Why is my dog wheezing?

May 30, 2011 2:54 PM

YANMV - What is my dog doing in this YouTube video? Is she OK? (Apologies for bad sound).

My dog Wynette has been making this occasional wheezing/huffing/hiccupping sound recently. The sound is terrible in the video, but essentially each sort of "lurching" movement is accompanied by a huff of air. It'll last for 30 seconds to a minute or so, and I've seen her do it maybe 10 times. She's a healthy, 35 pound mutt with some food allergies who eats or chews most everything she can get her jaws on.

My theories:

- Hair in her throat (she's shedding and licks the floor all the time).
- Hiccups.
- Some sort of doggie crying.

I'm more than happy to take her to the vet if this looks like a problem, and I love my vet, but they charge $50 for a quick visit and I'd rather keep the money if it turns out to be explainable and not concerning. I can also give them a call, but they always encourage me to come in, and they're closed today and a bout of brief panic made me think to ask the Hive before tomorrow.

Thanks for any thoughts you may have!

posted by ORthey to pets & animals (9 answers total)

Looks like hiccups to me
posted by torisaur at 2:56 PM on May 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

That does look like hiccups.
posted by dortmunder at 2:57 PM on May 30, 2011

hiccups.
posted by virginia_clemm at 3:05 PM on May 30, 2011

Looks like hiccups to me, too. If you search on youtube for dog hiccups, you'll find a lot of videos. There are probably enough that look and sound like what your dog is going through to allay your fears.
posted by phunniemee at 3:08 PM on May 30, 2011

Hiccups is the winner. I just googled dog hiccups, which of course I should have done in the first place (duh), and it definitely seems like that's what it is. Puppies get them a lot when they eat or drink too quickly, or get overexcited, which fits her to a T.

Thanks folks!
posted by ORthey at 3:11 PM on May 30, 2011

She's gorgeous, and seems to have the hiccups. So cute. mawwww
posted by Diag at 3:28 PM on May 30, 2011

I've had luck sending video to my vet before, in case something like this comes up again. In my case, it was severe and necessitated a trip to the local vet school hospital, but it was nice that the Dr. was willing to give me an e-mail address.
posted by amtho at 3:36 PM on May 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

Reverse sneezing is another fun dog noise to watch out for. It looks like Wynette has some hound in her - my two hounds seem to do it more than my other two non-hounds.

Don't worry - reverse sneezing rarely (IME) results in dog barf all over the carpet, even though it sure sounds like the precursor to a Major Horking Incident.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 3:38 PM on May 30, 2011

I think it looks more like she's doing the heaving preliminary to throwing up, but manages to control it.
posted by jamjam at 3:59 PM on May 30, 2011