Willow has started doing what I think is a reverse sneeze every now and again. It almost sounds like a wheeze, but through her nose, and she's definitely sucking air in. She has just done about six or seven of them. It's been happening maybe once a week for the last four weeks. I'm wondering if it could be allergies, although I don't see any other sign of them (no gummy eyes, discharge from her nose etc). Do some dogs just do this? It doesn't seem frequent enough to be a persistent problem, such as something stuck in her nasal passage or an inflammation. Any ideas?
I haven't Fiona as I don't think I've seen it as you describe it...I'd have definitely noticed a wheeze. Is there a lot of pollen about by you now,?It could be something like that and like you say her nasal tracts have become a bit irritated and inflamed....
The first time I heard her do it was in the UK. I suffer very mildly from hayfever, and I noticed my eyes and nose getting a bit itchy while I was there. Since being back home, where nature runs rather behind the UK, she didn't do it for a while, but has done it a couple of times in the last couple of weeks. Again, my eyes have just recently started to feel a bit hayfever-dry here. It's always been after a walk and she does love to stick her head in the long grass for a good sniff (don't they all?!). So I'm wondering if I'm just putting the two things together in my head because they seem to make sense. Are they actually related? With it being so infrequent, and not normally as prolonged as this morning's episode, it's something that I dismissed as just something up her nose the first couple of times.
Reverse sneezing is frequently associated with allergy so I think you might be on the right track here. I would watch and wait and if she doesn't have any other symptoms I would do nothing but it is an interesting phenomenon. Not all dogs with allergies reverse sneeze, and not all dogs with reverse sneezing show any other signs of allergies so it is a bit of an odd one.
Thanks, Julie. You've put my mind at ease. I didn't think it was anything serious with the lack of any other symptoms and the infrequency of it, despite Dr Google MRCVS trying to convince me otherwise, but having someone who knows what they're talking about reply is a real help
Every dog I've had has done this and it's been related to allergies. Myles has been doing it occasionally without showing any other signs of allergies. I've come to accept it as somewhat normal
My GSP used to reverse sneeze and I am sure it wasn't due to any allergies in her case. I used to massage her throat and that sometimes helped.
