[Jannie]

Sadie has been "coughing" for several weeks now. She makes these loud coughing sounds almost like whooping cough. We had her to the vet when she first started doing it and he could find nothing wrong with her - nothing in her throat, lungs are fine. But she is still doing it, mostly at night. I just wondered if anyone else's labradoodle did this. I suppose it could be allergies of some type? She seems perfectly healthy otherwise.

 

[Jannie]

She has been vaccinated against kennel cough and the vet checked her lungs and they were clear. They usually check for heartworm in their second summer. This is her first as she was born in October. But we did go to Florida in March so I suppose there is a chance she could have picked it up there as she was not on prevenatives. I'm going to make another appointment with the vet.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Jannie]

The vet wants to try her on Benadryl for a week and see if that helps. She had a full work up of blood work before her sterilization surgery and he said everything was fine. She is too young to have develped any heartworms. There is a lung worm that is very rare in this area so we will look at that if the antihistamine doesn't work.

 

[Jannie]

I am starting her on the heartworm preventative. Living in Ontario, we don't have a problem with mosquitos through the winter - they start coming out in May. So we use the preventative through the spring / summer / fall months, but not through the winter.

The vet really thinks it's allergies - we have a lot of tree pollen here. So we're trying the benadryl first and taking it from there. If she was feeling sick I'd be a lot more worried - she seems perfectly healthy except for the coughing/sneezing.

Thanks everybody for your advice. I will keep you posted.

 

[Jannie]

Here is an update on the coughing: We tried Sadie on a half a 25mg tablet of Benadryl 2x per day and it worked. The coughing has stopped completely. In fact , she is no longer taking the medication and she is fine. I guess it was allergies - probably to tree pollen which is really intense around here for a few weeks in the spring.