So I don't know how many people saw the post in the Hijack the other day about how I woke up to Ares struggling to breathe, choking and coughing. I've been researching the different possibilities and the one that struck me the most was Congenital Heart Failure.. This was one of the early signs: "intermittent coughing. The coughing occurs during periods of exertion or excitation. It also tends to occur at night, usually about two hours after the dog goes to bed. Dogs may be restless-pacing instead of quickly settling down to sleep."

He only does it at night, and it's always right after he gets up out of his kennel, or if he was sleeping on the couch. I really am hoping I'm just over thinking all of this, but does anyone have an opinion on this?

I'm calling the vet right away in the morning to schedule an appointment as soon as they have an opening..

I will be thinking about you guys today.

We had issue with Kerian waking up coughing in the middle of the night.

The Vet did an X-ray last week her heart is health she has some Asthma in her lungs not real bad.

Sounds like it could be kennel cough or phlegm or something in his lungs which is exacerbated by laying down for so long. Or even in his throat. How is he at the dog park? If its inded a heart issue I would think you'd see more obvious signs when he's pushing himself physically.. Let us know!

Oh no Jennet. I hope it's nothing serious!

Mya did something similar a while back and she had a cold. Antibiotics and she was fine.

Please keep us posted. I'll be thinking about you guys!

Keep us posted and try not to let the internet scare you. Prayers!

Well back from the vet. Vet said not kennel cough, it doesn't have a honk to it like it would.

We're waiting on bloodwork and heartworm test results. We're also testing his kidneys because of his excessive drinking and urinating. We find everything out tomorrow. If it still comes up nothing, we're going to do xrays to see if there's fluid around his heart and lungs or larvae heartworms in his heart.

Unless he is insanely active and was introduced to heart worms very very early in life, I would doubt that very much... But it's an easy fix and it's good to rule it out. Hope something comes of the blood work... Did his lungs sound ok to the vet?

I know they never exercised him so he spent most of his days digging out under the fence and running loose around their neighborhood so who knows what's he has done lol. With what he does to my things, I don't even want to know..

She was having issues with hearing his lungs due to him acting full out tard and jumping all over her and panting. She said from what she could hear it was normal

Hope everything turns out ok. I'll be thinking about you guys!

bloodwork results are back- they talked to Keaton so all he understood was that his white blood cells are high, so we're putting him on an antibiotic to see if it's just a respiratory infection. If it doesn't go away in 2 weeks she wants chest xrays done.

I tried feeding him TOTW, GL and raw last night and he wouldn't eat it. It's been over 24 hours since he last ate. I called the vet but she was in surgery so I'm waiting to hear back

Is loss of appetite associated with respiratory infections, maybe? I hope that you hear back from the vet soon. Poor Ares What's up with all the pups getting sick these days?

Awwww... hope he feels better soon!

hope the meds get him feeling better! at least something showed in the blood work and you were not left guessing

MelissaI wrote:

What's up with all the pups getting sick these days?

That's what I was just thinking to myself - this is nuts.

Poor Ares - sending Get Well vibes his way!

Poor Ares! I hope the antibiotics do the trick for him!