Well CC you must have the same doctor as me! "Maybe you have asthma" they said. "But I've never had asthma in my life" I replied. "Well maybe the flu is bringing on a bout of asthma. " So let me get this straight, I don't have asthma except once or twice a year when I get the flu and then I have asthma?" "Well you never know" they say, "Try this nebulizer with a bronchial dialator and take this steriod inhaler sample that we had in the back closet home and see if that works." Nope, it does not work, and no, the antibiotics don't work, and no, the steroids don't work. I am very leery of all this because my friend was misdiagnosed with asthma and was treated for ten years with ever increasingly strong steroids and in the meantime she had a rare, undaignosed esophagal problem. In the end, her esophagus was the size of an 8 month baby and her ovaries had been destroyed by the steroids, along with her bones and eyes, which she now has cataracts on. All because someone summarily diagnosed her with "asthma." Which is why to me saying "asthma" means you just don't know and don't want to take the time to make an expensive diagnosis. And taking frequent courses of antibiotics can also wreak havoc with your health, as happened with my friend who ended up with chronic yeast infections from overuse of antibiotics for ear infections. And I have to take them for my chronic urinary tract infections as it stands. So I am at risk for developing "superbugs" in my system which my doctor should be well aware of if s/he looked at my medical history. Anyway, chronic bronchitis means you have it for two months or more and get it more than once a year. This problem has been ongoing for me for four years. And I have had a two month cough at other times in my life, although it is starting to now happen more frequently. So there's probably some kind of genetic weakness there. I have irritable bowel syndrome, interstitial cystitis, and migranes, which are all inflammatory problems so why should my lungs get left out! So I may also have GERD in the mix but I don't think it is all attributable to that. Not sure how much modern medicine has to offer this condition. It's hard because I am ordinarily an active person and I have a job that requires me to by physically active for long periods of time. My whole life is sort of grinding to a halt due to lack of energy. I had to drop out of school this semester and important things I need to do to get moved to a new place closer to work are languishing. I basically make it through a day of work and then exhaustedly drive home and go to bed, only to start it up again the next day. Whine, whine, whine. And I can't even enjoy a glass of REAL wine!

Your post is below - My point was (is) there seems to be an underlying problem. Did you cough in October with that cold/pain? Did your doctor do a chest x-ray when he diagnosed bronchitis? This is funny - I looked up steam and asthma, and many sites recommend it, but I did note where one said to stick your tongue out while inhaling it! LOL As long as you take the right amount, vitamins can't hurt. I generally don't take them as I try to get them through diet and feel I eat pretty well balanced. I know I get plenty of D as I'm outdoors alot but I have read recently where alot of people are deficient in it. tina ------------------------------------------------------------ (Your post 10/14/09) I friend suggested I had a bout of Pleurisy the other day, and I looked it up and sure enough, I had 100% of the symptoms! It was so bad two nights ago I almost asked my dh to take me to the ER. I had no idea what was wrong with me, only that it hurt really bad to breath and to lay down. I also had a small fever, which could have been a higher one but I was takig a lot of Aleve, Ibuprophen and Tylenol for the pain so it probably masked a higher fever. The symptoms went away this morning. I did some research online and it says it usually lasts a few days and it's caused by an underlying condition, such as the flu or a viral bug. I had a cold a few weeks ago and it was a whopper! I never did go to the doctor since it went away, but I can't find any information on whether it will come back or not. Does anyone know if I'm prone to getting it again? Now that the episode is over, should I still go to the doctor?

Given the age, it's probably kennel cough. Sometimes it takes 3 different antibiotics to get rid of it. KC can be stubborn. My puppy had it when I brought her home from the breeder. It turned into pneumonia ( I insisted on a chest x-ray, because I felt rales when I carried her outside. The vets didn't hear anything! I got 2 opinions. Go figure.). Her pneumonia looked weird. Sort of like she could have aspirated something. Anyway, I think she was on 3-4 different antibiotics, before she got 100% better. It took almost a month to eradicate it. Granted, she was only 9 weeks old, and probably around puppies with KC, at the breeder's. Let's hope that's all it is. A dog should not be coughing...Things with heart, lungs, tumors....all come to mind in a mid-older age dog coughing. I think you can bring KC home to your dogs on your clothes, or they can pick it up in the park. That's why if your dog is not immunized for KC, you shouldn't play with puppies at the pet stores...

All of these smart and concerned folks are correct. You must see a vet and investigate. Our dog, rescued from a pound at 9 months, also had a chronic cough. Not kennel cough, not heart worm, not collapsed trachea....they trach-tubed him, biopsied his lungs, we did everything, and ruled out many things. The only thing left was, maybe, asthma. In a cosmic stroke of fate that put this dog in our hands, I myself have asthma. Our vet said it is possible to use a special doggy inhaler, though his office personnel said they knew few owners who can successfully train the dog to use the inhaler. Well, I'm here to say that it can be done. Our Australian Heeler, the most squirrelly, vocal, athletically slippery guy, learned to look forward to his daily inhaler. Voila! Almost never coughs now. my point is though, there are too many possibilities, most quite fixable with veterinary help, that could be causing the problem. He deserves your help. Good luck, I bet he can be helped.