Before I rush off to the vets (a not uncommon happening!) I was wondering if anyone had experienced this type of problem with their dog/s and if so what might be causing it.

Over the last month my one year old  male neutered Westie has had about five or six very brief (about 10 to 25 seconds) episodes of altered/laboured breathing. This has happened twice when he has been asleep too and has woken me. he basically suddenly starts to appear as if he is having trouble breathing, he is not coughing or retching and he has  had his mouth closed on each occasion. Whilst this is happening his breathing through his nose becomes very noisy and he appears to be working hard to draw breath. he has not been eating or drinking on any of these occasions and they stop as suddenly as they have begun with my dog appearing to be fine and not distressed. He is perfectly healthy in all other respects.

Our previous dog, a staffie, used to cough/gag frequently but the vet felt this was due to her oesophagus 'collapsing' temporarily and it did not prevent her from living a long and happy life  and i was wondering if these episodes could be similar.  However I am quite concerned as I have heard Westies can sometimes suffer from Lung disease which can be serious/fatal.

My dog is due to have his booster jabs in two weekes and obviously i will discuss this with the vet then but any info/advice in the interim will be very much appreciated.

Dillymum

Think it may well be the soft pallet dropping when the dog is relaxed and causing what you describe, the vet should check the dogs heart and lungs before giving the booster so mention it then and the vet will take care to do the job well ;)

I found this used to happen with my shi-zu. We found if you stroked under the chin and covered his nose slightly this used to help. Hope you find this helps

Hi, I had this problem with my westie, but found that by rubbing her throat the epsiode was over in seconds, we usually reffer to her as having oversniffed!! My westie is 8 years old and has had no after effects.
Pat

I believe many small breeds suffer from what my Chihuahuas have. That is a collapsing trachea. The trachea has cartilagenous rings around it to keep it tube shaped. In many small breeds, the cartilege is so soft that at times the trachea will collapse, squash down flat. It recovers and they're back to getting their breath again. I notice it happens when the dogs are excited, super silly and playful. It doesn't happen when they're exercising necessarily and we go on long walk/runs....have to for the Dobe. So, it's like a good 2/5 - 3 miles a day. Of course they do a lot of running to keep up with the big Dobe and Lab, but they love it and do it fine. That doesn't bring it up necessarily, unless they're having a very silly moment. So, yes...stroking their throat and trying to keep them calm works pretty well...and it just passes on it's own shortly. The vet indicated that it's not too serious. I have read a little about it too. You can look it up online...just type in collapsing trachea in Westies and see if it's prevelent in that breed.

Let us know what your vet says. Good luck.

Carrie

Thanks everyone for your replies, i feel quite reassured that it seems to be a (relatively) common thing, although I will still mention it to the vet. I have also noticed in the last few days that he has been sneezing quite a bit (don't think its anything contagious as he's had all his jabs and his KC vaccine) so maybe he has doggie hayfever which might be irritating the linings of his airways, i'll keep you all posted anyway and let you know aht the vet says!

Dillymum