We are currently having a bumper crop of pollen. Sky has always had a strong choke reflex. When we go out for our evening walks, I put a martingale collar on her which is attached to the front ring of her harness with a caribiner. The idea being that if she decides to back out of her harness, the martingale will keep her "attached" to me but at the same time not have any tightening effect unless she backs out of the harness.. The past several nights, she has been coughing and hacking up white phlegm. As an experiment, last night I left the martingale collar off of her. She sneezed a time or two especially after sniffing and rooting her nose around in the fallen leaves and dirt in the woods, but she didn't have any coughing fits. I was going to put the martingale back into the equation tonight, but we are having thunderstorms, so that experiment will have to wait another day.
In addition to the bumper crop of pollen, it has been summertime hot with temperatures in the upper 80s and lower 90s F. It has also been rather humid at times and she does a fair amount of heavy panting and tongue hanging out, but not hanging out excessively long. She also threw up some water that she had drunk after the walk on the day when she had the most persistent phlegm producing coughing spells. Because these spells tend to start either after she has charged to the end of her lead, or spent some time with her nose stuck in the ground sniffing and digging, I was leaning towards dirt or allergies as she doesn't usually cough up anything when she chokes herself with her harness. (She can do this even without the martingale on.) But, OH was suspicious of the martingale and since she had no choking spells when I removed that from the set up, he is fairly well convinced that his suspicions were correct.
I thought it best to test that option first before giving the dog allergy medicine, but I'm still not fully convinced it is the collar. We had some rain earlier in the day which might have reduced the pollen count.
Any ideas on how to better figure out what is causing the coughing?
Allergies, heat, or choking?
Moderators: emmabeth, BoardHost
Allergies, heat, or choking?
Grammy to Sky and Sirius, who came to live with me, stole my heart, and changed my life forever as I took over their care and learned how to be a dog owner.
Re: Allergies, heat, or choking?
Coughing and phlegm are not typical of an inhalant allergic response............i'd be more inclined to think viral or bacterial issues.
Re: Allergies, heat, or choking?
If it's actually phlegm I would agree a vet visit is in order. If it's just some foamy spit she may just be spitting while coughing/clearing her throat. It may be mild collapsing trachea. Panting hard and collar pressure could cause the trachea to collapse and she coughs to reopen it. The cough would be very throaty, it would not sound like it's in her chest at all.
Re: Allergies, heat, or choking?
It was white and thick, so maybe not phlegm. Most of the time when she has the coughing fits, she just coughs a few little white specks, which I always took to be saliva. This day she was coughing out an amount similar to a dog throwing up after eating grass.
We have alternated between using the martingale and not and the only coughing fit she has had recently was when she was playing fetch on a long line attached to her harness for the benefit of a cousin visiting from out of state. It was warmer than I would normally have her running in, but she is usually very good at saying when she needs to rest. It wasn't so hot that I would consider a few balls tossed to be a big risk. She was doing fine until she took a drink of water. She coughed a couple of times and then seemed okay. The ball was thrown and when she caught it, she proceeded to have another coughing fit, so we ended the game at that point. I didn't see what she may or may not have coughed up because I was at the other end of the long line and the coughing fit was fairly short
We have alternated between using the martingale and not and the only coughing fit she has had recently was when she was playing fetch on a long line attached to her harness for the benefit of a cousin visiting from out of state. It was warmer than I would normally have her running in, but she is usually very good at saying when she needs to rest. It wasn't so hot that I would consider a few balls tossed to be a big risk. She was doing fine until she took a drink of water. She coughed a couple of times and then seemed okay. The ball was thrown and when she caught it, she proceeded to have another coughing fit, so we ended the game at that point. I didn't see what she may or may not have coughed up because I was at the other end of the long line and the coughing fit was fairly short
Grammy to Sky and Sirius, who came to live with me, stole my heart, and changed my life forever as I took over their care and learned how to be a dog owner.
Re: Allergies, heat, or choking?
Last weekend we were away and the pollen in the yard where we were was terrible. Murphy had a similar issue to what you are describing. If he was out for a little while he'd occasionally cough up some foamy saliva (which he'd promptly try to eat again). It only happened if he was in the yard for a few minutes (you could see the pollen floating in the air and it was all over his head). He was fine inside and also on our walks through the neighborhood. It was also very different than when he throws up, it was more of a throat clearing.
