Hi all,

Before I get started I should say I know what this is, how to stop it and I know why it happens.  (I have had the breed for many years!)  My question is regarding alterations in frequency.  I have a bitch that maybe snorted once every 2-3 months up until she was around 2 1/2yrs, and then I dont recall any untill she was 9 1/2yrs.  Ok, there could have been the odd one in the 7 year interval, but definately none in the last 2 and a half years.  That is when I got another dog and she freaked out like there was no tomorrow when my cavalier snorted again for the first time.  Any way over the last 3 or 4 weeks she has had an episode at least 3 times a day.  Normally with 2 at night, I'm so tired!
Anyone have any ideas why this should be?  She hasn't gained weight and her exercise is the same as it has always been.  She has a grade 5 heart murmur so I avoid vet trips with her when I can as she gets very stressed.
Thanks in advance for any insight!

Could it be the weather maybe?.  Or some sort of mite or extra dust somewhere she's disturbed outside.  She could be develpoping an alergy to whatever is airbourne.  I think mould spores at the moment and weed spores.

Have you checked for any obstruction.

otherwise it might just be one of those things. Is her mouth drying out in the night and sticking the throat together.

Hope it gets better. 

If it was the weather I would have expected it to be during the extreme heat we had.  And I would have thought 10 is too old to develop an allergy, but I could be wrong.
There is no obstruction, and nor does the back of her throat look red or inflammed.
The episode you can set your clock by is the one 5 minutes after she settles for sleep at night, but appart from that there is no pattern.  I know the snorts dont hurt her, but it would be nice to reduce the frequency.  Especially as every time my young dog is convinced the cavalier is about to die and barks like mad at us to go and help her!

It could still be from an allergen.

sort of unrelated but i have a chest weakness and at night this time of year as soon as i get in bed I develop a very dry throat and cough.  Its due to an allergy from weed pollen.  Never had it before last year.  Animals can be the same.  Maybe cover the bedding until bedtime and see if it makes any difference.

otherwise I'd suggest the vets to see what's triggering it.

Hi henrieke
are you talking about reverse sneezing?

Could it be nasal mites?
Common in Scandinavia and not unknown here either.
I think in post mortems something like 2% dogs in Denmark had some and the amount has risen sharply in recent years to 7%!!(Stating this out of memory so could remember wrong!)
Mites just found by a chance when PM being done, not caused any issues when dog was alive!
Many dogs get no symptoms, but the most common symptom is reverse sneezing... also, can have watery eyes, eye infections and runny nose...
I have just been looking in to it as my girl who was in the world show seems to be doing reverse sneezing lately, never done it before.

They say the mites can crawl out of the nose especially when dog is sleeping so maybe this is what causes the attack after she has gone to bed? they say you can sometimes see the mite coming out(yuk!) they are white and small and pretty quick so you might want to watch you girl sleeping :)

Heartburn can also set off an attach of reverse sneezing, so again maybe when she lays down the stomach acid gets up causing the reverse sneezing?

Just some possible causes...

There was a suggestion on this forum that giving milk will stop the attacks and that in some way it is aggrevated by stomach acid.
Not sure I have any scientific evidence of this but certainly wouldnt hurt to give it a try.

I only have one that does it (out of a family of 7) and it's sheer excitement which starts him off, usually before his walk.... I just pick him up and he stops instantly!

Yes I mean reverse sneezing.  Although I've always called it snorting as this seemed to be the phrase for it when I was involved in Cavaliers.

I can stop it instantly, its just the noise involved at 3 in the morning when she starts up, and then my youngster that has a deafening bark joins in!  It takes no time at all to stop her, and it doesn't upset her, just trying to get a full nights sleep before the OH gets bad tempered!

I was just wondering if anyone new a trigger other than excitement so that I can try and reduce her exposure to it.  We have had the windows open at night, I think I will try closing the ones near her tonight.

Good old cavs, you have to love them or they'd drive you mad!

Always thought that "reverse sneezing" was caused by slack (loose) soft pallet and that had something to do with the head shape and the length of jaw. My own dogs lay on their backs and the secretions run down the back of their throats and cause them to sneeze but this is a proper sneeze not the sort of spasm of sneeze/gag you are talking of, well I think that is what you are talking of. How you deal with it on a permanent basis I do not know and you have said you are able to stop it when it occurs

No, reverse sneezing is similar (only different!) to hiccups, in that it can happen to any dog regardless of physical structure.

Thanks JG - reckon it is something I have never come across then.

Another suggestion which was given to me(from someone on this forum) is that feeding wet food as opposed to dry kibble can stop it.This worked for my papillon,she used to reverse sneeze quite a lot when she got excited when she was fed kibble and now she is on part raw part Ziwipeak she doesn't do it all.

That's interesting Helen.  My parents' Cavalier does reverse sneezing, and it seems to happen especially when she's eating her (dry) food.

I can remember taking my papillon to the vets because she was reverse sneezing so much(I didn't know what it was at the time) and my vet said it was probably a collapsed trachea and suggested I book her in  for x rays.I came home in tears at the thought of my girl needing a major operation,then went on this forum,read the wet food recommendation and changed her diet straight away...she never did it again!!
Thats the power of champdogs!
Its definitely worth a try.

> and my vet said it was probably a collapsed trachea

I have heard so many people say that their vet has said that about a certain toy breed.  A great shame that vets don't know their breeds, and ones that are paricularly prone to reverse sneezing!

> Always thought that "reverse sneezing" was caused by slack (loose) soft pallet and that had something to do with the head shape and the length of jaw

I never knew that it was called that.

This is what I meant by an obstruction at the back of the throat.  mine do this, which I thought was happening but didn't know your breed well enough to say out right.

Interesting about the acid, that could explain a few night time ones.  Mine's usually due to the soft pallete sticking. 

It has been bought on by airbourne allergens before.

Sunshine. Apparently I was wrong in thinking the sort or sneeze/gagging sound made by the soft pallet is not what people mean when they talk of reverse sneezing, to be honest I don't know what they mean in all my years of owning dogs I have never come across what they seem to be talking about.

Maybe but it does sound like it if its like a backward snort (sort of).  i usually stop it by blocking the nostrels or opening the jaw.

I'm the same as you, never heard the expression before.

Hope the cause is found for a good nights sleep.

>to be honest I don't know what they mean in all my years of owning dogs I have never come across what they seem to be talking about.

Here's a good example of harmless reverse sneezing. And another one. Known in our family as 'a fit of the wheezles'.

Thanks JG, must say that is what I meant but had always considered it the be caused by some sort of spasm of the soft pallet. If it is not what is the cause please?

Thanks also, my old girl has once or twice done this in her sleep lately.  Its not my small one does so theirs is what Nova thinks.

> bought on by airbourne allergens before.

Interesting one of our had a period of 'reverse sneezing', had not seen it before and it realy worried me as it went on for quite some time and ended up taking him to the vet. But as soon as we walked in it stopped, suggested that adrenlaine had eased it. Had it several times over six months or so, then stopped and the only thing that I could think of was having moved house with new carpets down stairs. Always in the evening when spending more time inside.

The cause is, as far as I know, unknown. Hiccups is caused by the diaphagm going into spasm, and many things can trigger this. It's believed that reverse sneezing is similar. Strange but harmless.

I've always called it the Cavalier snort too, though I've heard it referred to as reverse sneezing too. Henry used to do it at nearly every show as he pulled so hard on the lead when we first arrived. Ellie almost never does it, but very occasionally has been lying on the sofa and started doing it. Neither of them has changed in frequency I'm afraid, so not much help!

Information.

"Causes include excitement, eating or drinking, exercise intolerance, pulling on a leash, mites, pollen, foreign bodies caught in the throat, perfumes, viruses, household chemicals, allergies, and post-nasal drip."

"Some dogs have these episodes their entire lives; some dogs develop the condition only as they age. In most dogs, however, the spasm is a temporary problem that goes away on its own, leaving the dog with no after-effects."

Thanks JG it would seem from that my thoughts that it was the soft pallet was not entirely wrong I have no idea why I thought that I would guess someone must have told me - only ever owned one dog that does it (Solli Sod) and that led me to believe that as most my dogs have had a moderate to long jaw were not bothered by such things  but that the shorter or none existent nose seemed to suffer more, in that it seems I was wrong.

Well we had the windows closed from early afternoon and she didn't have an episode at night, but two mild ones this morning.  Fingers crossed it is something like pollen causing it.  I just find it strange to develop so much in a 10 year old dog.  Maybe somethings just very potent this year, or maybe the poor old girls body has just been through so much she cant tolerate as much as she could before.
Hope this works as I really dont want to change her food, shes a typical fussy Cav and in her eyes only one brand will do!  I feed dry with a spponfull of meat as with a grade 5 heart murmur its hard work to burn of the calories in wet food, its hard enough on senior dry food!
Oh, and with no snorting she had a great nights sleep, we however were subjected to new heights of snoring by her!

> Fingers crossed it is something like pollen causing it. I just find it strange to develop so much in a 10 year old dog. Maybe somethings just very potent this year, or maybe the poor old girls body has just been through so much she cant tolerate as much as she could before.

Allergies can develop at any time of life - in fact they may develop as the immune system weakens in old age. My late father developed some severe allergies in his last decade of life, after never being allergic to anything before.

Just to say that pollen counts are quite high right now with the winds. Especially if you're in the south east.

If you think it is something like pollen then may be a course of Piriton of some other antihistamine may be worth a try.

I had two cavaliers that used to do this a lot.  One had ulcers on his tonsils and down the back of his throat the other had ulcers in her mouth.  The one with them down the back of his throat was only discovered when he was anethatised and the vet had a look.
These were caused we found out when they done a biopsey of one of the ulcers, because they had auto immune disease.  Sadly i lost one aged 4yrs and the other aged 7 years.
I'm not saying this could be possible with any of yours, but I think its always something worth bearing in mind especially if they snort a lot, as a possibility.

Good news - except about the snoring!! Dear God they can snore can't they, we could hear Henry downstairs while we were upstairs in bed - needless to say I miss that racket now! Weirdly, Ellie has started snoring a bit since Henry died....

my 11 month pug used to do it quite alot only first thing in the morning when getting out of bed, i was horrified the first time he done it i thought he was dying i had never seen anything like it before! He would go weak at the back legs.
If i put my finger over his nose he would then gasp through his mouth which would stop him doing it immediatly...he would then look at me with a look of 'what the hell happened there?!'
He hasnt done it in about a month now.... as advised ive been giving him half a hay fever tablet at night at bedtime and since then he hasnt done it!

my pug george does it,it seems to look worse in pugs compared to the other dogs in the video above,i find by opening his mouth helps to stop it,i have heard people say its the elongated soft palate,but that does not make sense with george as he had his trimmed when they widened his nasel passages etc etc.this is what a pug soulds like doing it  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myRqnFRLRME&feature=related
scary every time !