one year old shih-poo coughs outside

[golfgirl]

Hi everyone. I'm not sure if anyone has advice, but my one year old shih-poo has started coughing,gagging when she is outside playing fetch. This seems to have started when the grass started turning green and I'm wondering if she may be allergic to grass. She never did this when there was snow. She doesn't do this when I play fetch with her inside, only outside. My finances are low right now and I'm not sure if I should take her to the vet or just monitor. The thing that had me concerned was last night I was playing fetch with her outside and she did this about 4 times. It's like she is trying to cough up something but doesn't. Otherwise she seems very healthy and doesn't do this when I take her for a walk. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[BMDLuver]

Watch for eye discharge, redness in the eyes, skin irritations, chewing at legs, constantly licking between toes or private areas etc.. any of these symptoms point to allergies.

As it's very muggy out these days, it might not be allergies at all but rather some early signs of heart problems.

It would be best to try to scrape some pennies together and get the dog in to see a vet. Either things caught early are much less costly in the long run than letting them progress to the difficult to manage stage.

[Tommysmom]

Where in Ontario are you? Around here, we have tons of white fluff flying through the air and grass - I don't know what it is, it's a tree of some sort but looks kind of like dandelion fluff. My Tommy is sensitive to that, every time we go out he sniffs through the grass and snorts and coughs. It only started when the fluff started, and when we visited family elsewhere he didn't cough at all, so it's definitely some kind of allergy or sensitivity to whatever the darn tree is. Thank goodness for us it seems to be waning, I think fluff season is almost over, lol.

[golfgirl]

Yes we have the fluffy stuff also! We live near Lake Simcoe-south end. I guess I will take her to the vet to make sure, it's just that she would run hard playing fetch in the snow and never coughed-it just seemed to start as the grass greened. She loves to bury her nose in the grass when playing fetch, and then will start running back with her frisbee, stop, cough as if gaggging on something, pick up her frisbee and return it to me. Once, she managed to spit up some clear phlegm, but that was only once. She also does not eat grass-I watch her to make sure that wasn't the problem. Now I'm worried it may be something more serious-heart. Thanks for replies.

[rainbow]

The white fluffy stuff is from the cottonwood trees and they seem to be extra bad this year.

Golfgirl, the coughing/gagging when exercising can be from inhaling the allergens from the cottonwoods or from heart disease. Is there any way you can take your little girl to an area that doesn't have cottonwood trees around to see if she still does it? Good luck and keep us posted.

[golfgirl]

Unfortunately there isn't anywhere I could take her to see if it is the cottonwood and I'm not really sure it's that because I started noticing the cough/gag when the grass started to turn green before the "fluff attack", I've decided to try and capture the cough/gag on my camera and if she continues to do this over the next couple of days, then I will take her to see our vet with the video, so he can see exactly what kind of cough it is. I'm worried because it seems to only happen with running exercise. I hope its not her heart, she gives me so much unconditional love.

[Dobb]

We have two shih zu's,,one will cough quite regarly when outside playing. When walking on a leash ,if they see a cat and startpulling hard they will both cough. We use the body harness now and it is not so bad. Vet says that shih zu's have weak bronchicle muscles or something like that and are prone to coughing. Our former shih zu coughed alot but it was due to heart disease. I would get him checked out to find out if it is heart disease or nothing to worry about. Good luck.
Dobb