Respiratory Distress
What is respiratory distress?
Respiratory distress means ‘trouble breathing’ and is a fairly common emergency in both dogs and cats.
Many different diseases can cause pets to have trouble breathing.
Distress occurs when the pet cannot maintain a normal oxygen or carbon dioxide level in the blood.
What are the clinical signs?
Signs can vary depending on the pet, type and severity of disease.
Common things to look for include: increased respiratory rate, increased noise when breathing, reluctance to lie down, labored breathing, or a blue color to the gums (they should normally be pink).
A major sign of distress in cats is open mouth breathing – since in contrast to dogs, cats do not pant.
Respiratory distress may occur suddenly (i.e. due to overheating or an obstruction of the airways) or with a slow onset (i.e. due to fluid in the lungs or cancer). Either way, if you notice respiratory distress in your pet, contact us immediately since the disease may be life-threatening if left untreated.
How do we diagnose respiratory distress?
We listen to the lungs to listen for abnormal sounds. Muffled sounds may indicate fluid within the chest. Noises such as crackles or wheezes may indicate changes within the lung tissue.
Increased noise from the upper airway heard without the stethoscope may indicate an airway obstruction. Immediate further exam of the oral cavity is needed to check for anything abnormal in the airway.
Chest radiographs (x-rays) will check for fluid within the chest cavity or changes to the lung tissue. Blood work can be done to look at oxygen and carbon dioxide levels and give valuable information in regards to severity and location of the problem. If fluid is present in the chest we can remove it and look at a sample under the microscope to find out the reason for the fluid accumulation.
Additional diagnostics and treatment will depend on the underlying cause.
How do you treat respiratory distress?
Severely affected pets may need immediate oxygen therapy.
If the pet is unstable without oxygen supplementation aggressive diagnostics may not be possible immediately. We will postpone diagnostics until these can be safely performed.
Treatment will depend on the underlying disease. The most common causes in dogs include heart disease, pneumonia (infection of the lungs), trauma, and airway obstruction. The most common causes in cats include asthma, heart disease, pleural effusion (fluid in the chest), and trauma.
Pets that cannot maintain a normal oxygen or carbon dioxide level may need to be placed on a ventilator (which is like general anesthesia where a machine is breathing for your pet and providing additional oxygen to the body).
Follow-up & Prognosis
These patients can be very critical. Respiratory distress can be a very dynamic syndrome and these patients can change very quickly.
The overall prognosis will depend on the underlying disease and extent of lung compromise; however, many diseases can be treated successfully if diagnosed early enough.
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