Heavy breathing in my old girl

[imported_Ninemiler]

My much-loved 12.5-year-old yellow lady has been breathing quite heavily for the past year. Had her to the vet and she's wonderfully healthy...but when she sprawls out to sleep, I'm alarmed at how difficult her breathing appears to be. She wheezes a bit, and her breaths look quite labored. But, on walks and when she's awake - she's quite active and doesn't seem to have any problems. Bessie is in great shape, not over-weight, gets lots of love and activity. Has anyone ever seen anything like this?

[polark13]

I'm not sure about 'breathing heavily', but my old man Ellis (over 15 years old) has been panting a lot, usually in the middle of the night. I'm never sure what it means - does he need out> does he need a drink, etc?. I've asked several vets and they all seem to say that it basically is just showing signs of him getting old - maybe a bit of senility, mabye just being a bit uncomfortable. We just give him lots of love, lots of pets, and he falls to sleep... Sorry I'm of no help.

[Emma the Lab]

Take care of you sweet gal. Sorry no help here.

[bogeysmom]

I can relate to heavy breathing/panting. We just lost our 13 yr. old yellow male lab, Bogey to kidney failure. We are devastated without him. He would pant and his breathing was labored for the last 6 months of his life. The vet told us that as they age their pituatary gland starts to fail and that this is the gland that controls their internal body temperature. Therefore they have to pant more often and longer to cool down. I'm not sure this is the only reason. We wondered how his heart could be so strong to keep up with the labored breathing.
He would pant more at night and seem anxious. It is sad to see them this way. Just give them lots of love and hugs, it is so lonely without them.

[Labs4me]

I just went thru this panting with my 12.5 year old, who I just lost about a month ago. Took her in to the vets cause she was not feeling well (she was doing some pretty heavy panting also) and quit eating. Vet sent us to a specialist to have an ultra sound of the heart done and we found out that she had a cardiac block (basically it means that the brain was sending out the signals to the heart but the heart was not recieving them) and low blood pressure. They (MSU) said that they could try to put a pace maker in her to see if it would help but we elected not to and brought her home.

One supplement that may help is CoQ10. I just started my 11.5 year old on it, as she has an enlarged heart due to Lymes disease. I give her 30 mg 1x per day. It has only been about 2-3 weeks so far but it has seemed to perk her up quit a bit. You can order it from here:
http://b-naturals.com/product_info.p...006e0cf454c1f9