Coughing, gagging dog - vet can't diagnose

[mayoguinness]

Hi,

I have a 12 year old Border Collie. He's always had a lot of excersise, been very fit, strong heart beat etc. Over the past year or so we've noticed a slight intermittent cough, sometimes worse than at other times and as though he's trying to cough something up but nothing is produced.

Yesterday he had very bad case of it and we also noticed he had very noisy breathing and seemed lethargic. We took him to the emergancy vet who checked his heart (one vet thought it sounded abnormal but the second thought it was fine) took his temp, weight etc. which were all normaly. When she pressed under his throat he started this choking cough and produced some clear phlegm. They then did an tracheal endoscopy and took a chest X-ray and found nothing. They didn't know what it was but have put him on antibiotics, anti-inflamatries and a dewormer. Whilst he was there they said there was no coughing or laboured breathing.

Since he's been home the coughing's started again and the noisy breathing, both intermittently. He's eating and drinking fine. About 6 months ago I thought perhaps his water consumption had increased quite a bit but not so much now. On the internet there is a huge ammount of diseases that seem to match his symptoms but require all sorts of tests. I'm unsure what to do, he's very unwell but our vet said there's really nothing more they can do, they could take a cell culture but they think it's not likely to show much.

Any new ideas would be much appreciated.

Thank you,

Aisling.

 

[Apache]

Hello

It looks like your vets have done a very thorough job of working up the case here! The x-rays would have shown an enlarged heart or significant lung disease. If the dog had something going on with his trachea [wind pipe] then the endoscopy should have shown that up.

So long as the dog can breath ok and is still getting around and going for little walks [or what your vet recommended] my advice would be to let the antibiotics and anti-inflammatories do their job and go back if the dog is either getting worse or if no better when you have finished treatment.

Much as we would like to, everything doesn't get instantly better!