Rescued Dog Coughing

[Alex]

Well, we just recently rescued a pitbull and are looking for a good home for him. However, he has been coughing a lot and we are worried that there is more to his cough than a cold. Some lady told my mom that dogs coughing (repeatedly) is a sign of possibly severe sickness.

Can anyone provide some input here? What should we do?

[dannysta2dgirl]

When we adopted Slevin, he had a constant cough as well. It turned out to be kennel cough, which is common among shelter animals and those at doggie daycare. He needed some medicine for a while, but it was an easy fix; and he has been fine ever since. I do take my pets to the vet often, but as long as they are monitored any issue that shows up can be treated just like with humans; and as long as it is not something serious the treatment should work just fine. What color is the little guy? How big? I love pitbulls, they're so loving!
-Lindsay

[GNeedham]

I agree,
Take to him to the vet. You wouldnt want anything spreading to your other dogs and then you have multiple vet bills instead of one.

[Alex]

Most definitly. A rescue group took him in and is having him checked out. I wish the best for the dog and hope he can find a forever home.

[chulachita]

I have two re cent rescues that have coughs. A common suspect is heart worms, turns out oneof these two does have heartworms. The other ones cough we are just watching. Doesn't seem to be spreading to the other dog and it's been6 plus
weeks. We also did a chest X ray for Congestive Heart Failure and her heart didn't appear to be out of normal range size wise. Both are older dogs so we really haven't made a plan of what to do yet. Submit the one to the treatment or treat her with prevetatives and wait the two years for the adult worms to die. The one who isn't heartworm positive has a history from the people who gave her up of a long standing cough. My uneducated guess is a fungus infection because she has spent quite a bit of time outside, but that's just my guess. She also isn't a really strong dog and being 13 y/o are also things that might allow a fungus to get started.

[robinhoods123]

Well, You will want to monitor your dogs condition looking for colored discharge from the nose or eyes, a productive cough, stops eating or lethargy. These are signs of a possible bacterial infection as well but the antibiotics should help clear this up or prevent it. If your dog appears to be having a difficult time breathing, you will need to see your Vet again.

[teprngr]

Well, I am pretty sure that you have already figured it out already. It is quite obvious that you should get to know whether he is doing alright or he needs help. What you can do here is that, you should search for more information regarding the symptoms that the dog is showing. After gathering more information, go to a local vet, bring the dog for a checkup, that would be the best choice to make.