What to do if your dog has breathing difficulties

Written by Dr. David Owen, BVMS CertAVP (ECC) MRCVS, Lead ECC Vet
Reviewed by Dr Jill McMaster BVM&S MBA MRCVS, Veterinary Surgeon and in-house expert at BorrowMyDoggy on 6 Jun 2023

David Owen, a veterinary surgeon from VetsNow Manchester, explains what to do when your dog is having breathing difficulties.

David answers the following questions:

• Should you be worried if your dog is coughing?
• What to do if your dog is choking?
• What are the most important things to remember?

A common pet emergency seen at VetsNow is breathing difficulties. These are always emergencies and you should always seek veterinary advice for these and they can be distressing both to the pet and the carer

Should you be worried if your dog is coughing?

You should always try and stay as calm as possible if your pet is coughing. This could be an emergency but it equally could not be. If you think your pet choking and it's important to see if that is the case, if they are breathing normally and are coughing intermittently then it's unlikely they are choking. Only put your hands in their mouth to remove something if you can genuinely see something there, and you can safely get into their mouth. The majority of cases we see where owners think their pet is choking they're actually not they're just coughing.

What to do if your dog is choking?

If you know your pet is genuinely choking, if you can see an object in its mouth and you can get it out while being safe to yourself then do so. If not and you could perform the Heimlich manouvre when we're dealing with a breathing problem.

What are the most important things to remember?

Getting your pet to the vet is the most important thing to do. Contact your local vet or if they're closed and it's out of hours you can contact an emergency vet. When going to the vets it's important to stay as calm as possible - the more distressed the pet gets the worse the breathing will become, so you need to make sure that you're reassuring the pet. If we're dealing with a brachycephalic breed it's also important to keep them cool so when you're in the car make sure we've got the windows down and that we keep in the pet as cool as possible.

In an emergency we always recommend contacting your local or emergency veterinary surgery.

The information in this article should never replace the advice given by your vet.

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