when dogs seem to be sick but we're not sure

Penny was lying on her mat asleep this afternoon when suddenly she seemed to be unable to catch her breath. Because she had been sneezing yesterday, I decided to go to a vet and check whether the kennel cough was back. The vet, who seemed to be aged about twelve - I'm definitely getting old - checked her thoroughly and said she seemed fine. I particularly wanted to be sure her lungs sounded good, and they did.

The vet suggested I might have seen Penny reverse sneezing, or that perhaps her sneezing relates to allergies, both of which suggestions sound sensible to me.

I have seen Penny reverse sneeze, and PetPlace has a couple of video clips of dogs reverse sneezing. I'll keep an eye on her and check whether that is the issue. If it is, I won'tworry, as reverse sneezing doesn't seem to be a big problem.

One symptom was that when she barked, she would start sneezing and coughing, but seeing she's at the front door right now, barking up a storm to tell us there are cats in the front yard, I guess that's not a problem now.

As soon as we arrived at the vet's this afternoon, Penny looked the picture of health - as usual. I guess vets get used to owners saying, 'But she looked sick when we were at home!'

On the way home, we called in at Bundoora Park.




There's a little hill - called Mount Cooper, because our continent is so flat that we call every anthill a mountain - and we had a great view from there. It's an old volcanic vent, but seeing it hasn't erupted for 9.2 million years, I felt safe.