I have a 3 year old border collie. He has respirations between 30-50 when sleeping or at rest. He get's up from the floor and sits at the foot of the couch and pants. Not fast pants but breathing from his mouth. He can play ball for about 30 minutes or so then he lies down. I have gone to the vet and he had good color gums, a clean chest x-ray and he has no other symptoms....Maybe. Also keep in mind that he has been like this since he was a puppy.
I say maybe because when he was at the vets he got worked up (excited) and of course started panting, he then went into the exam room and had his temp taken. It was 105 or there abouts. He was then put on antibiotics and had a blood draw. That night I checked his temp and it was normal at 101, this was just a few minutes after I had given his first round of antibiotic pills. His blood draw came back at high cholesteral and high bilirubin (2.35). All other parts of the test came back normal, CBC, enzymes, WBC, etc. His urine was checked the next day for bilirubin and that too came back normal so maybe a lab error? We will find out today.... He got retested.
With this being said, is it possible that maybe he has trouble regulating his body temperature? Some humans don't have sweat glands, is it possible that maybe he has trouble cooling down by panting? It's just a thought I had because I and the vet can't explain the temperature thing. My vet is also kind of out of ideas about the breathing too but I just realized today that I failed to tell her that he has been breathing this way his whole life. My vet is new to us because we recently moved. Maybe arming her with that inforamtion can help in a diagnoses. Has anyone else had this problem with their dog?
*Just wanted to add to this, he really shows no signs of fatigue or listlisness or weakness. He lies down while playing ball but if we walk up to him and throw it again he goes after it. He really looks like and acts like a perfectly healthy happy dog but I know his breathing is not normal.