failure. Coughing is one of the first symptoms. She is the right age and breed for this to be happening. The other likely cause would be a collapsing trachea. So again, please take her to your vet for an exam. Best wishes.

I am sorry to hear about your dog. This lesion could be an insect bite, an area of bacterial or fungal infection, or growth. Without seeing it in person it is difficult to distinguish between these. The coughing is much more concerning and I would recommend having her examined as soon as possible if she is having ongoing coughing and difficulty breathing. Some conditions, such as heart disease, can cause coughing that is worse at night when the pet is laying down, so I would want to examine her, listen to her heart and lungs, and take an x-ray of her chest to determine just why she is coughing. Heart disease is not common in a 9 month old dog, but we would also want to check for things like congenital diaphragmatic hernias which could cause problems when she is laying down, or infections of the respiratory tract.

I am afraid that is not normal. Considering that Snoopy is almost 16 years old my first thought here is that he needs his heart examined by your veterinarian. There is a condition almost every old dog gets, some worse than others, called endocardiosis. THis is a condition where the lips of the heart valves develop little nodules which then keeps the valves from closing properly and then the oxygenated blood is not effectively pumped into the rest of the body. This makes for a weak heart action and causes pulmonary edema, ie fluid in the lungs. The fluid in the lungs make breathing a chore (therefore a high respiration rate), and causes a moist cough when the dog is resting. Your dog also will not have as much energy as usual and slows down significantly. This can be significantly improved by giving diuretics and a heart medication that improved the output of the heart. Of course it is also possible that he has kennel cough or another respiratory condition. So I suggest you make an appointment with your veterinarian for an exam soon.

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.