Reverse Sneezing

Patch gave us a fright last night. We were all sleeping when suddenly Patch started wheezing and hyperventilating. This was the first time he'd ever done this, so we were terrified and didn't know what to do. I carried him into bed with us and started stroking him in order to calm him down. Just as suddenly as he'd started, he then coughed sneezed and it was all over! This morning, I did some research and found out that Patch probably suffered a bout of mechanosensitive aspiration reflex, or more commonly known as Reverse Sneezing. In a regular sneeze, a dog pushes air out through the nose; however, in a reverse sneeze, air is pulled rapidly in through the nose producing a noisy inspiratory effort. During a reverse sneeze, a dog will make a loud snorting sound, which might sound like he has something caught in his throat (many dog owners think their pet is suffocating during a reverse sneeze episode). Each reverse sneezing occurrence generally lasts for less than a minute up to two minutes. We learn something new every day.  :)