Why Coughing Occurs in Dogs
While there are a countless reasons on why your dog is coughing, whether it is ranging from mild to life-threatening reasons. While usually, serious conditions will also surface other symptoms.
Here is a list of conditions which includes
Allergies
Your dog may have allergies to certain dog food, insect bites, certain chemicals in shampoos to name a few.
Usually, this is not life-threating unless you notice facial swelling or breathing difficulty.
Foreign Object
This is actually one of the more serious conditions. When your dog have a foreign object lodged in their throat or airways, this could be quite a dangerous situation. Symptoms can range from gagging or hacking with a high pitch cough. It is highly recommended to visit your vet to have it removed as soon as possible if the dog cannot remove it themselves.
Infection
There are many viruses and bacteria’s that causes a canine cough. Some of the include Upper or Lower respiratory inflect URL or LRI for short, canine influenza, bronchitis or fungal infections such as blastomycosis and aspergillosis.
- Upper respiratory infection tends to affect the throat, nose and eyes and usually combined with fever, cough and a runny nose. Similar to a Human Flue
- Lower respiratory infection on the other hands affects more internally, such as the lower airway and lungs, however it also shows symptoms of a a fever, deep cough, while also showing signs of labored breathing
- Canine Influenza, this is a virus that causes the dog to cough with phlegm, at times your dog may show signs of a fever, malaise, and sleepiness
- Bronchitis (acute or chronic) tends to cause severe coughing and gagging, at times also vomit.
- Aspergillosis is a fungus infection that is airborne. This infection shows symptoms of coughing, sneezing, runny nose, and nosebleeds
- Blastomycosis is a fungal infection that also includes fever, appetite and weight loss, eye inflammation and discharge, and skin lesions
Kennel Cough
In most cases of Kennel cough, it will resolve without any treatment similar to the common flu in humans. However, medications which includes antibiotics may speed up the recovery or minimize the pain and symptoms.
Parasites
It is very important to have your dog up to date on vaccination, this will ward off majority of the parasites such as heartworm, roundworms, hookworks, lungworms. Parasites causes coughing with or without phlegm.
Tracheal Collapse
Tracheal collapse is a condition believed to be caused by incomplete formation or weakening of the cartilaginous rings thus resulting in flattening of the trachea. This will cause your typical loud and hacking cough.
Tumor
When you notice your dog with a lump or a bump, any kind of swelling, enlarged lymph nodes, abnormal bleeding or a wound that doesn’t seem to be healing. These are all urgent signs to go visit a vet. One of the reasons is due to possibility being a tumor. A tumor can cause coughing while it also includes other symptoms such as weight loss and weakness.
Cardiac Problem
One of the more dire possibilties are heart disease. Dogs who have coughs that don’t get better within a few days & sticks for weeks could indicate some underlying problem with their heart. Thus saying, it is very much advised by Fayie that all persistent coughing that lasts more than a few days should be checked by your local vet ASAP.
You can read further on Cardiac issues in Dogs
If you see any of the symptoms mentioned above.
It is 100% always recommended to call or visit your local veterinarian and get advice on how to proceed.
it’s never safe to risk an issue until it’s unrepairable.
Early diagnose always has higher chance of recovery.
