Heart, lungs & airways
Breathing & Airways
Coughing, noisy or laboured breathing: spotting the emergencies and managing chronic airway disease.
5 topics · 45 guides from PetsLikeMine
Who can help near you
- Your vet1 kind
- Specialists2 kinds
- Emergency care1 kind
Listed by distance from you. Nobody pays to be listed.
Feline Asthma
7 guides from PetsLikeMine
Feline Asthma: The Complete GuideMost cats reach a feline asthma diagnosis by a roundabout route. For months the cat does that thing, crouching low, neck stretched out, hacking away as if a hairball is…13 min read · on PetsLikeMine Cat Having an Asthma Attack: What to Do Right NowRead this paragraph first, then the rest. A cat breathing with its mouth open, or with blue, grey or very pale gums, or heaving hard from the belly to get air, is in a…12 min read · on PetsLikeMine How to Give a Cat an Inhaler: The AeroKat Technique, Step by StepHanding an owner an inhaler for their cat usually earns a long, doubtful pause. A cat. An inhaler. The picture that comes to mind is a wrestling match twice a day for…12 min read · on PetsLikeMine
All 7 guides on this topic
Brachycephalic Airway Syndrome (BOAS)
8 guides from PetsLikeMine
Flat-Faced Dog Breathing: Normal, or Dangerous?You know the soundtrack already. The soft snore from the dog bed that everyone finds adorable. The little snort when they get excited at the door. The snuffle on a walk…11 min read · on PetsLikeMine BOAS Surgery: Should We Operate, or Not?Operate, or not. That is the question this piece is built around, and it's one of the harder ones in flat-faced medicine. Maybe your vet raised surgery after listening…12 min read · on PetsLikeMine Flat-Faced Dogs and Heatstroke: The Rules That Save LivesFor a flat-faced dog, heatstroke is not a hot-summer worry to file away for July. It is a fast, year-round killer, and the difference between a dog that recovers and a…13 min read · on PetsLikeMine
All 8 guides on this topic
- BOAS Explained: Why Your Flat-Faced Dog Struggles to Breathe 10 min
- How Bad Is My Dog's BOAS? Grading Explained, and What You Can Check at Home 12 min
- BOAS Surgery: What It Involves and the Week-by-Week Recovery 11 min
- Living With a Brachycephalic Dog: The Everyday Playbook 11 min
- Thinking of Getting a Flat-Faced Dog? What to Weigh First 12 min
Collapsing Trachea
6 guides from PetsLikeMine
Collapsing Trachea Explained: The Goose-Honk CoughA small dog, often a little older, suddenly produces a cough so dry and harsh it genuinely sounds like a goose honking. It tends to land at the worst moments: when the…11 min read · on PetsLikeMine Stent or Medication? How to Think About the Tracheal Collapse DecisionThe diagnosis is probably already made by the time you reach a page like this. Your small dog has a collapsing windpipe, the honking cough has a name, and someone, a…12 min read · on PetsLikeMine Calming a Chronic Cough at Home: The Daily Things That Genuinely HelpA dog with a collapsing windpipe, or a long-term cough of some other airway kind, usually comes home from the consult with a diagnosis explained and a tablet or two to…11 min read · on PetsLikeMine
Laryngeal Paralysis
6 guides from PetsLikeMine
Laryngeal Paralysis Explained: Reading the First Signs in an Older DogLaryngeal paralysis usually creeps in so gently that you only see it looking back. The bark sounds a bit different first, hoarser or oddly quiet, as though your dog has…12 min read · on PetsLikeMine GOLPP: Why Laryngeal Paralysis Is a Whole-Body ConditionA diagnosis of laryngeal paralysis in an older dog usually comes with three things: it's a problem with the voice box, the breathing can be helped, and there's an…11 min read · on PetsLikeMine Tie-Back Surgery for Laryngeal Paralysis: How to DecideA specialist has mentioned a "tie-back", quoted a number that made you blink, and somewhere in the small print was the word aspiration. The dog in question is usually…12 min read · on PetsLikeMine
Kennel Cough
4 guides from PetsLikeMine
Kennel Cough: Serious or Not?Kennel cough nearly always announces itself a day or two after something sociable: a weekend in boarding kennels, a busy morning at daycare, a training class, or just a…12 min read · on PetsLikeMine How Long Does Kennel Cough Last?In an otherwise-well dog, kennel cough usually clears in one to three weeks. That's the short answer, and it's worth having up front before the detail underneath it…10 min read · on PetsLikeMine Kennel Cough: Vaccination, Spread and How Not to Pass It OnEvery autumn we get the same call. A dog comes home from a weekend in boarding kennels, or a busy day at daycare, and a few days later starts up with that unmistakable…11 min read · on PetsLikeMine
All 4 guides on this topic
More guides
14 from PetsLikeMine
Is My Pet's Breathing an Emergency?Breathing is the one symptom where the order you do things in actually matters, so start with the question that decides everything else: is this an emergency right now?…12 min read · on PetsLikeMine Why Is My Dog Coughing? Is It the Heart or the Lungs?A cough almost always shows up at the wrong time of day. A dog brings up a dry, hacking cough after a drink, or a soft one that worsens the moment they settle for the…13 min read · on PetsLikeMine Noisy Breathing: When It's Just a Snore, and When It's DangerousA noise on the breath can mean almost nothing or quite a lot, and from the noise alone it's genuinely hard to tell which. Maybe it's a snore that's louder than it used…12 min read · on PetsLikeMine
All 14 guides here
- Reverse Sneezing in Dogs and Cats: Alarming to Watch, Usually Harmless 10 min
- How Pets Breathe: What's Normal, and When to Worry 13 min
- Living With a Breathing Condition: The Daily Playbook 12 min
- Harness, Not Collar: The Free Daily Change That Takes Pressure Off Your Dog's Airway 11 min
- Making Your Home a Place for Easy Breathing 11 min
- When Breathing Gets Harder: Comfort, Quality of Life and the Hard Days 12 min
- Pneumonia: Nursing Your Pet Through Recovery at Home 12 min
- Pulmonary Fibrosis ("Westie Lung"): A Straight Guide for the Hard Diagnosis 13 min
- Lungworm in UK Dogs: The Honest Facts, Without the Hard Sell 11 min
- The Snotty Nose That Won't Clear: Causes, and When to Investigate 14 min
- Belly Breathing in a Cat: The Fluid-Around-the-Lungs Emergency 11 min
Find care near you
Your breathing & airways care team
These are the practitioners this condition can call for, from your everyday vet to specialists and therapists. Enter your postcode to see who's near you at each step.
- Your vet (primary care)
Internal-medicine specialist ·Referral hospital
Emergency / out-of-hours vet
Understand the condition
Clinical background on vetcanon, the ConciergeVet reference library. Vetcanon is published by Concierge Vet LTD, which also operates PetCare Atlas.
With PetsLikeMine
Read the whole journey on PetsLikeMine
Every breathing & airways guide, in order, sits in its own space on PetsLikeMine, written by owners and vets who have been through it. We show the first few here and link to the rest.
Read every breathing & airways guide