Bully Cold?
Submitted by jamesjago on May 31, 2012 - 11:54pmHello All,
It's been a while since we posted, since our four-year old Tank has been pneumonia free for over a year now! Over the last week, however, he's been exhibiting symptoms that if he were human I would classify as a cold. He's been sneezing quite a bit and doing an odd throat clearing snort that reminds us of what humans do to hack up phlegm. It comes in little waves / fits where he seems to be struggling to breath, but then recovers shortly thereafter and continues to play. We wouldn't be too concerned, however, he has such a checkered history of pneumonia and other breathing issues, so naturally we want to nip anything in the bud. Any advice or ideas on what this may be or how we can help Tank is greatly appreciated.
Happy Friday everyone, and thanks for your time.
James, Beth, Tank and Nola
could he have allergies?
And also, have you had his palate checked? I know an elongated palate can cause the snorting, throat clearing thing.
he does have elongated, but dont know about allergies
He does have an elongated palate, but that's nothing new and his cough/wheeze/throat thing is new. He might have allergies that were sparked by moving into my parents house after our house fire :(
Thanks for the thought!
His soft palate can get
worse as he gets older. It stretches so you may want to consider having it checked again and consider surgery. They more he stresses to breath the more it stretches. Allergies can also cause swelling in the throat which makes it difficult to breath.
How old is he?
Yes, Deb is right, the palate will continue to grow
They also have laryngeal saccules in the throat that can become everted causing breathing problems.
Just wondering....
.....if what you're describing doesn't sound a little bit like reverse sneezing? Or are you familiar with that?
Yes is just like that
Is reverse sneezing symptomatic of larger problems?
Reverse sneezing
...is harmless in spite of how awful it sounds and looks. Many breeds, not only brachycephalic, do it, and the first time I saw it, I was concerned, too.
He just turned 4
Interesting that it keeps growing. Thanks for advice!
reverse sneezing
my ratfat does the reverse sneezing thing periodically, especially when the weather gets tempermental here in tx. the weird thing is he only ever does it in the middle of the night, so it wakes me up in a panic and i nearly fly out of bed to his side every time. when i asked my vet about she said it wasnt a big deal unless is became a constant thing. it never hurts to double check tho!
Ratliff and his mom Kael
"Rescues are better than children!"