Plenty of things that frighten owners at two in the morning can safely wait for their own vet. Breathing trouble is not one of them. It is the emergency where the gap between arriving now and arriving in three hours changes the outcome most, and it is also one of the easiest to talk yourself out of.
What breathing trouble actually looks like
Owners expect gasping. Far more often it is quieter than that, and the quiet version is what gets missed.
- A cat breathing with its mouth open. Cats do not pant. A cat with an open mouth, outside of a few minutes after hard play or a stressful car ride, is in trouble.
- Effort you can see. The belly working with each breath, the chest and abdomen moving in opposite directions, the ribs flaring.
- A posture. Neck stretched out, elbows held away from the body, standing or sitting rather than lying down, and refusing to settle however tired they look.
- Gum colour. Pale, grey, blue or brick red instead of bubblegum pink. Pink gums are not an all-clear, though, because colour changes late — and an animal low on red cells can be in serious trouble and never look blue at all.
- A fast resting rate. Wait until they have been properly asleep for a quarter of an hour and are lying still, because twitching and paddling push the number up on their own. Then count the breaths for thirty seconds and double it. Comfortably under thirty is normal for a sleeping adult dog, and under thirty-five for a cat. Above those is worth a phone call, and well above is worth a drive. Learn your own pet’s usual figure now, while they are well, because the comparison is what makes the count worth anything.
- Not being able to do their normal thing. Stopping on the stairs, lying down on a walk, a cat who will not come downstairs.
That sleeping breathing rate is the most useful number an owner can learn. It is closer to a measurement than a guess, and it does not depend on how worried you are. It is not a perfect screen, though. Pain and stress raise it too, and a normal count does not rule trouble out if the rest of this list fits.
Why it is urgent even when they look stable
Animals compensate for a long time and then stop compensating very suddenly. A dog or cat who is working hard to breathe is spending enormous effort to look as well as they do, and that effort is not sustainable. The ones who arrive in the worst shape are usually the ones who were watched for a few hours first.
Short-faced dogs and cats have less room to spare than most, and heat or stress can tip them over quickly. For a pug, a bulldog, a French bulldog or a Persian, a quiet car and a fast drive matter even more than usual.
There is also no way to tell the cause from the outside, and the causes are genuinely different problems. Fluid in the chest, fluid in the lungs, a heart that has started to fail, airways that have narrowed, a chest injury, severe anemia and a swallowed object all present as an animal struggling to breathe. Several of them are fixable within the hour. None of them improves by waiting.
What to do on the way
- Call us first. We will tell you to come straight in, and we will have oxygen and a team ready at the door rather than meeting you cold.
- Keep handling to the absolute minimum. This matters more than anything else on this list. Stress uses oxygen. Do not bathe them, do not force a cat out of hiding roughly, do not pass them around the family.
- Carry rather than walk them if they are small enough, and let them choose their own position.
- Use a carrier with the top off or the door open for a cat, so they are contained without being pressed.
- Nothing by mouth. No water, no food, no household remedies. An animal struggling to breathe can inhale what you give them.
- Keep the car cool and quiet. Windows down a little, radio off, one person talking.
- Bring what you know. Anything your own vet already has them on, anything they might have got into, and roughly when it started.
Our emergency medical services start oxygen and stabilize before anything else happens, because a breathing animal is in no state to be investigated. In-house imaging and laboratory work then tell us which of those causes we are dealing with, usually within the first hour, and emergency surgery is on site for the cases that need it rather than being a transfer somewhere else.
Our hours
We are the after-hours emergency clinic for Surrey and the communities around it, open when most clinics are not. Monday to Friday from 5:00 pm to 8:00 am, Saturday from 4:00 pm to 8:00 am, and Sundays and statutory holidays for the full twenty-four hours. No referral is needed and we see dogs and cats only.
Check the clock against those hours before you drive. If your pet is struggling to breathe while your own veterinary clinic is open — on a weekday during the day, or on a Saturday morning or early afternoon — call them first, because they will be closer. From 5:00 pm on weekdays, from 4:00 pm on Saturday, and at any hour on a Sunday or a statutory holiday, come straight to us. Either way, do not wait for the morning to see whether it settles.
Common questions
My dog is panting a lot. Is that the same thing?
Not usually. Panting with a relaxed face and body after exercise, heat or excitement is normal cooling. Panting that will not stop in a cool, quiet room, or that comes with the effort and posture described above, is different.
My cat was breathing fast but has settled. Do I still come?
Yes, call us. Cats hide respiratory trouble extremely well, and a cat who settles after an episode has often simply found a position that works. The underlying reason has not gone anywhere.
Should I give oxygen at home if I have a cylinder?
No. Improvised oxygen rarely reaches the animal usefully and the handling involved usually costs more than it gains. Spend that time driving.
Can you tell me over the phone whether it is serious?
We can tell you whether to come now, which is the question that matters at 3:00 am. We cannot diagnose a breathing problem down a phone line, and we will not pretend otherwise.
What does it cost to be seen overnight?
We give you a written estimate before we proceed beyond stabilizing, and we will talk you through the options at each stage. Ask us on the phone and we will be straight with you.
Speak to the team at Mainland Animal Emergency Clinic
If your dog or cat is working to breathe, call us on the way rather than after you arrive. Breathing cases go straight through, ahead of the queue, every time.
Published by the team at Mainland Animal Emergency Clinic.
This article is educational in nature and is not a replacement for hands-on assessment of your own pet by a veterinarian.
Mainland Animal Emergency Clinic
15338 Fraser Highway, Surrey, BC V3R 3P5
Phone: (604) 588-4000
Hours: Monday to Friday 5:00 pm to 8:00 am; Saturday 4:00 pm to 8:00 am; Sundays and statutory holidays 24 hours