The Ultimate Guide to Reverse Sneezing in Pets: Causes, Triggers, and Treatment
Have you ever heard your pet making a concerning snorting or gasping sound? Despite trying various remedies and techniques, your pet may still be experiencing these episodes, leaving you feeling unsure of how to provide relief. In this episode of the Vet Explanation podcast, I delve into the mysterious world of reverse sneezing in pets. From the common triggers to the potential treatments, I'll help to explain it all.
What You’ll Learn:
Unearth the key contributors to reverse sneezing in pets and understand the pivotal role of prevention
Gain a better understanding of how differing breeds experience reverse sneezing.
Decide when contacting your veterinarian for aid is needed for the betterment of your pet
Obtain insights on enhancing pet well-being, learning methods to alleviate distress during reverse sneezing incidents, and realizing the significance of an irritant-free habitat.
Ideas Worth Sharing:
"Reverse sneezing may seem scary, but it's usually harmless. Take a deep breath, stay calm, and remember that your furry friend will most likely be just fine." - Tyler Sugerman
"Prevention is the best medicine when it comes to reverse sneezing. Talk to your vet about allergy medications, make environmental adjustments, and choose a harness instead of a collar to reduce irritation." - Tyler Sugerman
Read The Transcript:
Tyler: [00:00:00] Hi, and welcome to Vetsplanation. I'm your veterinary host, Dr. Sugerman, and I'm going to teach you about veterinary medicine. In this podcast, we can dive deeper into the understanding of what our pets are going through. and break down medical terms into easier to understand chunks of information. Just a quick disclaimer, this podcast is for informational purposes only.
This is not meant to be a diagnosis for your pet. If you have questions about diagnostics or treatment options, please talk to your veterinarian about those things. Remember, we are all practicing veterinary medicine, and medicine is not an exact science. Your veterinarian may have different treatment options and different opinions.
The information I provide here is to help pet parents have a better understanding about their pets. If you like our podcast, please consider sharing this podcast with at least one friend or just somebody else who has pets as well. Now let's jump into this week's episode.
Hi guys, welcome back to Vetsplanation, the podcast where we talk about all things animal health related. [00:01:00] I am your host, Dr. Sugerman, and today we have a fascinating topic to discuss. It's called reverse sneezing. So join me as we discuss this weird phenomenon of reverse sneezing in our pets.
I'm sure there's a lot of people out there who have had their pet seem like they're choking, like they literally look like they're dying for a couple of seconds and then go back to normal. You bring your pet into the vet or the emergency vet and a lot of times you're just told it's reverse sneezing.
They'll probably be fine. They just nonchalantly dismiss it. I know that's really scary for people. Most people are like is this a bad thing? Are they going to die from it? And, most of that search is a quotes, they'll be fine. It's just reverse sneezing. But let's, let's actually talk about what reverse sneezing is though.
Because that's not something that we often talk about. That's what we do here on Vetsplanation. I just talk a lot about the details of it, like why these things happen. So first I just want you to humor me here real quick. We're going to talk about what sneezing just regular sneezing is because I think it's a lot easier to understand what sneezing [00:02:00] is first and then we can talk about what reverse sneezing is.
Sneezing in general is just like a sudden forceful exhalation or like breathing out of air out of the nose. Just like really forceful, very quick, right? That's what a sneeze is. Now we're going to take the opposite of that, and we'll talk about reverse sneezing. Reverse sneezing, it's also known as inspiratory paroxysmal respiration.
I don't know who makes up these terms, but just breaking that down. It means that it's a respiratory reflex, mostly seen in dogs, although it can be seen in cats as well, but mostly in dogs. It is a very sudden, rapid, forceful inhalation or breathing into you. The nose to remember sneezing, very forceful, rapid breathing out of the nose, reverse sneezing, very sudden, rapid, forceful inhalation or breathing into the nose that can sound like really alarming, but it's it resembles like a backward sneeze or like [00:03:00] a honking type noise is the most common way that it's described. Why does reverse sneezing happen in dogs and cats reverse sneezing often occurs due to an irritation or inflammation of the nasal passages. It can also be like where the nasal passages meets the mouth as well. That's the biggest area where we see that. Some common triggers are going to be things like allergies, foreign bodies like grass or pollen, respiratory infections, just excitement, eating and drinking can do it.
Things that have a lot of smells to them, like chemicals when you're cleaning or even things like perfume and then abrupt changes in temperature can cause that or even things like illnesses, such as viruses and infections can cause that as well. Let's talk about how there are certain breeds that are prone to reverse sneezing.
There definitely is. While reverse sneezing can affect any breed, like I said it can even affect [00:04:00] cats as well, but any breed of dog, smaller dog breeds such as like Chihuahuas, Miniature Pinschers, French Bulldogs, things like that, tend to be more susceptible to reverse sneezing than larger dogs.
Additionally, Brachycephalic breeds, these are things that have a very flat nose. So things like Bulldogs, Pugs, Shih Tzus Boston Terriers, Frenchies, those all are brachycephalic breeds and may experience more frequently some reverse sneezing due to they're just unique upper respiratory system or their unique upper respiratory anatomy.
To help you understand what their anatomy is that causes this. If you put your tongue on that, like the roof of your mouth, on the top of your mouth, you'll feel something really hard. That's called the hard palate. If you move your tongue towards the back of your towards your throat, is like as far close to your throat as possible.
You feel like this really soft like squishy area that is your soft palate.[00:05:00] That soft palate, it sits in the middle of their airway. For us you have to go pretty far up to be able to touch it. But for brachycephalic dogs, it hangs down a bit and it sits very much in the airway.
So if you have your airway like this, you have it'll hang down like pretty far down like this.
But for them, their soft palate, it can get stuck inside their throat while they're trying to inhale and it causes them to forcefully inhale air because they're trying to breathe in and that's otherwise known as reverse sneezing. For small dogs in general, they think it's just because of the fact that their trachea or their windpipe or air pipe is just much smaller than in large breed dogs.
And so it just makes it a little bit easier for things to irritate their throat. If a little toy poodle were to inhale a teeny tiny grass awn, that's going to irritate them more because their trachea is smaller than if it was a really large dog, let's say a Labrador that inhaled this teeny tiny grass awn, it probably wouldn't notice [00:06:00] it very much.
Cats can get reverse sneezing, but it's just, like I said, it's not as common. It's in dogs. However, I do feel like if you think that your cat is having reverse sneezing, it's a really good idea to have your cat evaluated for feline asthma. So we do worry that maybe it could be asthma, not actually reverse sneezing. And we did cover feline asthma in episode 36 of the podcast. If you want to go back to listen to that, you can also find it on YouTube under feline asthma. Let's talk about how we can like differentiate between reverse sneezing and other respiratory issues. This is a really, often asked question.
One of the key characteristics of reverse sneezing is that it has a really distinct sound it produces. It's often described as like a snorting or a gasping noise during inhalation or trying to breathe in. Additionally, reverse sneezing, like during that episode, like a pet tends to extend their [00:07:00] neck and they stand very still and they appear to be like clearing something out of their throat or nasal passage.
Like I said, people often feel like it looks like they're choking or dying. So it is a super scary thing to watch the first time you see it. I'm going to put a video in here and of my own dog during reverse sneezing. So you can see an example of that.
Tyler: Is reverse sneezing harmful or is this a benign thing? Meaning is this like very non harmful thing? So in most cases reverse sneezing is harmless and it's usually resolves just on its own within seconds to up to a minute or so. Reverse sneezing itself really requires treatment.
However, it is a good idea to have your pet evaluated by a veterinarian, especially if the episode becomes more frequent or longer in duration or if there are other like concerning [00:08:00] signs that are accompanying it, such as like difficulty breathing, coughing, nasal discharge, not wanting to eat, vomiting, things like that.
What are some of the diagnostics that might be done when you go into the vet? One of the simplest first steps is we will sometimes sedate your pet so we can look up the nose and in the back of the throat. We'll look up the nose with something that's called an otoscope. When you go to your regular doctor, they'll put something in your ears or you might notice we do it at the vet clinic.
We put this little tiny scope in their ears and it's the point it's originally intended for oto means an ear. So oto-scope, meaning that we're taking something that we're looking into the ear. But the problem is with an otoscope, like we can't see very far up the nose because you have the nose and then you have all of these little things called turbinates up inside of the nose, we can't see through any of that.
Really, we can just see like a very small amount into the nose. But we're going to be looking for [00:09:00] obvious things like foreign bodies. So like grass awns are a really common thing. We'll also look behind the throat, like where behind that soft palate is. So we can see if we can see any like grass awns there or sometimes we'll find polyps and things which is just like this little ball of soft tissue that's in the back of the throat.
Some veterinarians might also perform radiographs. Those are otherwise known as x rays of usually like the head like the neck and the chest. So for this we're looking for a couple things. One we're looking for things like collapsing trachea. We're looking for heart problems and also for asthma.
You can check out information on collapsing trachea in episode 30, which is often very confused with reverse sneezing, and reverse sneezing can be a symptom of collapsing trachea, so I do think it's a good idea to be able to watch both of these. Radiographs of the nose are really hard because there's tons and tons of bone and cartilage and stuff in there, and it's [00:10:00] really confusing to see whether there's actually an object that's in there or not, or if there's fluid in there that we can't see past the fluid.
So radiographs of the nose are not always very helpful. Usually a CT or rhinoscopy are the most accurate things to use. A rhinoscopy is where they put a camera up in the nose and that way you can actually see into the nasal passages and you can see into all of those little folds that are inside the nose as well.
Rhinoscopies are hard. Not everybody's going to be able to have the capacity to do rhinoscopies. You may have to go to a specialty hospital to do that. And so a lot of times if you have this not resolving, then usually that's a really good idea to go see a specialist for that.
Let's talk about some of the treatment options. If this is due to the pet just reverse sneezing, then there really isn't a treatment option. It will likely just resolve on its own. Prevention is going to be the best medicine here. So if you have a pet that has allergies you can see a veterinarian about [00:11:00] allergy medication. If you notice that your pet does this a lot when you wear perfume, then it might mean just not wearing perfume anymore.
If you notice that it happens when you clean the floors or you're cleaning the house, you're dusting, things like that, then it might be a better idea just to put your pet into another room until you're done dusting, done sweeping, done using chemicals, and all of that has just aired out. You could also make sure that your pet is on a harness, not a collar.
A harness is great because it goes around the shoulders and it doesn't pull on the neck. Same thing for gentle leaders. So that's the little ones that go like a little piece of cloth that goes around the nose because it pulls on the nose and not the throat. So gentle leaders harnesses fantastic for these dogs who have collapsing tracheas and also for those who have reverse sneezing.
Some doctors will put your pet on medication. One of them might be ivermectin or a flea prevention. If they think that this could be due to nasal mites, which is not a very common thing, but something that can [00:12:00] cause this. If they feel like nasal mites are a possibility, then they might put them on medication for that.
Otherwise, some will suggest doing an antihistamine, or basically something for allergies. So it stops the allergy from happening, so hopefully they don't get this reverse sneezing. Otherwise, if there's like an underlying condition, then we're going to be treating the underlying condition. And like I said, not necessarily the reverse sneezing itself. So let's talk about what everyone's question probably is, how can we as pet parents help our furry little friends during these reverse sneezing episodes?
Some of the things that people have suggested to do are one is to massage the pet's throat so you just put your hand or your fingers on their throat here You actually feel like they're trachea which is this firm thing in the middle and just like rubbing their throat. You do that for a couple of seconds so that way it hopefully stops the spasm that's happening.
Some people suggest covering their nostrils. Just put your hands over their nostrils for a few seconds, so that that way they will swallow and [00:13:00] then hopefully clears that whatever's irritating their passageway. Some people also suggest blowing in their nose as well. I think that that one's kind of a hard one because then the dog gets afraid of you like blowing into them. When you do that I've had some dogs that have freaked out. over it. And so I don't always suggest that one, but it is something that you can do as well.
And then most importantly, it is really important for you to stay calm. You need to know is this happening for long periods? Is your pet passing out from it? Are they having difficulty breathing afterwards because of it? Because if so, then that's when we need to bring them into the vet hospital. If they do this reverse sneezing and then they seem okay afterwards, then you're probably okay.
Additionally, if you suspect that like allergies, may be the cause. You avoiding those things, those triggers, like I said, pollen dust mites, like keeping them out of the rooms when you're going to be cleaning, like prevention is the best thing that you can do for them. Keeping the environment clean and eliminating some of those potential irritants that can also [00:14:00] help reduce the occurrence of the reverse sneezing, but may not get rid of it completely.
All right. So we're going to talk about our fun animal fact for today. Today, I decided to talk about animals whose eyes are bigger than their brains.
Most people think that if you have a smaller brain, that it means that that animal is not very smart. But we're going to talk about like one of the biggest ones. So we're gonna talk about ostriches first. Compared to normal birds, their brains are a lot smaller and the ostriches has a fairly small brain, but it's not because they're dumb animals.
They use other senses to be able to help them, not just their brain. Their biggest sense is going to be their eyes because their eyes are much larger. It helps them to see. If you, I feel like I sound like the big bad wolf right now, the better to see you with dear, but the point is that you using these really large eyes to help them see predators really far away is really critical for them because they're able to be able to [00:15:00] run away faster, they can hide faster, and they can respond faster than what a normal bird would be able to do.
And they're also like, not the only animals who have these large eyes or larger than their brains. There are also other animals as well, like owls, owls have really large eyes. And again, that's to see farther away. They're actually able to see for hunting not as much for for being a prey animal.
They're more a predator animal, but still there are animals that do try to eat owls as well. So it's really good for helping them see. It helps them see at night as well. So they have much, much larger eyes.
There's a small primate called a tarsier that they have really large eyes as well. They'll just look like a small monkey.
Sea spiders, so things in the ocean as well.
Honeybees. thing. Insects, spiders, mantis, shrimps, and then sea urchins as well. And I'm sure everybody was surprised by me saying, a sea urchin doesn't have [00:16:00] eyes, but it does have eyes. It actually has four of them in fact.
And these eyes are so large that it actually takes up about 10% of the sea urchin's body weight. It's pretty crazy, right?
All right. Thank you all for tuning in for this episode of Vetsplanation. We hope you found this information valuable and that it helps you navigate the world of reverse sneezing so you have a better understanding the next time your veterinarian says, it's probably just going to be reverse sneezing.
Stay tuned for more intriguing topics on this next episode of Vetsplanation. Until then, remember, pet owners, knowledge and understanding play a key crucial role to promoting the well being and health of our furry friends. So keep your pets happy, healthy, and well loved. Thanks guys.
Thank you guys for listening this week. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or you just want to say hi, you can email me at suggs, S U G G S @ Vetsplanationpodcast.com or visit the [00:17:00] website at Vetsplanationpodcast.com or find us on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok at Vetsplanation. Thank you all for listening and I'll see you back here next week.