Wheezing

[dollymix]

I've not posted in the Dog area before, but hope someone can offer some advice.

I have an 7-8yr old border collie. He was a rescue/stray and we have owned him since he was under 1. (Although of course, not certian of age as he was a stray!)

He is healthy and fit and slightly mental (as most collies are lol). However, on occasion, when he has had been running around, he suffers from wheezing. It sounds almost like asthma, it really makes him stress and strain his ribcage and usually when it occurs, he is like this for around a minute before back to normal.

It is totally erratic. Sometimes he doesn't suffer from it for months, and then he'll have a week where he does it fairly often during exercise. The latest incident was on Sunday when he was playing in the snow...

We have spoken to our vet about it on a number of occasions, but because he never sees it happen, he says not to worry about it! As I say, he is a really happy and otherwise healthy dog.

I always feel quite worried when it happens though...he really does seem to strain his ribs when he 'wheezes'.

Has anyone else ever come across something like this or am I worrying unnecessarily?!

And just because i think he is the most gorgous dog in the world...here he is

 

[Dobiegirl]

My little Battersea rescue dog had this, its really frightening to witness and I just used to speak to her softly and try to get her to calm down. I took her to the vets and he gave her a thorough check up and could find nothing wrong. I left the vets and was going through their carpark when she had another attack, luckily the vet saw through the window and came running out. He carried her in and her attack stopped and he gave her another thorough examination. He was of the opinion it was a asthma attack and told to keep her quiet for a few days and not to put her in any stressful situations.

She lived to 14yrs old and although she had the odd attack it never bothered her, I got to recognise when she was about to have an attack she would snort through her nose and I would just talk to her softly and calm her and it would stop.

This was 20years ago and medical science has moved on so I dont know what treatment would be offered now.

She had a hard life before we had her and I think this contributed to her having attacks and the fact I could control it by calming her.

 

[Hedwards]

sounds like 'reverse sneezing' to me - its horrible to whitness, and I think in the majority of cases, its not known what causes it. However I think sometimes there can be an underlying reason that a vet may be able to diagnose (such as allergies, or something to do with the soft pallate being too large)

My JRT does it on occasion, i just act calmly and find gently stroking her throat helps to clear it.