Zoie's Hacking

[crazedACD]

Zoie has been having a bit of an issue for a while now, maybe the better part of a year. She has been coughing/hacking intermittently a few times at night. I work during the day so maybe I'm not around to notice it then but definitely when she's laying down in the evening. I don't really notice it when she's up and running around. IMO it is not a chesty cough, but more of a gagging/hacking from the throat.

Sometime in December it was really bothering me and seemed to be every night, waking me up. I was worried about like...lung and heart issues especially so I went and saw a new vet. She palpated the throat and was able to elicit the cough from the throat, so she thought it was some sort of persistent kennel cough. She recommended a course of antibiotics and wait and see, or we could do radiographs. I told her to go ahead and do the rads. I was surprised to see that they didn't xray the throat? She xrayed the main body, lungs and heart and whatnot. Anyways, everything looked normal, the vet rec'd the antibiotics and said if it didn't clear up, to come back and we would do dewormer in case it was something like lungworm.

It seems to have gotten better, not as frequent, but hasn't cleared up. I wormed her myself with Panacur, though I'm not convinced lungworm is the answer as she is on heartworm prevention. Just now I'm sitting here and she started hacking again, and she sat up, and she was panting like she was in pain. I don't know what else to do, I don't know if this is just something like allergies/dry winter air? I also need to mention (and the vet didn't think it is related) that she is a REALLY slow eater.

Any ideas?

[Dizzy]

None, sorry other than are you sure its hacking and not backwards sneezing?

[Barb04]

Why don't you get a second opinion. My friend's dog was doing that for a long time. The vet tried all kinds of antibiotics. Finally, she took the dog to another vet to find out it has larynz problem and also an enlarged heart. This is something the first vet never discovered.

In my opinion, I would get another diagosis to make sure.

[SarahHound]

Todd's been having this a while too. My vet never noticed anything wrong, but maybe I too will check out getting another opinion. I didn't realise it could be connected to the heart. Thanks Barb.

[*blackrose]

Originally Posted by crazedACD

Zoie has been having a bit of an issue for a while now, maybe the better part of a year. She has been coughing/hacking intermittently a few times at night. I work during the day so maybe I'm not around to notice it then but definitely when she's laying down in the evening. I don't really notice it when she's up and running around. IMO it is not a chesty cough, but more of a gagging/hacking from the throat.

Sometime in December it was really bothering me and seemed to be every night, waking me up. I was worried about like...lung and heart issues especially so I went and saw a new vet. She palpated the throat and was able to elicit the cough from the throat, so she thought it was some sort of persistent kennel cough. She recommended a course of antibiotics and wait and see, or we could do radiographs. I told her to go ahead and do the rads. I was surprised to see that they didn't xray the throat? She xrayed the main body, lungs and heart and whatnot. Anyways, everything looked normal, the vet rec'd the antibiotics and said if it didn't clear up, to come back and we would do dewormer in case it was something like lungworm.

It seems to have gotten better, not as frequent, but hasn't cleared up. I wormed her myself with Panacur, though I'm not convinced lungworm is the answer as she is on heartworm prevention. Just now I'm sitting here and she started hacking again, and she sat up, and she was panting like she was in pain. I don't know what else to do, I don't know if this is just something like allergies/dry winter air? I also need to mention (and the vet didn't think it is related) that she is a REALLY slow eater.

Any ideas?

Does Panacur take care of lungworm? We had a dog come in that was diagnosed with lungworm and we did three rounds of ivermectin injections.

The fact that her heart wasn't enlarged/nothing was seen in the lungs is a good thing. If you have the money, it may not hurt to get a repeat set of radiographs to see if anything has changed since you had them taken the last time - and maybe see if they think taking a view of the throat would be beneficial and if not, why, and what would they recommend instead?

I think a second opinion would be good, or at the very least taking her back to the vet who did the rads and saying, "Hey, look, she's not better, we need to delve deeper, and if you are stumped, get another vet in here for a second opinion."

[crazedACD]

Thanks everyone!

Yes, Panacur is used for lungworm. I've read though it can be persistent. I might try and be really conscious this week about how often she is coughing, maybe write down when she does?