What on earth was this, please?

[pigsDOfly]

Wonder if someone can help me with what happened to my dog last night.

Just a normal evening sitting around when she suddenly started making this weird noise, sort of a cross between a held in repeated sneezing and the sort of noise a cat makes prior to vomiting, her body was doing the whole in and out thing to a cat does when it vomits.

She looked a bit alarmed by it and tbh it looked pretty alarming. I've never seen this happen before, normally on the very rare occasions when she's vomited it's been very calm and quiet. Thoughts were going through my head of poison she might have picked up on our last walk, which was in the dark and emergency visits to the vet etc.

Anyway, it stopped as suddenly as it started and she was fine. She sat and stared intently at me for a bit in a sort of 'what the hell did you just do to me' way and then she wanted to play a chasing game and we were back to normal.

I did wonder if it was reverse sneezing, heard of it, never seen it as far as I know, or she could just have been about to bring something up but it never happened - she hadn't eaten at this point.

I'd be very grateful for any words of wisdom.

Sounds like reverse sneezing to me. My beagle gets it and at first it was alarming but now we know what it is its grand.
When he does it, I just pet him and make soothing noises and I read that if you squeeze their nostrils it helps it stop. That seems to work too.

I googled it and saw a few videos and it was exactly what Enzo was doing.

Of course , if you have any concerns maybe video your dog doing it if it happens again and have a word with the vet.

Sounds like reverse sneeze. My chihuahuas do it often. Vet says it's totally benign but I still find it a bit alarming.

Hiccups? My dog does this about once a month. It's quite cute really.

Thank you so much for your replies. You've set my mind at rest.

I'll know not to get alarmed about it if it happens again; would never have guessed reverse sneezing would look so violent, it sounds so innocuous.

Never thought to goggle it, but I'll do that and see if I can see a video. Someone's bound to have stuck it on you tube:)

Definitely not hiccups Blood it was too violent. It actually looked quite unpleasant and dog was clearly not happy.

My dogs don't look happy when it occurs but their vet, an ER vet and a vet tech friend all have assured me it's not harmful so I try to relax and make my voice sound jolly to reassure the dogs. Distracting them with a trip outdoors to relieve tgemselves or a treat sometimes helps.

What causes reverse sneezing? My dog's done it a couple of times and it is definitely very dramatic

I Googled reverse sneezing and there's a really interesting video by Dr Karen Becker explaining the whole thing Noits, sorry I don't know how to link.

It literally is a reverse sneeze, air is sucked inwards instead of outwards as in a normal sneeze.

The causes can be quite wide ranging but apparently it generally affects small and brachycephalic breeds because of the elongated soft palate.

Basically, Dr Becker says the same as the posters on here. I knew I could rely on the wisdom of the doghouse to come up with the answer:)

This is exactly what my whippet has been doing. I'm pretty sure it's reverse sneezing after seeing videos of it. He was diagnosed with kennel cough a few weeks previously and I'm not sure if it was actually reverse sneezing or a result of the kennel cough.

It definitely sounds like a reverse sneeze. My dog had never done one in my presence till a couple of months ago then had days worth of them, and now if she gets it it'll be for two days and then nothing again for weeks.it is pretty alarming as they really seem to be struggling to catch breath sometimes. I've never managed to work out the trigger, but the first time it was definitely something in her environment as she did it for a day then all the other dogs started to, then they all stopped two days later.

My dog had similar while still a pup. It can be as a result of an inappropriate collar. Many breeds like greyhounds for example have particularly sensitive necks which can be prone to injury if a thin collar is used. Mines leaped full on towards another dog as we past it and spent the following two or three days sounding like a cat with a furball. Ditched the collar and got her a martingale. Problem solved.