How to tell if my dog's panting is normal or a health issue?

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Charlie. Based on your description, I recommend that you seek emergency veterinary care for him tonight. It is worrisome that he is experiencing heavy breathing. Based on his examination, he will likely need bloodwork and x-rays of his chest to determine the source of his problem. I hope this information helps and you are able to get him some help. Good luck!

While panting is a way dogs expel heat, there could be something else going on with him that is making him pant heavily. Panting can be a sign of discomfort or pain. It also can be do to an underlying metabolic problem. I would recommend taking Trouble in to your vet for an exam to see if he needs blood work or potentially pain medication for discomfort.

Hello and thank you for reaching out to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. It sounds like Lassie may have gotten very hot outside and needs to pant to cool off. Dogs cannot sweat to release heat, so they have to pant to breathe off heat. As long as Lassie can settle down and act normally, eat, drink, etc, he should be OK. I hope this is helpful!

Poor Happy! Good on you for checking her gums to make sure they look normal. Even though it's not hot outside, she could have worked herself up running around outside leading to her panting. Her drinking could be an effort to cool herself down. You can put a fan on her to see if that helps with the panting, and make sure she has plenty of access to fresh water at all times. Keep monitoring Happy, and if you do notice that her gums turn red or pale, she starts vomiting, becomes dizzy, shows weakness, has a bright red tongue, or the heavy panting continues over the next few hours despite trying to cool her down, I would have her seen by a vet right away. There is also a chance her panting could be due to a medical illness, such as cardiac disease, respiratory disease, or heartworms. Even if her panting stops, I would still have Happy seen by a vet tomorrow for a health check to be safe.

Any breathing problems should be treated as an emergency. Panting often indicates pain or anxiety, so she may have some general pain, or abdominal pain if she has eaten something that disagreed with her or swallowed something non-food, like a toy that is causing an obstruction. Left untreated, an obstruction can be life-threatening. I recommend getting her seen by your vet right away. They will do an exam, labwork and/or x-rays as indicated, and, based on these results your vet will be better able to tell you what is going on and how best to treat it.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Noushi. If she only breathes hard like this after hard play, this is not a cause of concern. An increased respiratory rate or panting (open mouth breathing) is worrisome if it occurs while she is resting with no recent history of exercise. I hope this information helps!

The color of the tongue and gums and skin can change shades based on things like hydration level, blood pressure (which is influenced by hydration and activity level), ambient temperature, oxygenation, red blood cell level, etc. In this case, if Brooke's blood pressure is just a little lower because she has been sleeping, then she may appear a little more pale. Shades of pink are good! White, blue, gray, or purple are bad. But often there can be severe medical issues and the gums can still be nice and pink, so it is rarely a true indication of disease.