Fast breathing?

[SkySpirit]

I have an 11 month old dog, she's a mix of GSD/Border collie and sheltie. I've noticed that she seems to breathe pretty fast alot....But other than that she seems totally fine. Is this something I should bring her to the vet to get checked out.....Or is it normal? I can't really say how fast she breathes, but she breathes faster than my smaller dogs. (Maltese and chinese crested)

[doberkim]

im confused -
is she panting? is she doing this all the time? or just sometimes? is she doing this after a lot of exercise? is it hot out? or is she just laying around the house sometimes and starts to breathe fast? does she open her mouth, or is it just her chest moving?

[oriondw]

Yeah, extremely fast panting. My dog does it sometimes after a load of exercizes when he overworked a little bit. Nothing has come out of it takes a hour or so to completely recover.

I dont really know about any medical sideeffects, read im not a vet, but my dog does it and he's ok :)

[SkySpirit]

No, just breathing real fast through her nose. When I first got her I thought it was just cause she was hot because she was panting too, but now that I've gotten this place cooled down for her she still does it. It's most noticeable when she's relaxing...I would take her to the vet, but I know my mom won't pay the money unless I have a valid reason....So I just need to know if it's normal or something she should have checked out.....

[doberkim]

well, how often does it happen? does she do it all the time, or just occassionally? is she awake when it happens? is she always laying down? how fast is she breathing? does it seem labored (a lot of effort to breath - is she having trouble breathing) or just fast?

[SkySpirit]

she does it almost all the time - she's just really loud when she's relaxing so its more noticeable - but when she's not i can put my head to her chest and feel it moving real fast but she's not loud.....And its both when she's awake and asleep.....although its sometimes hard to tell when she's asleep cause she sleeps with her eyes open...o.o heh its kinda creepy...I can tell if she's sleeping or not by moving my hand in front of her eyes (they dont really roll back for some reason o.O) lol o.o anyways
No, it doesnt really sound labored, just loud and fast.....I don't know how fast maybe about 2 or 3 breaths in a second.

[doberkim]

maybe you should realy count how many breaths she takes in a minute - a respiratory rate of 120-180 breaths per minute with dogs would not allow for adequate ventilation, i dont think!

is she taking full deep breaths or just shallow breaths?

[doberkim]

is she sniffing?

[SkySpirit]

hmmm.....when i put my head near her to time for the minute thing - i did it 3 times and it varied alot. the first time it was like I dunno I lost count in the 80's before the minute was over because she decided she didn't want to stay still anymore, then the second time her breathing was perfectly normal (In my opinion of what normal is.....similar rate as my boxer breathes) until the end of the minute where she started breathing faster again, then the 3rd minute was varying from fast to slow.....she got restless in that minute too......and no not sniffing....just breathing.....erm.....I don't know how to tell if it's full breaths or shallow breaths.....

[SummerRiot]

Riot breathes really fast when hes relaxing lol he sounds like a little pig. Its normaly for him, even when he was a really little puppy he used to breath fairly heavily..

Our Shelties dont breathe heavy though, even when they have worked themself hard in the backyard, only then is it that they pant. I know Border Collies like to workthem self pretty hard, but i have never seen one at rest pant or breathe fast.

If you are slightly worried about it, just give your vet a phone call and ask them if its something that you should be bringing your pup in for. A phone call is free ;)

[SkySpirit]

lol, yeah, Ruby (My boxer) snorts when she breathes lol.
Ohhh that's a good idea! I will do that, thanks.......I never knew you could do that.

[Ratboy]

Molly did this and it drove us crazy. She panted all the time, and her spacey green eyes that were dialated made us think something was wrong with her. A lot of tests and cash later, we found out she had hip dysplasia, that's it, all her blood and urine tests came back perfect.. I had them run tests on King and Molly a couple weeks ago, just to see if everything was ok, and everything came back excellent.

The vet's diagnosis?

"Well, she's just a hyper dog"

And over 6 years later, she still pants a lot, and the eyes are still dialated most of the time. And she's still hyper as hell.