Horking

Twice now Dieter has experienced what we've been told is reverse sneezing. This is a sort of public service announcement about what it is. According to Wikipedia, Reverse sneezing  is also known as backwards sneezing or inspiratory paroxysmal respiration. It caused his humans to freak out the second time it happened. 

The first time was at the vet's--we had taken Dieter in for his annual and he had freaked out on the ride over because a) he's in the car and his likes to yodel there a lot and b) he was wearing the accursed cone of shame to keep him from chewing on a lick spot, so cone and car ride? Quite the drama and carrying on. So when he was making this sort of horking sound, we thought it was because he'd worked himself up into a tizzy. The vet tech said: "sounds like a reverse sneeze." Nothing more was said about it and we went our merry way.

About 2 weeks later, he started making a strange horking sound and Lloyd shouted: "Call the vet!!!" We did and took him in. The spell resolved within a minute, but we wanted to make sure he hadn't swallowed something that was choking him. (I'm sure worse thoughts were running through the human brains!)

Vet agreed it was a reverse sneeze and said it was probably attributed to seasonal allergies. He said if he does it again, to gently stroke Dieter's throat to calm him and hasten the end of the episode. Wikipedia also says to cover the dog's nose or lightly blow in his face. Ultimately the goal is for the dog to swallow a couple of times, which stops the reverse sneezing. 

The good news is there haven't been any more episodes. The vet said if it keeps up, we can try antihistamines.