Heavy panting or fast breathing

What to do

1. Call your vet now. If your dog is struggling to breathe, has collapsed or has white, grey or blue gums, go straight there and call on the way.
2. Keep your dog calm and cool. Stress makes breathing worse.
3. If it's hot or your dog has been exercising, stop, give it fresh water and let it cool down. If it shows heatstroke signs, start heatstroke first aid and call your vet.
4. If your dog stops breathing, start CPR.
5. If your dog has heart disease, count its breaths per minute while it sleeps, as your vet advises, and call your vet if its breathing changes.
6. Flat-faced breeds like pugs, bulldogs and French bulldogs, and overweight dogs, pant more easily. Watch them closely in warm weather.
7. If your dog pants a lot with no clear reason, book a vet check.

When to call your vet

• Struggling to breathe, or noisy breathing
• Fast, shallow breathing
• Stretching the neck out, or lying stretched out to breathe
• Panting with the tongue curling upward
• White, grey or blue gums
• Bright red gums or foaming at the mouth in the heat
• Weakness, not wanting to move, or collapse
• Panting a lot with no clear reason, or breathing faster than usual at rest

Why

Dogs pant to cool down, and a relaxed dog shouldn't be panting. Heat, stress, pain, fever, heart disease and the airway problems of flat-faced breeds can all cause heavy panting.