Why Is My Dog Coughing? Causes and When to See a Vet

In brief

There are five things you should know about coughing in dogs. First, coughing is not just a symptom but above all a protective reflex – the body is clearing the airways. If you simply suppress it without knowing the cause, you take a tool away from your dog. Second, one of the most common infectious causes of acute coughing is kennel cough, now called canine infectious respiratory disease complex (CIRDC) – usually mild, but highly contagious. Third, in small breeds with a chronic cough, tracheal collapse and chronic airway disease are among the most important differential diagnoses – and the heart is not automatically the culprit. Fourth, there are causes hardly anyone thinks of – lungworms, for example, showed marked regional clusters in a large German study, and they can trigger life-threatening bleeding disorders. Fifth, certain accompanying signs turn a cough into an emergency right away, above all labored breathing, bluish mucous membranes, and collapse.

Coughing is one of the most common reasons dogs are brought to the vet – and one of the problems where people guess wrong most often. This article sorts out the most important causes, explains what to listen and look for, and describes what happens at the veterinary clinic.

Note: This article is general information and does not replace a veterinary examination. A cough that lasts longer than a few days, gets worse, or comes with breathing difficulty needs to be checked by a veterinarian.

👉 Prevention and health care at a glance: dog health basics

1. Coughing is a protective reflex, not a defect

Before we get to the causes, it is worth looking at the mechanism. The large airways – larynx, trachea, and large bronchi – contain cough receptors. When they are irritated, a fixed sequence follows: a deep breath in, closure of the glottis, a buildup of pressure, and an explosive release. The rush of air carries out whatever does not belong in the airways.

Two things follow from this. First, coughing serves a purpose. A dog that coughs up mucus, foreign material, or secretions is doing something right. Second, and this explains many misreadings: because the receptors sit higher up, not every problem deep in the lungs triggers a cough. Fluid in the air sacs (alveoli), for example, tends to cause fast, labored breathing rather than coughing.

The reverse does not hold, however. Inflammation in the deeper airways certainly does trigger coughing – chronic bronchitis is exactly the example, and the moist cough described further down belongs here. The real distinction is not between upper and lower, but between irritation of the airways and fluid in the lung tissue: the first produces coughing, the second mainly fast breathing.

So a cough tells you that the airways are irritated – usually the large ones, sometimes deeper sections as well. It does not tell you where the irritation comes from.

For everyday life, this gives you an order of steps that runs through this whole article: first clarify whether breathing itself is affected – that is what the resting respiratory rate from section 3 is for. Then narrow down where the irritation sits – that is what the sound and timing from section 2 are for. Only after that should you think about where it comes from.

If you reverse this order and start with a guess about the cause, you will almost always land on the explanation you already had in mind – the heart in an old dog, kennel cough in a young one.

2. What the cough sounds like and when it happens

The sound proves nothing, but it narrows things down. It is worth recording a video on your phone before the appointment – dogs are notorious for not coughing at the clinic, and a video often says more than any description.

Dry and harsh, “honking,” or goose-like: classic for irritation of the trachea, above all tracheal collapse. Typically occurs with excitement, pulling on the collar, drinking, or heat.

Dry, barking, in fits, often with gagging at the end: typical of kennel cough. Many owners say the dog seems to have “something stuck in its throat” – in fact, it is the irritated larynx.

Moist, rattling, productive: points more toward secretions in the lower airways, for example with chronic bronchitis or pneumonia. The dog often looks as if it has to bring something up, and sometimes mucus actually is coughed up – which many dogs then swallow again, so it goes unnoticed.

The timing is just as important. Coughing only during exercise, only at night, only after eating or drinking, only in summer – each of these patterns shifts the probabilities. Coughing right after eating, for instance, can point to a problem with swallowing. Write it down; it is more valuable to your veterinarian than most owners realize.

2.1 What looks like coughing but isn’t

Before you go through the causes, one distinction is worth making that saves a lot of alarm in practice. Two things are regularly mistaken for coughing, and neither is one.

Reverse sneezing. The dog stands with its neck stretched out, pulls air in through the nose in rapid, snorting bursts, and looks as if it cannot get any air. Many owners describe it as a choking fit. The difference from coughing is the direction: a cough pushes air out, a reverse sneeze sucks it in. An episode usually lasts from seconds to a few minutes and ends on its own; afterward the dog is immediately back to normal.

Occasional reverse sneezing is considered harmless. You should pay attention if it is new, becomes more frequent, or lasts longer – then irritation in the nose and throat area may be behind it, up to and including a foreign body.

Gagging and retching. This involves the digestive tract, not the airways. The confusion arises mainly because many dogs really do gag at the end of a coughing fit and bring up mucus – in that case it is a consequence of the cough, not its cause.

For the appointment, this means a video is especially valuable here, because the direction and sequence are immediately visible on film and almost never come across in a description.

3. The resting respiratory rate: the number that puts a cough in context

This value comes up three times in this article, so here is how to measure it, step by step. It is the best single clue as to whether there is a problem with breathing itself in addition to the cough – and that is exactly what separates the harmless case from the urgent one.

Count while your dog is sleeping peacefully – not dozing and not after exercise. One rise and fall of the chest is one breath. Panting does not count, and a dreaming dog will not give you a usable value.

As a rough guide, a persistent resting rate of more than about 30 breaths per minute is considered a warning sign. More meaningful is your dog’s own baseline: measure on three to five days while your dog is healthy and write it down. A dog that normally breathes 16 times a minute and is now at 28 stands out – even though it is still below the guide value.

The benefit lies in the separation. A dog that coughs but breathes normally most likely has a problem in the upper airways – larynx, trachea, large bronchi. A dog that coughs and breathes faster may have something going on in the lungs or the circulation as well. That is not a diagnosis, but it changes the urgency.

Three caveats belong with this. The value is nonspecific – fever, pain, and excitement raise it too. A single elevated reading is not an emergency; what matters is a sustained increase.

And the third point is the most important: the resting respiratory rate is most informative where fluid buildup in the lungs is in question – that is, when heart failure or lung disease is suspected. With tracheal collapse, a foreign body in the throat, or early kennel cough, it can be completely normal even though the dog is clearly coughing. A normal value is therefore not an all-clear for the cough, only for fluid buildup.

4. When you need to see a vet right away

These signs do not mean an appointment next week – they mean now:

• Labored breathing: effortful breathing, elbows held out from the body, neck stretched out, open-mouth breathing at rest
• Pale, gray, or bluish mucous membranes on the gums or tongue
• Collapse, fainting, or marked weakness
• Blood in what is coughed up, nosebleeds, or unusual bruising on the skin
• Coughing after a choking episode or after playing with sticks, balls, or chews
• Rapid deterioration within hours
• Persistently elevated resting respiratory rate, meaning consistently more than about 30 breaths per minute while your dog is sleeping peacefully

If there are no such warning signs, you can initially watch and wait with an otherwise fit dog. But if the cough persists or keeps coming back, it needs to be checked – as a rough guide, after one to two weeks at the latest, even if your dog otherwise seems fine.

A word on this list, because otherwise it tends to be either skimmed or overrated: the signs listed are not probabilities but exclusion criteria for waiting. They do not say that something serious is going on – they say that it cannot be ruled out without an examination.

Conversely, their absence is not an all-clear for an unlimited time. A dog without warning signs may be observed, but not indefinitely – and any deterioration resets the clock.

5. Kennel cough (CIRDC): the most common infectious cause of acute coughing

The name is misleading, because it has little to do with kennels. The technical term today is canine infectious respiratory disease complex (CIRDC), and “complex” is the key word: there is no single pathogen behind it, but a whole group – including canine parainfluenza virus, canine adenovirus type 2, the bacterium Bordetella bronchiseptica, mycoplasmas, and others. Often several are involved at once.

Dogs pick it up wherever dogs come together: dog parks, boarding kennels, shelters, puppy classes, the vet’s waiting room. Typical is a sudden, dry cough that comes in fits in a dog that is otherwise lively and eating well.

The good news: in otherwise healthy adult dogs, it usually clears up on its own within one to three weeks. Antibiotics are not automatically necessary – a large share of cases are viral, and antibiotics do nothing against viruses. It becomes serious in puppies, old dogs, and dogs with preexisting conditions, as well as when fever, loss of appetite, or labored breathing are added.

About the vaccine, put into proper perspective: in current vaccination guidelines it is a non-core vaccine – not intended for every dog, but for dogs with a lot of contact with other dogs: boarding, shelters, puppy classes. It is important to have honest expectations: as licensed, the vaccines can reduce the signs caused by Bordetella bronchiseptica, but not prevent infection. They also cover only some of the pathogens involved. Protection lasts one year at most. And timing matters: with the intranasal vaccines, protection can be expected about 72 hours after vaccination, and the vaccine should be given at least one week before exposure; with the oral vaccine, protection only begins after three weeks. Vaccinating the day before a boarding stay gains you nothing.

👉 What matters when starting out in a group: why puppy classes – and what to look for

5.1 What to do if your dog has it

Much is written about the pathogens and the vaccine, little about how to handle an infected dog. Yet that is the question you actually face when it happens – and it affects more than just your own dog.

Avoid contact as long as your dog is coughing. CIRDC spreads through droplets and shared objects. That means no dog park, no group class, no boarding, no play with other people’s dogs. How long a dog can remain contagious after the signs have subsided depends on the pathogen and cannot be stated across the board – the treating clinic will decide this for the specific case.

Let the clinic know before you go in. A coughing dog does not belong next to a puppy or an old dog with heart disease. Call ahead and wait in the car until it is your turn. In good clinics this is standard practice and welcomed, not seen as a hassle.

Tell your training school. This applies even if you are canceling the session anyway – everyone else who was in the class should know. For a group class, this is not a matter of courtesy but a prerequisite for the group to work.

Do not share items. Bowls, water dishes at the training ground, toys, leashes. At home, normal washing and cleaning is enough.

Do not tire your dog out. Calm, short walks instead of ball games. Exertion further irritates airways that are already irritated, and so does excitement.

And the point most often overlooked: a dog that coughs for three weeks while happily eating and playing usually does not need an antibiotic – but it does need to be seen again if fever, loss of appetite, or faster breathing are added. Deterioration is the signal, not the duration alone.

6. Tracheal collapse and chronic bronchitis: the long-term coughers

In dogs that cough for months or years, two diagnoses are among the most important differential diagnoses – and both mainly affect small, older breeds. How they rank in the individual case depends on age, breed, and history.

In tracheal collapse, the windpipe loses its stability. The cartilage rings soften, and the tube partially collapses during breathing. The result is the characteristic harsh, honking cough that gets worse with excitement, heat, exertion, and pressure on the neck. Classic breeds are Yorkshire Terriers, Toy Poodles, Chihuahuas, Pugs, and other small breeds.

Two levers are directly in your hands. Excess weight can make the situation worse, and weight loss is considered one of the most effective single measures. And pressure on the neck has to go: a well-fitting chest harness instead of a collar is not a matter of taste for these dogs.

Chronic bronchitis is a persistent inflammation of the lower airways. The cough is often moister, frequently occurs in the morning and after periods of rest, and accompanies the dog for years. The two conditions often occur together and aggravate each other – and both are found most often in exactly the dogs that also develop a heart murmur as they age. That is where the mix-up discussed further below comes from.

👉 Why pressure on the neck is an underestimated problem: the risks of anti-pull training harnesses

7. Lungworms: an underestimated issue

This is the cause people think of least often – and depending on where you live, it can be a highly relevant one.

The French heartworm (Angiostrongylus vasorum) is a parasite that lives in the pulmonary arteries and the right side of the heart. Dogs become infected by eating slugs or snails – on purpose, or incidentally along with grass, from a water bowl in the yard, or from a toy that was left outside overnight. A second, related worm, Crenosoma vulpis, is transmitted the same way.

For a long time, this was considered a fringe topic. However, a study of 810 dogs with unexplained respiratory, circulatory, or clotting signs painted a different picture: lungworms were found in 13 percent – 7.4 percent A. vasorum, 6 percent C. vulpis. What stands out is the regional distribution: most positive results came from a few federal states in western and southwestern Germany, while others, such as Bavaria in the south, were far less affected (Barutzki & Schaper 2009). Later work from Bavaria confirmed this gradient, with very low figures there.

For dog owners in areas where lungworm is known to occur, the takeaway is simple: this diagnosis belongs on the table when a cough is unexplained.

Conversely, that does not mean everywhere else is in the clear. The same study found positive cases in almost all of the German states included, just at very different densities. On top of that comes the real driver in the background: the fox is the natural host of both worm species and is infected far more often than dogs. Wherever many foxes live – in the countryside, but increasingly on the edges of towns too – you should expect lungworms, regardless of region.

What makes this parasite special is the range of problems it causes. Coughing and tiring quickly are one thing. But A. vasorum also frequently causes clotting disorders – and these show up as nosebleeds, bruising on the skin, blood in the stool, or unexplained bleeding after minor injuries. A dog that coughs and bleeds unusually easily is a red flag. Neurological deficits also occur. Some infected dogs show no signs at all at first.

The worm is detected through larvae in the stool, usually with the Baermann technique. What matters for you: a single negative stool sample rules nothing out. Larvae are shed intermittently, which is why samples are usually collected over three consecutive days; blood antigen tests are also available. Treatment uses specific deworming agents, and the outlook is good with a timely diagnosis – left untreated, the infection can be fatal. That is why, with a chronic cough without a clear explanation, it pays to ask about lungworm actively rather than waiting for it to come up.

7.1 What you can do to prevent it

Contact cannot be prevented entirely – the route of transmission is too much a part of everyday life. But the risk can be lowered, and the measures cost nothing.

Bring water bowls in from the yard at night, or empty and refill them in the morning. Slugs and snails crawl into them overnight, and the larvae survive in the water.

Do not leave toys and chews outside. A ball that has been lying in wet grass overnight is the classic route of transmission – your dog does not have to eat a slug; the slime on it is enough.

Keep an eye on grass eating, especially in the morning and after rain, when slugs and snails are out and about.

Ask about your deworming strategy. The usual schedules do not automatically cover lungworm – that requires specific active ingredients and, depending on the risk, shorter intervals. In an area with many foxes, this is a conversation worth having that most people never do.

And the point that goes beyond all of these measures: if you live in an area where lungworm occurs and your dog has an unexplained cough, raise the test yourself rather than waiting for it. A three-day stool collection is more work than a single sample, but in return it gives you a result you can trust.

8. Foreign bodies, grass awns, and throat injuries

If the cough starts suddenly in a dog that was perfectly healthy a moment ago, the ranking changes immediately. Then a foreign body goes straight to the top of the list.

Classic culprits are sticks that splinter during fetch or jam into the throat, pieces of chews, bits of ball, and grass seed heads. Grass awns are especially treacherous: these parts of the seed head have barbs that only let them move in one direction. If they are inhaled, they migrate deeper into the airways and can cause severe inflammation and abscesses there. Typical is a sudden, violent cough after a walk through dry grass, often in summer.

A foreign body often does not go away on its own, and waiting can make things worse. A sudden, violent cough or gagging in a previously healthy dog needs to be examined promptly.

👉 The underestimated danger: why sticks are not dog toys

👉 What grass awns can do in summer: grass awns in dogs

9. Is the cough coming from the heart?

This is the question most owners ask first when their dog gets older and has a known heart murmur. The honest answer: less often than is claimed almost everywhere.

The cough receptors sit in the upper airways, whereas pulmonary edema collects in the air sacs. Heart failure therefore shows up mainly as fast and labored breathing, not primarily as coughing. And precisely the small, old dogs that develop heart valve disease very often have tracheal collapse or chronic bronchitis at the same time. Two problems in the same dog – and the cough often does not come from the heart.

That does not mean the heart is never involved. It means that a heart murmur plus a cough is not yet a diagnosis. The more reliable value is the resting respiratory rate in the sleeping dog: persistently more than about 30 breaths per minute in an otherwise stable dog is a warning sign – whether or not it coughs. How this fits together in detail, what role the size of the left atrium plays, and why diuretics can be deceptive here is covered in the two heart articles.

👉 The most common heart disease in small breeds: mitral valve disease (MMVD) in dogs

👉 The counterpart in large breeds: dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs

10. Less common causes worth knowing

Pneumonia: usually with fever, lethargy, and loss of appetite. A special form develops when food or vomit gets into the lungs – a risk with swallowing disorders and in dogs after anesthesia.

Laryngeal paralysis: more common in larger, older dogs. The main signs are noisy, raspy breathing, a hoarse bark, and marked trouble in heat and during exercise.

Tumors in the lungs, airways, or chest: rare overall, but part of the picture in older dogs, especially with a cough that gets worse over weeks and comes with weight loss.

Allergic and inflammatory airway diseases: often seasonal or tied to certain environments.

Household irritants: smoke, sprays, incense, dust from renovations. Your dog breathes the same air you do, just closer to the floor.

10.1 How age shifts the ranking

The same observation means something different in a puppy than in a twelve-year-old dog. For your own assessment – not for a diagnosis – this sorting helps.

Puppies and young dogs. At the top are infections, above all CIRDC, and foreign bodies. Both are common, and both can become serious faster in a young dog than in an adult – which is why the threshold for a vet visit is lower here. A coughing puppy is not watched, it is taken to the vet.

Adult dogs in good condition. With a sudden onset and no history, infection and foreign bodies are at the top; with a cough that creeps along over weeks, parasites and allergic or inflammatory causes move forward.

Small older dogs. Here tracheal collapse and chronic bronchitis lead, often together. The heart belongs on the list but is not automatically at the top – the section above explains why.

Large older dogs. Laryngeal paralysis and tumors move forward, especially when weight loss, a hoarse bark, or marked trouble in heat are added.

This is an order of probability, not a rule. Its value lies in shortening the wait where waiting is costly – and in calming the panic where a lively dog coughs for three weeks while eating as usual.

11. What happens at the veterinary clinic

It starts with the history and listening to the heart and lungs. The history is not small talk but the most important tool: how long, what does it sound like, when does it happen, what contact with other dogs has there been, what preexisting conditions, which region, what deworming – that narrows things down more than any single image.

The next step is usually a chest X-ray. It shows heart size, lung structure, foreign bodies, and signs of congestion. Often a stool test for lungworm larvae over three days follows – particularly worthwhile in areas where lungworm occurs. Depending on what is suspected, a heart ultrasound (echocardiogram), blood work, or an airway endoscopy with sampling may be added.

What stands out: with a chronic cough, more than one test is usually needed. If you give up after a normal X-ray, you will never find the lungworm.

👉 What matters when choosing: what makes a good veterinarian

12. Why cough suppressants are not the first thing to reach for

The reflex is understandable: your dog is coughing, so the cough should stop. But with a protective reflex, that is the wrong approach.

If your dog has pneumonia, it needs to cough up secretions. If a foreign body is stuck in the airways, the cough serves to get it out. If the reflex is dampened, the visible sign disappears while the cause continues to develop undisturbed. Cough-suppressing medications certainly have their place – for example, with a distressing dry cough in tracheal collapse – but after the diagnosis and prescribed by a veterinarian, not before.

Reaching into your own medicine cabinet is especially dangerous. Human cough medicines are not made for dogs, some contain active ingredients that work differently in dogs or not at all, and common painkillers such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen (paracetamol) are decidedly dangerous for dogs. Herbal products are not automatically harmless either: they are not dosed for dogs, some plant extracts irritate the digestive tract – and they can delay a proper workup just as much as a chemical cough suppressant.

👉 Why this is dangerous: never give your dog medication from your own medicine cabinet

13. What you can do at home

Document. A phone video of the cough, a note on duration, sound, time of day, and triggers, plus the resting respiratory rate while your dog is asleep. It costs nothing and noticeably shortens the diagnostic process.

Take pressure off the neck. A chest harness instead of a collar makes sense for every coughing dog and is essential with tracheal collapse.

Keep your dog lean. With airway disease, this is not a side issue but one of the few measures with a direct effect.

Reduce irritants. Do not smoke around your dog, avoid sprays and strongly scented cleaners, and add humidity when the heating dries out the air.

Adjust the workload without stopping completely. Calm, steady walks instead of peaks of exertion, and cut back considerably in hot weather.

Keep your distance as long as CIRDC is suspected. That is part of being considerate toward other dogs – especially in group classes and at dog parks.

👉 Taking strain off the heart and airways: how to recognize your dog’s ideal weight

13.1 What actually helps at home – and what doesn’t

Since cough suppressants are off the table, the question is what remains instead. The honest answer: less than advice columns suggest, but not nothing.

Low-irritant air. Dry heated air, smoke, air fresheners, incense, and dust from renovations make any irritated cough worse. Eliminating them costs nothing and makes a clear difference for some dogs.

Rest instead of tiring your dog out. Exertion and excitement further irritate the airways. Short, calm walks are the better choice during a coughing phase – even if your dog would happily do more.

No pressure on the neck. This applies during every coughing phase, and permanently with tracheal collapse.

Weight. With tracheal collapse and chronic bronchitis, weight loss is one of the few measures with a demonstrable effect – and one that is entirely in your hands.

What is better avoided: honey, onion juice, essential oils, and cough teas from the internet. None of these has robust evidence of effectiveness in dogs, some plant extracts irritate the digestive tract, and essential oils can be decidedly problematic for dogs. The real harm, though, lies elsewhere: as long as something seems to help, the cough does not get checked.

14. Limits of the evidence

When it comes to coughing, much is less certain than the confident tone of some advice suggests.

The prevalence figures for lungworm come mostly from studies of preselected dogs – that is, dogs that were already brought in because of suspicious signs. They therefore say something about the likelihood in a dog with an unexplained cough, but nothing about how widespread infection is in the dog population as a whole. In addition, the samples for the nationwide German reference survey were collected between 2007 and 2009. More recent figures of this scope are still lacking. But the spread of parasites is not static: it depends on climate, slug and snail populations, and fox density. The regional ranking from back then should therefore be read as a pointer, not a fixed finding – in both directions.

With CIRDC, the mix of pathogens involved varies by region and over time, and for many treatment approaches there are no robust controlled studies in dogs. Much is based on clinical experience.

And matching the sound of a cough to its cause, which this article also uses, is a rule of thumb, not proof. It helps with sorting – but it does not replace an examination.

15. Conclusion

Coughing is a protective reflex and a sign that the airways are irritated – usually the large ones. That is all it tells you. When it is acute in an otherwise lively dog, kennel cough is usually behind it, and it often clears up on its own. When it is chronic in small, older dogs, tracheal collapse and chronic bronchitis are among the most common explanations – the heart is the sole cause less often than is commonly assumed. And in regions where lungworm occurs, it is one of the causes you should actively rule out rather than forget – especially when coughing and an unusual tendency to bleed occur together. What is wrong in almost every case: dampening the cough before anyone knows what it is fighting.

And in case your dog is coughing right now: first check the emergency signs from section 4. If none are present, record a video, count the resting respiratory rate, and note the sound, timing, and triggers. That will get you further at the clinic than any guess about the cause – and it is better to set that guess aside anyway.

Key takeaways on coughing in dogs

Coughing is a protective reflex. The receptors sit in the upper airways – larynx, trachea, large bronchi. A cough shows that the airways are irritated – usually there, sometimes deeper as well – but nothing about where the irritation comes from.

So “nothing heard in the lungs” does not mean “no cause.” Fluid in the air sacs tends to cause fast, labored breathing rather than coughing. This is exactly where the most common misreading in old dogs comes from.

Kennel cough is now called CIRDC, and “complex” is the key word. There is no single pathogen behind it, but a group. In healthy adult dogs, it usually clears up in one to three weeks; antibiotics are not automatically necessary.

The vaccine does not prevent infection. It can reduce the signs caused by Bordetella bronchiseptica, covers only some of the pathogens, and needs lead time – intranasally about 72 hours until it takes effect and at least one week before exposure, orally three weeks.

In small breeds with a chronic cough, the heart is not automatically at the top of the list. Tracheal collapse and chronic bronchitis affect the same dogs that also develop a heart murmur with age – two problems in the same animal.

Lungworms are a real issue in some regions. In a study of 810 dogs with unexplained signs, 13 percent had lungworms, with marked regional clusters (Barutzki & Schaper, 2009). A single negative stool sample rules nothing out – samples are collected over three days.

A dog that coughs and bleeds easily is a red flag. Angiostrongylus vasorum frequently causes clotting disorders – nosebleeds, bruising, blood in the stool.

Cough suppressants come after the diagnosis, not before. With pneumonia, secretions have to be coughed up; with a foreign body, the cough serves to get it out. Medications from your own medicine cabinet are especially dangerous here.

References

• Barutzki, D. & Schaper, R. (2009): Natural infections of Angiostrongylus vasorum and Crenosoma vulpis in dogs in Germany (2007–2009). Parasitology Research, 105 (Suppl. 1), S39–S48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-009-1494-x (810 dogs with respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological, or coagulation signs; 13.0% with lungworm infection – 7.4% A. vasorum, 6.0% C. vulpis; regional clusters in Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saarland)

• Ständige Impfkommission Veterinärmedizin (StIKo Vet) am Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut: Leitlinie zur Impfung von Kleintieren, Stand 06.01.2025. https://www.tieraerzteverband.de/bpt/berufspolitik/leitlinien/dokumente/impfleitlinien/Impfleitlinie_Kleintiere_2025-01-06.pdf (B. bronchiseptica als Non-Core-Impfung; Symptomreduktion, kein Infektionsschutz; Immunitätsbeginn intranasal ca. 72 h, oral 3 Wochen; Immunitätsdauer max. 1 Jahr; Bezeichnung CIRDC statt Zwingerhustenkomplex)
• Rishniw, M., Borgarelli, M., Ferasin, L. & Menciotti, G. (2026): Severe left atrial enlargement, but not congestive heart failure, increases the probability of coughing in dogs with mitral valve disease. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 264(5). https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.25.07.0507 (heart failure does not reliably explain the likelihood of coughing)
• van Opstal, K. Y., Kittleson, M. D., Teske, E., Auriemma, E., van den Broek, H., Spattini, G., Vilaplana Grosso, F. R. & Szatmári, V. (2025): No Correlation Between Chronic Cough and Radiographic Signs of Bronchial Narrowing in Dogs with Cardiomegaly and Left Atrial Dilation Secondary to Primary Mitral Valve Regurgitation. Animals 15(17): 2510. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani15172510
• Singh, M. K., Johnson, L. R., Kittleson, M. D. & Pollard, R. E. (2012): Bronchomalacia in Dogs with Myxomatous Mitral Valve Degeneration. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-1676.2012.00887.x (no association between atrial size and airway collapse; airway inflammation common)
• Keene, B. W., Atkins, C. E., Bonagura, J. D., Fox, P. R., Häggström, J., Luis Fuentes, V., Oyama, M. A., Rush, J. E., Stepien, R. & Uechi, M. (2019): ACVIM consensus guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of myxomatous mitral valve disease in dogs. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine 33(3): 1127–1140. https://doi.org/10.1111/jvim.15488

Frequently asked questions about coughing in dogs

How to narrow down the cause and when it becomes urgent