My dog has moments when she breaths very heavily

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My dog has moments when she breaths very heavily

Posted : 1/13/2015 9:26:37 PM

My pointer/lab mix has been "huffing", maybe, or panting… i'm not sure what to call it! It's a loud noise, and you can see her cheeks suck in and out. The noise sounds like it's from deep in her throat and not just a cough. She makes about 10 of these "huffs" in a row, sucking hard in and out. Sometimes she will do this many times during the day, and sometimes it's only once a day or once a week. It's not exercise induced, she does it in the middle of the night, while lying on the sofa, sometimes when we play with her when she's on her back, when she's walking around she'll do it, or when she's sitting just looking around. I'm not sure what asthma sounds like in a dog, but i've considered that… just wondering if anyone, based off of these unhelpful clues, could give me any ideas :)

calliecritturs

Posted : 1/14/2015 9:40:04 AM

In honesty -- you need to have a really good veterinary exam done. It is **very** difficult to tell the difference between just a sporadic cough, or kennel cough, and a heart cough. The heart cough gets missed because kennel cough is such an easy diagnosis, and yet the heart cough may be the only sign you will get of something that could easily be far more dangerous. Given that you're saying this is combined with some serious air-intake I suspect this could be heart-related, but there's no way I can tell from here obviously. But I can warn you to take this seriously. It can be impossible to actually have a vet hear/see what you are seeing at home -- so honestly it may simply be best to suggest a heart work-up (your vet should be able to do it in his office and send the results over the phone line to the nearest vet school to be read)