Loud pug!

August 2, 2009 7:52 PM

PugFilter: Should we be worried about a Pug sounding like this? Video below.

He's done this since my parents got him as a puglet, he's around 5 years old now. I know pugs often have breathing problems, and we've always just assumed this is par the course. But I'm curious if maybe this is completely whack and he needs some sort of surgery before he honks himself to death.

video.

posted by floam to pets & animals (14 comments total)

Oh, I forgot to mention. Not normally. Only once a week or so if he gets really excited. In this case we have company over and he wants to go out to where they are, but we separated him due to the honking.
posted by floam at 7:53 PM on August 2

Maybe backwards sneezing? My family had Boston terriers when I was growing up and they all did that. It's common in dogs with flat faces.
posted by sugarfish at 7:55 PM on August 2

It could be something called reverse sneezing. My shi tzu does this when she gets too excited. The vet told us to gently rub the base of her neck until she calms down. My pug doesn't do this, for what it's worth. I'd show the vet your video just to make certain, but I'm a pretty hypochondriac pet owner.
posted by jnaps at 7:57 PM on August 2

Actually our previous dog was a boston terrier, and he did reverse sneezes. They'd go away if we'd sort of massage his neck. The sound was different than this too.

This seems to be quite different, and only when he's hot/freaking out. And he walks around and acts like normal while this happens, while our boston terrier would sort of stand around and wait for it to stop.
posted by floam at 7:58 PM on August 2

That doesn't sound like backward sneezing (at least not the ones that any of the five Frenchies that I've had do). It sounds more like wheezing. My first thought was that he maybe has stenotic nares, but I couldn't see a picture of his face. The pic in the link shows really extreme stenosis. They can still have problems even if they have partial closure, especially if they are overexcited or hot.

I would take the video to your vet if you can't replicate his breathing there.
posted by dancinglamb at 8:14 PM on August 2

He seems to be somewhere inbetween the two pictures there, I think.

Just took this.
posted by floam at 8:18 PM on August 2

Oh, he is AWESOME! :)

I would strongly suspect that if you were to look at his nose while he was having one of those breathing attacks you'd see him sucking his nares in pretty hard. I'd take him to the vet and see what they have to say about it. The surgery to correct it isn't that huge of a deal, since they mainly do it with ablation. It may just be his nares, or it may also involve his septum and palate.

Does he snore and snort all the time? Sometimes gag if he gets excited? That could indicate that he has an elongated palate, which isn't uncommon in the brachycephalic guys at all.
posted by dancinglamb at 8:30 PM on August 2

My wife, who is a veterinarian, guarantees this is not reverse sneezing. She knows it when she hears it.

She says this is not out of the realm of normal for a pug. This is a dog with tiny nostrils and an elongated soft palate, as pugs have. It couldn't hurt to go to the vet to get an opinion, and she says dancinglamb has it about right.
posted by argybarg at 8:57 PM on August 2

my pug does that, he gets all excited and makes that snorting sound like he's gasping for air. i just rub his face with my hand over his nose, kind like a quick toussle and he stops usually. sometimes he stops on his own too. no biggie.
posted by fumbducker at 9:06 PM on August 2

I have two pugs. It sounds like your pug is hot, and is panting heavily due to being hot. It doesn't sound abnormal to me. It sounds like the typical heavy breathing pug.

How hot was it when you took the video?

I agree, this is not "reverse sneezing," if reverse sneezing is what I think it is.
posted by jayder at 9:07 PM on August 2

It was about 83F indoors when he was doing this today. Thanks for the ideas, everybody!
posted by floam at 9:40 PM on August 2

I think your puggy is just hot. I have three pugs, and they all struggle when the temperature gets over 80 degrees. Maybe get him a cooling bed and maybe a little fan.
posted by MorningPerson at 6:57 AM on August 3

I have 2 pugs. It just sounds like some heavy panting to me. My dogs have done this when it's been very hot out or when they've been playing/walking/running for a while. I would not be concerned unless they did it outside these circumstances and it lasted a few hours. It is definitely not reverse sneezing.
posted by disaster77 at 2:03 PM on August 3

We just hold our pug and rub her throat until she calms down. If you feel her throat when she does it, it's rock hard for some reason. Our vet laughed at the idea of a reverse sneeze and said it was more like an asthma attack.
posted by CwgrlUp at 3:59 PM on August 3