My senior Shih Tzu coughs only in the morning. What could it be?

This could be an upper respiratory infection such as kennel cough , but could also be a sign of heart disease, especially if Chico is an older dog. Another very likely possibility is that Chico has a collapsed trachea. You will need to take Chico to your vet for an exam and x-rays (which will rule out collapsed trachea and lung edema caused by congestive heart failure). Your vet;s exam will also detect any problems with the heart, that may be causing the cough. Please cschedule an appointment with your vet soon.

Poor coco. A cough in a younger dog could be from heartworm disease, parasites, bronchitis, asthma, allergies, bacterial, viral and trachea related. I would recommend taking coco to a veterinarian since the cough has been presistent. Your veterinarian might want to do a heartworm test , x-rays or medications to help. Unfortunately the price will depend on your location and services that are completed.

It sounds like Ace might need medication at this point, but it can be really difficult sometimes to determine whether a cough is related to heart disease or respiratory problems like collapsing trachea or chronic bronchitis which can also be very common in senior small dogs. I would contact your vet and let them know that Ace is now coughing so much that he can't rest. They might recommend an echocardiogram to completely rule out heart disease and heart failure as a cause, or they might recommend trying some other medications for cough. If Ace has not had chest x-rays recently they would probably recommend x-rays as well.

I'm sorry to hear that Shasta is coughing! There are many things that can cause chronic coughing like this in dogs, so it's hard to say what might be wrong without being able to examine her and do some testing. With coughing that mostly happens when the dog is resting (or shortly thereafter), the first thing that I think about his heart disease - this is a common pattern to see with congestive heart failure, so I would definitely recommend taking Shasta to the vet for an exam and chest x-rays. If her heart checks out okay, then other possible causes would include chronic bronchitis, allergies, collapsing trachea, or a long-standing infection of some kind. Your veterinarian can advise you on what kind of treatment is needed based on the results of her exam and diagnostic testing.

A cough associated with drinking can be a sign of dysfunction of the nerves that affect the larynx and the vocal cords. There are many other potential causes of a cough ranging from bronchitis to heart disease. I would recommend making an appointment with your veterinarian for a physical exam. X-rays might be recommended as a first step.

I'm sorry to hear that Axel is coughing. The most common reason we see a dog cough with barking or excitment is due to irritation in his throat. This is most commonly caused tracheobronchitis. Unfortunately, there are other things that can also cause this and the severity of tracheobronchitis can vary quite a bit. I always recommend having a dog with a cough examined to make sure there isn't any need for antibiotics. Often, we can give them a cough suppressant to help them get over it, but we want to make sure there isn't anything else going on. Here is more information on tracheobronchitis. https://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=600 I hope that was helpful! Thanks for using PetCoach.

I recommend bringing him to a veterinarian and having them listen to his chest. This may be respiratory or heart related but having a veterinarian auscultate them is the first step. It may require x-rays to determine what it going on also. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.