What is respiration?

Respiration is the process of gas exchange between the living body and the environment. Dogs and cats, just like people, extract oxygen from the surrounding air and in return release carbon dioxide. The lungs serve as the location in which this gas exchange occurs. Respiration Rate is the number of times your dog or cat takes a breath in a minute.

Note that panting in dogs is not respiration! Because dogs don’t sweat the way humans do, panting is part of the way dogs cool themselves.

What’s the normal range?

Depending on individual and environmental factors, respiration rate usually ranges between 10 and 36 breaths per minute at rest.

What if my dog or cat’s respiration rate is not in this range?

Persistent high or low resting respiration rates may be a sign of a medical problem, pain, or stress.

Abnormal respiration may be seen with some breed-related diseases. For example, certain breeds with short noses (Brachycephalic breeds), like the Pug, French/English Bulldog, Boxer, Pekingese, Boston terrier, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Shih Tzu, and Persian cats, have very narrow airway passages, causing Brachycephalic Airway Syndrome (BAS, BAOS, BAD)

How can Petpace help?

Slow, incremental increases in respiration rates, like we see with chronic diseases, are difficult to detect. Petpace continuously monitors and reports several Respiration Rate indexes. PetPace analytics combine respiration data with other vitals such as Temperature, pulse and Activity levels and generates immediate alerts if it detects abnormalities.

Case Studies

(Examples for the use of PetPace respiration data in real clinical cases)

Sleep Apnea – Brachycephalic (short-nosed) dog with difficulty breathing while sleeping

CHF (Congestive Heart Failure) – Beagle with underlying chronic heart disease develops CHF

Vehicular trauma – Chihuahua with chest injury and dyspnea (difficult breathing)