# Tip on how to end reverse sneezing



## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

Cover your dog's nostrils with your fingers. It will end the spasm MOST of the time when the dog has to breathe through its mouth.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Sophy likes me to pick her up and rub her chest - that usually stops the spasm too.


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

That's a good one Zooeysmom! Thanks! I guess it interrupts their breathing enough to stop the spasm. I'll have to try that some time when one of my dogs has one of those little episodes. 

On a slightly different note, here's a tip to sooth and re-open a collapsing trachea while the dog is having an episode. It use to help Chulita when she would be honking and gasping. I'd pick her up (or not) and massage her throat, kind of gently squeeze her trachea area by putting my fingers on each side of her neck right down near the throat and rub forward and backward...just a gentle massage kind of motion. And it helped it open back up. Almost sort of physically trying to make it an open tube again rather than squished as it does when they have an episode. Anyhow, it seemed to get her back to normal quicker than doing nothing.


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## Summerhouse (Jun 12, 2015)

I have to ask. What's reverse sneezing ?


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

Summerhouse said:


> I have to ask. What's reverse sneezing ?



I have never quite understood term that myself? I think maybe it is another term for a tracheal cough, like to describe the honking sound that they make when the trachea is collapsing and they are trying to suck in air?


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## poodlecrazy#1 (Jul 2, 2013)

It's actually called a pharyngeal gag reflex. Basically it's a spasm of the pharynx. Like when you get the hiccups except instead of the diaphragm it's the pharynx.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1UyBrb0Hhpk

It can be very frightening the first time it happens, especially in a new puppy!


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

fjm said:


> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1UyBrb0Hhpk
> 
> It can be very frightening the first time it happens, especially in a new puppy!



Now that is what 
I have always thought of as a collapsing trachea - it isn't?


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

No, not nearly as dangerous as a collapsing trachea. More like a bad bout of the hiccups in humans. I believe coughing due to collapsed trachea comes on with exercise or pressure on the trachea, whereas reverse sneezing can be from dust, pollen, strong scents, drinking very cold water, etc, etc. It is rarely serious, whereas a collapsed trachea can restrict oxygen flow to the extent that in severe cases it can prove fatal.


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## Summerhouse (Jun 12, 2015)

Thank you for explaining. 
I've only seen my boy do something similar a couple of times. He didn't have the abdominal spasm as in the video but was sort of snorting in rather than out through his nose as though something was stuck up there that wouldn't budge.


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

fjm said:


> No, not nearly as dangerous as a collapsing trachea. More like a bad bout of the hiccups in humans. I believe coughing due to collapsed trachea comes on with exercise or pressure on the trachea, whereas reverse sneezing can be from dust, pollen, strong scents, drinking very cold water, etc, etc. It is rarely serious, whereas a collapsed trachea can restrict oxygen flow to the extent that in severe cases it can prove fatal.



Well now I would like to see what a collapsing trachea looks like, I always thought that was it!


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Collapsed trachea video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C06g2olXPSM


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

fjm said:


> Collapsed trachea video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C06g2olXPSM



Very interesting.
According to these video's Tangee reverse sneezed, didn't have a collapsing trachea. Yet I remember the Vet saying that when they X-rayed her laying on her back, her trachea collapsed rather severely.
Still a bit confused - the two conditions are not connected or related at all?


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

Thanks Fjm. Looking at both of those links you posted, I think Chulita had reverse sneezing, not collapsing trachea. She would get right over it and she didn't have trouble breathing the rest of the time. It was only when she got overly excited when playful...very silly. But not with regular exercise. Something about the way she sucked in air or something... But I thought it was a trachea problem. I had understood that a collapsing trachea just means it collapses sometimes...didn't realize it was a permanent anatomical malady always. It does look so uncomfortable when they do that though...makes me feel sorry for them.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I don't think there is any proven connectin, TP, but that is not to say that a dog might not have both problems, nor that difficulty breathing due to a collapsed trachea may not sometimes look very similar to reverse sneezing, of course. The research seems to indicate that reverse sneezing usually passes in a minute or so with no long term effects, while collapsed trachea can get progressively worse and needs long term management and possibly treatment. As ever, I would say if in doubt, get the dog checked by a vet, but so many new dog owners make an emergency vet dash the first time they experience reverse sneezing perhaps we should have a sticky with a video?!


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

fjm said:


> I don't think there is any proven connectin, TP, but that is not to say that a dog might not have both problems, nor that difficulty breathing due to a collapsed trachea may not sometimes look very similar to reverse sneezing, of course. The research seems to indicate that reverse sneezing usually passes in a minute or so with no long term effects, while collapsed trachea can get progressively worse and needs long term management and possibly treatment. As ever, I would say if in doubt, get the dog checked by a vet, but so many new dog owners make an emergency vet dash the first time they experience reverse sneezing perhaps we should have a sticky with a video?!



I am just amazed - all of these years I thought that I met so many dogs with trachea problems and they were all reverse sneezing! Now I don't think that I have ever met a dog with collapsing trachea! But thankfully I always knew that the reverse sneeze is nothing to run to the vet about!
Oh and by the way, there probably would not be many dogs that would do it, but if I ask Teaka to give me kisses when she is reverse sneezing, the kisses stop it cold.
Fortunately Timi does not have it.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Poodlebeguiled said:


> It was only when she got overly excited when playful...very silly. But not with regular exercise. Something about the way she sucked in air or something...


Interesting - I remember gettng hiccups as a child through playing very silly, exciting games involving chase and tickling - perhaps it can be the same for dogs. Sophy's seems to be breathing cold or dusty air, or drinking cold water when she is hot. Sometimes she will start up for no apparent reason, but then she also tends to get runny eyes when it is dusty or there are other allergens around, so I suspect it is throat irritation linked to that.


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