22/11/2025
🤕🤢 Symptom Saturday! 🤧🤒
💨 Breathing Difficulties 💨
🐾 One of the symptoms that is most likely to have us advising clients to bring their pets to us immediately, no matter the time or day, is dyspnoea, or difficulty breathing.
🐾 Breathing can be affected by a huge number of conditions or injuries, but the ability to take in oxygen is so crucial to life and health that anything that is interfering needs to be investigated urgently.
🐾 Normal breathing should be almost unnoticeable, very quiet with slight rises and falls of the chest only.
🐾 Any increased noise, either from the upper airway of nose, mouth and throat or the chest itself should warrant checking with a vet. These noises may be wheezes, rattles, crackles or anything unusual.
🐾 The chest walls or the abdomen moving a lot suggests extra respiratory effort which should also be investigated.
🐾 Dogs and cats should take 10-30 breaths in a minute. Taking more than this, unless post exercise or excitement, could indicate a problem.
🐾 Pets sitting in unusual positions, such as with their necks extended or elbows pointing away from their body might also indicate that they are struggling to breathe normally.
🐾 Open mouthed breathing in cats, rabbits or small animals isn’t normal and should trigger a phone call to us.
🐾 Panting can be normal in dogs as a way to regulate their temperature. Normal panting tends to be predictable after running hard or in warm weather, but the dog should still appear comfortable and relaxed.
🐾 It is worth noting that brachycephalic (flat-faced) breeds commonly demonstrate noisy breathing and increased respiratory effort as typical breathing for them. This does NOT mean it is normal, and we may be able to help them breathe more easily, but if there is no change to their breathing and they are settled and calm in these cases it may be appropriate to make a consultation within standard opening hours rather than needing to be seen as an emergency.
🐾 You may remember Ella in the video from a few months ago, who needed to have surgery for a suspected foreign body in her lung. You can see that the pus in her chest and air leaked from within her lungs was causing her to struggle to breathe, with an increased rate and increased effort. She went on to make a full recovery 🥰
🐾 If you have any concerns about your pet's breathing please call us immediately ☎️
