One of the most frequently treated health problems in the pet animal world is the cough.  

No day goes by without at least one animal being presented at the clinic with a cough.  Because we frequently cough and often for no health threatening reason, we dismiss animal coughs as insignificant.  Animal coughs , however, may signal a variety of significant problems.  A cough may be the first sign of a mild viral respiratory disease in the cat or the first sign of feline distemper.  

In the mild disease, signs may be gone in two weeks with a little medical attention. However, in feline distemper, the animal may be gone in less than a week.  

The dog with a heavy, gagging cough often seems to the owner to act as though it has a bone in its throat.  

If the animal has been near other dogs, he may instead be suffering from “kennel cough” and could be hacking for months without medical care.  The dog that seems to exhibit a cough “probably from the dust” may really be showing one of the signs of allergy to dust, pollens, plant fibers, animal hair, etc.  Congestive heart failure causes a chronic cough in the animal patient, just as it can in humans.  

A cough may be one of the signs of pneumonia, just as it can in us.  A delay of one or two days in treating pneumonia can make a successful recovery far harder to attain without months of care.

The reason for an animal’s cough can be very difficult to determine.  And, the problem will usually get worse if ignored.

(Dr. Fred Conkel is a veterinarian at the Westgate Clinic.)