Golden retriever coughing.

This weekend I was dog sitting for my dad's three dogs while he was out of town.

Thursday night to this morning (Monday) we were snowed in because of the blizzard that hit the Northeast U.S., so I was literally around these dogs 24/7. Our 10 year old golden retriever, Chet was totally fine on Thursday and Friday nights.

On Saturday night, about 1.5 hours after dinner, Chet was lying on her side and began coughing. It wasn't a particularly dry cough, but I couldn't describe it as wet, either. It was not productive.

The episode lasted about five minutes. I had her get up and walk around the house with me, then I encouraged her to drink a little bit of water, gave her a treat, and she lay back down and the rest of the night was uneventful. She slept on her side throughout the entire evening.

The next night (last night), it happened again and this time was worse. Once again, it was about 1.5-2 hours after her dinner, and again, she was lying on her side. This coughing fit sounded the same as described above, but lasted longer (maybe 10-15 minutes). She wretched a bit at the end of the coughing fit, but nothing came up. Over the next hour, she coughed once or twice a couple more times, but they didn't turn into fits. Her gums looked their normal pink color and had normal capillary refill. When she is not coughing her breathing seems normal.

Also, she eats breakfast and does not experience coughing episodes after that, so I don't think it's necessarily related to eating. She also lies on her side much of the day/night when she is resting.

Her appetite is normal (ravenous...but she is a golden retriever after all!) and her energy levels don't seem depleted. Because she's older she is not as active as she used to be, but she still has energy to play with the other dogs and go for 30-45 minute walks each day. We went on a long walk on Friday afternoon, but spent much of the rest of the weekend indoors because of the weather, with a few short play sessions out in the snow. She didn't cough after any of the excitement.

She saw the vet this afternoon who said her heart sounded fine, and chest x-ray was clear. The vet gave us some antibiotics and a cough suppressant in case there is a respiratory infection, but didn't have any additional insights. She thought kennel cough was unlikely and a tracheal collapse was ruled out. Also, she weighed in at 61 lbs, which the vet said was terrific (no obesity issues).

Any thoughts on what could be going on? Are there any additional questions we should be asking/tests we should be running? Anything we should look out for? I'm very relieved that it's not heart failure, but concerned we don't know what exactly it is, since she is older and I know older dogs are more prone to health issues.