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Why is my old dog breathing hard, hyperventilating, and throwing up foam?

Updated on September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Papillon | Female | unspayed | 11 years and 3 months old

My dog is breathing very strongly through her nose and this has been going on for 2-3 days now. Her whole body moves cause she breathes so hard. She doesn’t have anything stuck it just sounds like she’s hyperventilating. She has also puked a few times but that was a few days ago. It’s just white foam coming out but she has had all her vaccinations so it’s not rabies or anything like that. She is very skinny since she lost most of her teeth. But we try to feed her as much as we can. Please help!

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

Daniel Fonza, DVM

Answered By Daniel Fonza, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on November 23rd, 2017

Hi there and thank you for using Pet Coach to address your concerns. With Nugget's age and symptoms, I would strongly recommend having her examined by a veterinarian and having her blood tested along with chest x-rays to see if there are any systemic changes on the blood and if there is any disease in the lungs that would cause the breathing changes. My concern is that she may have something malignant going on with the weight loss and now the breathing changes, as this could indicate that disease has spread to the lungs. I sure hope Nugget feels better soon! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.
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