Hi Everyone,

I'm looking for some guidance for my Husky Chevy who is about 11 years old. He's always been a super healthy pup with bundles of energy.

Recently he's begun panting almost constantly and when he's not panting his resting breaths are very fast paced. We live in Australia so it can get quite hot here but he has never reacted this way to the heat. He always has access to shade and water to keep him cool and we put the AC on for him in the house when we're home (we sure do spoil our huskies don't we).

Chevy's also always been quite an 'independent' dog where he's happy to do his own thing however recent weeks he's been a super clingy always following me around the house everywhere I go and has to ensure he's in the same room as me.

We've been to the vet and have done a number of tests; Xrays, Blood tests, Urine tests and they have all come back clear. They also listened to his heart beat and didn't report and signs of a murmur. We went to a second vet just to get another opinion and we still weren't able to get any answers. They tried a run of steroid tablets but had no change in his breathing.

I thought perhaps it could have been related to the bushfires that we've had over the last few months but our city has been clear of bushfires for awhile now and there hasn't been any change of behaviour.

Does anybody have any suggestions? Or is it just a sign of old age? We're pretty worried about our poor pup.

The smoke could have weakened his lungs. Age will naturally weaken stuff too. My older girl is panting hard right now due to having a stuffed up head that's either a cold or allergies. Extra weight will do it also. If he's getting a little bit of the middle age spread you might try to take some weight off and you may see some difference.

He's a pretty healthy weight, if anything maybe on the lighter side. But yes maybe a combination of getting a tad older and the smoke has presented some issues.

The only thing is our area hasn't been smokey for well over a month now so I would have thought to have started to notice some changes.

It just depends on how bad the smoke was and what was in it. Smoke that may have had chemicals in it from house fires or car fires will do permanent damage. Pollen in the air can cause it. The smell of critters running around outside may also put him on alert which can cause extra panting. There are a lot of possibilities to it, but if he's checked out medically I wouldn't worry too much about it unless it's a really intense labored breathing. Thinking he might have a heart attack.