My Dog Has Chronic Panting and Coughs

[wdperry]

My 3 year old female pitbull just started panting a lot for no reason at all, (about 3 weeks now).  Her ears sometimes are very hot and red inside.  She has also within the past few days developed a cough, where she will cough about 6 times in a row and then a few minutes later it repeats itself and this goes on for abour 20 minutes at a time.  She seems to be drinking less water than before, (she use to drink a lot of water, like every 20 minutes or so and was always going to the bathroom).  She also developed this fetish with about 10 of her squeaky toys where she lies with them most of the day and cleans them, and sometimes lies there with them and cries.  She walks around the house crying and then starts digging into the rugs and furniture, ( this fetish with the toys has been going on for about a month now).   She's not fixed nor has she ever had a litter.  We have another pitbull which is a 7 years old male, who is fixed.  She has not been around other dogs, so she's not pregant.  She was in heat in March.  I don't know if she has had all of her shots or not because we got her when she was 7 or 8 months old.
There are times during the day when she is just fine and acts like a normal healthy dog.  But most of the time latley it's all of the above.
Oh and we just recently moved into a another house about a month ago.  At first we thought it was the moving, at least with the toy problem.  Well I think i've covered everything.  Please help me she is driving me nuts to see her like this and I don't have any money to take her to the vets for them to tell me she is ok.  Thats why I here on this website.  Although, if you think she may be ill then I will have to find the money or some kind of help to take her.

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

I forgot to mention that the coughing may or may have any relationship to the possible pyometra or pseudocyesis, but is not normal and should be addressed.  The coughing may be caused by kennel cough.

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

I think that you need to take her to the vet.  She could have a pyometra (which is a uterine infection), or pseudocyesis ( which is a false pregnancy).