This past weekend I learned about something I never even imagined existed. Reverse sneezing. Saturday morning as my girlfriend and I were prepping for a trip to Yankee Stadium we noticed our dog, Grace an American Staffordshire terrier, was having these convulsion like episodes. She was inhaling air in these huge, forceful gulps and gasps that sounded like very loud pig grunts or something. It did not look very comfortable at all. She had actually started doing it Friday morning, only mildly so, but the next day Saturday it was impossible to ignore that she was having some kind of issue.

I had taken Grace to the vet just a few days before for her routine shots & at first thought perhaps she was having some type of allergic reaction. I called the vet and described what was happening and was told to bring her in immediately. Couple hundred bucks later, I find out she has a condition known as a reverse sneeze. She is now on a regimen of steroids and antibiotics. The vet told me normally they don’t treat medically unless it is absolutely necessary and in Graces case she felt it was only because of the frequency and severity of the episodes. Even while we were chatting about her, Grace was indeed heaving away.

She seems to be responding to the meds as we have noticed her episodes have come down to just one or two minor incidents a day, that we can see at least. She does seem much happier now too. Honestly, as much as I dreaded having to take her to the vet yet again, I am much happier now too. I hate to see one of my pets suffer unnecessarily.

If you’d like to know more about this reversed sneeze phenomenon, please click here.

Popularity: 4% [?]