I have a 4-year-old male Lhasa Apso. For the past few months, he sometimes wakes up at night and breathes deeply. He does the same thing when he barks loudly. I also feel that his front neck is swollen. His weight has increased suddenly by 3 kgs in the last one year. He has three small meals a day and the quantity is exactly as per the food instructions. He has minimum two walks daily. Kindly guide me. –

Your 4-year-old Lhasa Apso seems to have gained a lot of weight in the last 1 year and that would worry me as a vet. Is it a case of hypothyroidism or plain obesity? Well, run a test to check his thyroid! A lot would depend on this and the diet/exercise would have to be reviewed too. Regarding his sudden waking up with deep breathing at night is a problem commonly encountered by most of the Brachiocephalic breeds like Apsos, Tibetian Spaniels, Neopolitian Mastiffs etc, wherein there is involvement of enlarged soft palate partially blocking the airway. If the problem is severe, then one would have to surgically reduce the size of the soft palate. But if your pet inhales air really fast through his nose and his whole body gets stiff and the episode is over in less than a minute then it is definitely “reverse sneezing”.

Question by – H K Joshi, Ahmedabad