Persistent cough.

Merlin has had a pretty persistent cough. he's been on antibiotics, cough syrup, everything...and it's still sticking around!
It's when he gets excited mostly.

The other dog in the house isn't sick so I don't think it's kennel cough, plus the coughs aren't productive (no green phlem or anything) although sometimes foamy but I think that's water.

Any ideas?
He's been the vet, this has been going on for a WHILE, he's been on two kinds of antibiotics and I just feel so frustrated

He is eating, pooping, playing, everything TOTALLY NORMAL. It just sounds like he clears his throat a lot when he's excited.

Allergies? If his heart and lungs are ok if just try some Benadryl and relax and see if maybe its seasonal?

Does it sound like he's trying to hack up a hairball? Because of the bolded parts, the first thing that came to my mind was the beginning stages of laryngeal paralysis (the first signs Mick showed was "hairball hacking" sounds when he got stressed).

Phoebe, my aunt and uncle's Shih-Tzu, coughs when she's panting (stressed, excited, or hot...or if she pulls against a collar) due to collapsing trachea. It's basically a single hard hack that she uses to reopen the airway.

My first thought was collapsed trachea but that's just because collapsed trachea is on my mind constantly with Mia's diagnosis.

May be allergies though. Poor Summer is sniffling and sneezing lately and has to be on allergy meds.

Yep same as my zoey!

Reversed sneezing? If you look up a video of it, they have lots on youtube. It's often difficult to tell the difference between reverse sneezing, CT and kennel cough.

Jackson started doing this weird cough thing a few months back. It was... kind of hacking, but kind of not, but wasn't like when he had KC either. No mucus etc. And I started giving him chlorpheniramine per the vet, in case it was allergies. For his size (17lbs), he would get 4mg 2x a day. It actually helped! Stopped it completely. So I think it was a bit of allergies.

It's only happened twice now in the last year, but whenever I've given him the meds, they stopped it.

My female Shiba Inu, Ruffian, was the same way

If you guys could take a look at this video and tell me what you think it is, I'd be really grateful.

[YOUTUBE]CLprGWzmXZU[/YOUTUBE]

It sounds far less like choking than zoey did. Id try the allergy route.
Zoey was pretty clearly coughing her airway open if that makes any sense.
Merlin looks more like "something is ****ing tickling my throat"

I really hope it's just allergies.

The thing is, it doesn't slow him down AT ALL (eating, playing, drinking etc..wise) . It just seems like somebody who has a tickle, which is really weird!

It honestly sounds more like an allergy cough to me.

This is kennel cough, and what Jackson sounded like when he had it:
[YOUTUBE]ZusGtj3NxcU[/YOUTUBE]

What Merlin is doing sounds more like what Jax did w/ allergies and that's what the chlorpheniramine helped clear up. I just got it from local CVS.

This is collapsed trachea:
[YOUTUBE]gEA3N4NK4ic[/YOUTUBE]


Reverse sneezing:
[YOUTUBE]lG5k9XVlh3c[/YOUTUBE]

We cleared collapsed trachea and Kennel cough...he has neither.
we are going to assume it's allergies and he is also on a general antibiotic incase it's some kind of upper respiratory thing

Fingers crossed this kicks it

Next step is x-rays and I don't think that's necessary

Stan does the same thing, especially after tanking down on water.

Well, glad it's not a collapsed trachea! Have you asked his breeder about it?

He looks like it's more nasal than an actual cough?