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Dog Coughing, Snorting: Grass stuck in throat?


mbc1963
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Last week I had to take Buddy to the vet because he had a long bout of bad diarrhea - to the tune of $277.

 

So yesterday, he finished his last metronidazole pill. Then I took him to the park. He loves to eat a certain grass on the side of the path. (Peculiar. The dogs love this one grass. They'll stand there and graze like cattle!) Anyway, I noticed Buddy coughing and acting like he was trying to throw up. He kept eating grass desperately, and coughing.

 

Now, today, he's occasionally coughing and again, acting like he's trying to vomit. Other than that, he seems fine - good appetite, energy, etc..

 

I just don't have endless money to spend on him. Has anyone got any potential solutions for a dog who seems to have something caught in the back of his throat?

 

Mary

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Last week I had to take Buddy to the vet because he had a long bout of bad diarrhea - to the tune of $277.

 

So yesterday, he finished his last metronidazole pill. Then I took him to the park. He loves to eat a certain grass on the side of the path. (Peculiar. The dogs love this one grass. They'll stand there and graze like cattle!) Anyway, I noticed Buddy coughing and acting like he was trying to throw up. He kept eating grass desperately, and coughing.

 

Now, today, he's occasionally coughing and again, acting like he's trying to vomit. Other than that, he seems fine - good appetite, energy, etc..

 

I just don't have endless money to spend on him. Has anyone got any potential solutions for a dog who seems to have something caught in the back of his throat?

 

Mary

Sounds like kennel cough to me. It certainly could be grass or a foreign body, but kennel cough is far more common.

 

Kennel cough presents as if the dog is trying to hack something up. Given that he was recently immune compromised and in a place where a lot of dogs were present, it should be ruled out.

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Thanks for the ideas, all!

 

I had thought of kennel cough, but this came on heavy and suddenly, right after he ate a lot of grass. I decided to wait till Monday to see how he was (since he seemed happy and well otherwise), and by Saturday night he had stopped with the coughing and snorting. Whatever it was seems to have fixed itself, mercifully.

 

Mary

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  • 1 month later...

A follow-up to this thread about the mystery coughing!

 

I was cleaning my living room the other day, and pulled Buddy's bed out of its alcove to sweep behind it. Shamefully, I don't do this very often - I usually leave the bed there and sweep the rest of the room. (Don't judge me!)

 

In sweeping behind the dog bed, I found an old, petrified ball of regurgitation (to be polite). It had dog fur surrounding a ful, unchewed ACORN CAP.

 

So, I'm guessing that at some point in August, Buddy downed the acorn cap, and it got lodged in his esophagus, and he coughed for a while, then later managed to get it back up. I'm wondering if he might have swallowed it down with a particularly delicious chunk of poop that he swalled whole? Eating non-edible food is NOT Buddy's style.

 

Yeesh. The things that could kill your dog, that you never even realize have happened.

 

Mary

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Yeesh. The things that could kill your dog, that you never even realize have happened.

 

I know what you mean. My old girl is sick with Kidney disease & IBD, among other issues, and a month or so ago she was kind of melancholy. This wasn't unusual, it has been a roller coaster ride of illness this year. She comes to work with me so I can doctor her throughout the day & she stays in a kennel with fluffy comforter folded up to lay on. Every Friday I clean out the kennel & that Friday when I pulled out the comforter there was a shriveled up, bile soaked, plush squeaky ball. They are slightly smaller than a tennis ball & come as "stuffing" inside other squeaky toys. My dogs just love pulling them out as if they are pulling the stuffing from the toy.

 

So apparently my dog, at age 12, had accidentally? intentionally? eaten the ball whole. That is/was not her style ever. I remembered her playing with it the weekend before. Thank goodness we didn't repeat xrays like we were planning. Surely it would have been mistaken for the GI tumor that we are suspicious she has. I'm not sure I would have taken her to surgery, given all her other issues!

 

BTW, How big was the acorn cap? Seems like it should have passed without issue in a average sized BC... How big is Buddy? Glad he is fine now :)

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Sounds like kennel cough to me. It certainly could be grass or a foreign body, but kennel cough is far more common.

 

Kennel cough presents as if the dog is trying to hack something up. Given that he was recently immune compromised and in a place where a lot of dogs were present, it should be ruled out.

 

 

Is Buddy passing white phlem? If so, probably kennel cough. Could have easily picked this up while grazing with the other dogs.

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Nah, Buddy's fine now - it's 2 months later. But for clarification, while the acorn cap was normal-sized (maybe like a quarter in diameter), it still had its little stem attached, so I suspect the whole lot made it somewhere down this throat and then lodged there.

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Nah, Buddy's fine now - it's 2 months later. But for clarification, while the acorn cap was normal-sized (maybe like a quarter in diameter), it still had its little stem attached, so I suspect the whole lot made it somewhere down this throat and then lodged there.

 

Yeah, or caused what we used to call "potato chip syndrome" at the ER. It scratched as it went down (or came up) & caused irritation/inflammation that led to the cough/gag.

 

As an aside, if you are unsure if you have a cough or a gag/retch. You can press on the trachea (feels like a hard "tube" going down the center of the neck). You don't need to push hard- no harder than you'd push on yourself. If it is a cough- like with ITB (Kennel Cough)- you should get paroxysmal coughing. If it is a gag/retch you won't get any cough.

 

 

HTH!

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  • 8 years later...

i know this is a very old post and i see it's a bordercollie group and mine is a teeny Morkie   but I am only adding this because i cannot find  anything else anywhere on the web about gagging

. This topic  is the closest thing I found  right here on your site.  My dog was not choking, she was not vomiting, she was not sick--she was GAGGING repeatedly

 I had to dig deep into my memory banks to find this memory of my dad and something our dog Lady was gagging on (not choking--she could breath but was gaggy and raspy) 40 years ago. 

My TINY 5 pound dog was out of my sight for moments tonight and when i got my eyes on her, she was literally a foot behind me, she was uncommonly quiet and still, then started making a sound almost like a collapsing trachea, but not quite. the sound--almost like an inhale and into a cough went on and off when she was awake, not while she was asleep. This was midnight when it happened.. I could not sleep of course (no emergency vet within an hours drive)She woke up every hour like this--gums, fine, pupils fine, no lethargy, no pawing at her mouth, she even ate one her favorite small  treats.

 When she was awake but calm, i gently put my finger down her throat  for maybe a second, and thought i felt something thin, like a blade of grass or a leaf.

I then did the same to my other small dog to compare--I did not feel the same thing. 

What could i give her to make her swallow and swallow MANY times but NOT stick in her throat and make matters worse?  nothing sharp like a treat or thick like cheese or peanut butter--and then it hit me IT WAS  BUTTER.  I got a table spoon of butter and let my three dogs lick this chunk of butter (so no one would feel left out).  He wanted every last essence of that BUTTER.  It worked!  It worked. He drank water, he peed, he went to bed his happy alert self.

If this helps just ONE dog, just one.  Thanks for giving me the space to do this.  almost 6 am now--this tired mama needs some Easter Sunday rest!

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  • 1 month later...

My dog Chico was eating grass yesterday, after eating he acted like he was going to throw up but it did not come out.   He has been snorting acting like it's hard to breath at times.    He will not eat anything.   I would take him To the vet but I am on disability and only have $2. In my account.   Please help me he is my life. HELP

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  • 2 months later...
On 5/27/2019 at 6:11 PM, Vicki G said:

My dog Chico was eating grass yesterday, after eating he acted like he was going to throw up but it did not come out.   He has been snorting acting like it's hard to breath at times.    He will not eat anything.   I would take him To the vet but I am on disability and only have $2. In my account.   Please help me he is my life. HELP

The previous post from sailors gave her dog a knob of butter. Which she state helped take the grass down that was stuck. I think I will try this myself..

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