The American Beagler Forum

my male beagle started coughing about a week ago he's acting and eating like normal but just gets this dry cough sometimes seems worse when he's really active. id given him some childerns sinus and cough medicine for 3 straight days and that seemed to fix him but 4 days after i stoped giving him the medicine he's coughing again any ides. oh yea hes up to date on all his heartworming and stuff. ive been told 2 different things one was someone said kennel cough and it would just run its course of about 2 or 3 weeks and another said maybe just allergys. now ive had beagles noe for about 15 or 16 yrs and this is the first ive ever had a dog cough like this just curious well thanks in advance for any replys.

I would take it to the vet. It sounds like kennel cough. I know there is a big outbreak of it right now. The vet will give you some antibiotics and some coughing medicine.

It could be kennel cough, but a trip to the vet is really not going to do much good unless he is "acting" sick. KC has to basically run it's course because it's a virus (not affected by antibiotics), what you need to be concerned about is secondary infection (pneumonia) which can happen. As long as he's not acting as if he doesn't feel well, there's really not alot the vet can do for KC.
Now, on to another possibility. How old is this dog? A cough can be caused by heart problems (congestive heart failure, heartworm, etc), allergies, or respiratory illnesses.
If you were giving a cough medicine and it cleared up during giving it, then I would assume it's not heart related, but couldn't necessarily rule that out.
Allergies would be a good bet, and maybe a better course of treatment would be benedryl tabs (12mg). You can give 1-2 mg/lb up to 3xday to relieve symptoms in dogs. It works great and can be given long term with no ill effects. It can cause drowsiness when first starting on it, but that will lessen once the body system acclimates to it.

Good luck

Might it be blastomycosis? My friend recently thought her whippet had kennel cough but it turned out to be blasto. Lots of info on net about it. If cough syrup stopped it then there is an inflamation/irritation in bronchi/lungs that is not right. Carolyn

thanks for all of your replys guys. well this little male is 15 months old and he acts fine he's extreamly hyper but just gets the cough from time to time but my vet friend told me about this kids cough and alergy medicne lactorasme or something like that and when i give it to him once a day no coughing he said he exspects it to be kennel cough and could take up to 3 weeks to clear up he told me to must keep him kenneld up and not to let him over exzert himself. but thanks for all your replys.