Please Help...new puppy coughing. - Page 1

I would like to get some ideas from here, so I will know what to request from our vet if not offered...

I imported a female pup from Czech Rep, last week.  Monday, so it's been a week and a half.  Last night around 7ish, she started coughing and gagging a little.  It gradually got worse over night, kept me up most of the night.  I kept checking on her in her crate to see if she was coughing anything up or puking...she didn't.  We got her on Monday, the 20th, had a vet appointment on Tuesday.  Vet checked eyes, lungs, coat, heart, said she looked healthy.  During that appointment, we got second booster of  DA2PPv, and heartworm pill.  We had an appointment this morning for worming and bordatella because we are going on a 4 day trip next Friday, and she needed that to be boarded.  The vet was not going to be there this morning and a tech. was going to administer the worming and nasal bordatella.  With the cough, the vet tech did not want to go through with this, thinking its an upper respiratory infection, and will contact the vet.  I should hear back from her this afternoon.  This morning, her coughing has gotten stronger and she coughs up a little clear spit/mucus.  She still wants to run around and play, is eating all of her food, and drinking water.  What are some things i should request the vet do, or check? 

My pup has been around my 5 month old male and no other dogs with direct contact.  I do however train with her on a soccerfield where other dogs have been.  A couple possible causes that I thought....she is a vaccuum cleaner.  On walks, in the yard and even in the house, she eats everything.  A leaf blows by, she chases it and eats it, a clump of hair in the house she see's she eats, a stick in the yard she eats, paper, grass, dirt...etc.   Also, last night her and the 5 month old were wrestling and he grabbed her throat and she cried out.  He stopped and she acted fine after.  Also, there was some "crab-grass", "cheat-grass", where we were working on tracking last night.  Please help with any suggestions/ideas you have!  I am worried that it is something serious! 

I purchased a female yrs ago like this.  Have your vet do a chest xray.  The dog I had ended up on antibiotics for a month to clear it up.  Goodluck!

OK, thank you I will ask her to.  On yours, was it pneumonia, upper respiratory infection, what?  Was it something that they found on the X rays?

started off as upper, then went into pneumonia which is why it took so long.  They were able to see the congestion on the xray.

I"t most likely kennel cough/upper respiratory infection. The vet should check her temp, check her throat to see if it's inflamed or if there's something lodged there. He should also check her chest for pneumonia, and do an x-ray if he hears anything suspicious.

If she's sick, her immune system is already stressed. It is not a good idea to add to the stress by giving vaccines (bordotella) right now.

Thank you for the responses so far, I will update after I hear from the vet.  If I don't hear from her in the next few hours, I will go to another vet....if I can't get another vet to see her today, do you think it is serious enough I should go to the emergency animal hospital?  I tend to err on the side of caution, and think I should.

Hmmm....I'd say only if she starts acting listless and goes off her food. Make sure she has lots of fresh water available. Young pups dehydrate really quickly.

Do you have a thermomenter you can use to check her temperature?

Good luck!

OK, back from the vet...She has kennel cough.  Listened to breathing, no congestion in lungs, rubbing of the throat stimulates a cough, her temp was 102.4, and she did a blood work up.  She gave her a shot of anibiotic anti-inflammitory at the vet and sent me home with a weeks worth of anitbiotic/anti-inflammatory pills and cough suppressant pills (Clavamox and Temaril-P).  If her coughing doesn't improve at all or gets worse by tomorrow, I am supposed to go pick up a nebulizer (sp?) from her, other wise follow up on Monday.  My vet said the incubation period for kennel cough is generally 7-10 days, which would be right at the time she was shipped to the US.  There were atleast two other dogs that I saw on the flight from Frankfurt to Denver.  I'm just hoping that the vaccination my other pup got works on this strain...so far, so good.  I was able to find a friend to stay at our house with her on our trip, as long as she is getting better and our male has not caught it.  If that does happen though, we will cancel our trip and suck up the hotel room deposits.  Thank you all for your responses.