Dog Health Questions: Nightly Cough, Could This Be a Heart Problem?
Last Friday I brought home an older Dalmatian 11 to 15 years old. He was being left out side in the cold and I couldn’t stand it. I started him on raw, he took to it like a pro. and is having no problems with that.
But he wakes up coughing and then hacks up what looks like flem. Sticky white watery foam. This happens after a nights sleep, no other discharge, eye & nose are fine, no breathing problems. I don’t need another dog but I could not stand the thought of this nice boy spending another cold night outside alone being fed the cheapest crap in a bag money could buy.
This nightly coughing thing is a concern.
Any idea’s?
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Have him checked for heart worm and lung worm by a vet!
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Well, first of all thank you so much for your kind heart to save him and give him a life he deserves for his older years. We lost our male boxer to heart disease, coughing is one of the signs of heart problems but you have to see if he has other symptoms as well, how is his energy level?
Could it be kennel cough by any chance?
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Our dog has a heart murmur caused by a “leaky” heart valve and coughing is one of his symptoms. He often coughs a bit when he wakes up or even gets up from lying, and occasionally there is a white foam on his mouth.
He doesn’t cough for a long time and sometimes it’s like he has something caught in his throat, but it’s not a strong cough. It’s different kind of cough from kennel cough (from what I remember, our other dog had that several years ago).
The kennel cough also resulted in an unpleasant deposits everywhere and the coughing was regular, every few hours and fairly intense. You probably know that kennel cough is very contagious and if you even suspect it, should keep your dog away from other dogs.
It was expensive for us to determine the cause of our dog’s heart murmur, and he’s healthy so there is no treatment. We’re just aware of the symptoms of more serious heart issues, should he develop problems in the future. I’m not sure we’re in any better situation that we were when our vet first heard the murmur.
This isn’t to suggest I think your dog has a heart problem. I have no idea what all of the causes of coughing and foaming might be. Good luck to you and the Dalmatian. If you don’t keep him, I hope he finds
a nice home. It’s wonderful that you took him in and are feeding him good food.
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I had a German shepherd that had a lot of coughing going on for quite
a while and our vet kept giving him steroids which did help but we ended up finding out that he a pulmonary embolism in his lung.
This is something that the vet couldn’t make out on the x-ray. After he passed away his x-ray had to be sent out to an specialist to look at to tell us how he actually died. They wanted to do an autopsy but
I just couldn’t bring myself to do that. I suppose it would have helped
in diagnosing how he died but I was in such shock that he passed I just couldn’t do it. But I would have the lungs checked out just to be on the safe side. Good luck to you.
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Our older dog has a heart murmur due to a leaky valve. She had just started coughing, and it was really sad because it would keep her (and me) up at night. I did some research into homeopathic treatments and have had great results with Hawthorn supplements. I give her a pill in her evening meal, and she hasn’t coughed since (6 months now!) Garlic is also good for the heart, but make sure it’s taken with plenty of food or it will create stomach upset! Hope this helps!