Mystery Cough any Ideas ?

irishdraft

irishdraft

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My terrier aged nearly 13 developed a cough about 3 months ago but no other symptoms at all. He has had antibiotics & Loxicom but made no difference, then went in for X-rays and a general look at his throat etc nothing found, they also took a sample of mucus and no infection was found. Then prescribed a lengthy course of steroids which damped the cough down but didn't clear it. Phoned up vets as he is coughing & gagging quite badly again but also being a bit picky about his food vets are suggesting ct scan @ 2.5k for further diagnostics unfortunately he isn't insured, if it is a tumor in his throat they won't be able to operate anyway, the other thing they have suggested is laryngeal paralysis but he doesn't seem to have any of the other symptoms.Anyone had anything similar with their dogs ?
 
Ours has something like this and vets suggested sometimes older dogs can get a low grade type chronic bronchitis (not explaining it well, can’t remember the exact wording) but then steroids should help a bit. A tumour is possible, and there is another condition called GOLLP, more neurological, but which I think was uncommon in terriers.

We decided not to go down the route of expensive investigations as ours is elderly, and for most of the possible diagnoses not much could be done anyway. We wouldn’t have wanted to put her through big operations with limited outcomes as she is already doddery, arthritic and deaf but bumbling along happily, so we thought it would be better to keep her as comfortable as possible, and use steroids whenever necessary if it flared up and see how it goes. Currently the cough and gagging only happen occasionally.
 
Update it looks like it's laryngeal type problem with the muscles getting weak, heart,lungs all good so its prednisolone for the foreseeable to calm the inflammation unfortunately it doesn't completely get rid of the cough but damps it down considerably & helps get his appetite up so hopefully he will have a few years yet x
 
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