On April 3rd I went to drop off a package at UPS and when I came home Marley had a bad cough and seemed to have a little bit of a sore throat. I assumed it was because something made him bark while I was gone & that it would go away soon . Within a day and a half his cough was gone. Fast forward to April 19th, Marley has a cough again, this time it seemed very minor. One or 2 small coughs that day. When he woke up April 21st he was coughing non stop for hours to the point of throwing up and he could barely breathe, his vet was closed due to it being a weekend. We made it through the weekend, but it was incredibly scary. He had some brief moments of relief, but not many. I took him to the vet Monday morning. They told me it was either an enlarged heart or collapsed trachea and that I needed to come back first thing the next morning for X-rays. His X-rays showed he had both severe heart disease and his heart is so enlarged it’s pressing against his trachea, causing it to collapse, causing the wheezing and coughing. He told me there is no going back, you can’t make the heart smaller, but there are ways to delay the onset and improve his quality of life. They kept him for the day to run an EKG, do blood work to check his liver & kidney function, and give him a few necessary injections. They found he has an arrhythmia and a weak heartbeat. They’re trying him on 3 different medications twice a day for a week hoping to improve the strength of his heart. The total for his trip to the vet was $756. Diagnosis: Cardiomyopathy, mitral valve stenosis, congestive heart failure. Update: almost 24 hours after the vet appointment and medications, he’s only coughed 1 time. His breathing seems normal. He has no loss in energy and has a good appetite. Update 2: It's been 1 week today since his x-rays and starting medications. He's been coughing approximately once a day (a major improvement from it being 24/7 and him unable to breathe), been very playful, and has had a lot more energy. He had his first check up today, the vet said hes very surprised at how well Marleys heart and lungs have responded to the medications. He said most dogs don't respond to them this quickly or this much. The vet wrote him a 3 week prescription of the same medications ($191), gave him a b12 shot ($35) and asked me to come back in 3 weeks for another checkup.