It’s no wonder choking is one of the most common canine medical emergencies. Dogs can be four-legged vacuum cleaners, hoovering up anything left lying on floors and frequently scoffing down their dinner or tasty chews in seconds flat.
In This Article
While it’s impossible to 100% prevent the risk of choking in dogs, being aware of the classic hazards around your home means you can take steps to reduce the chance of it happening. Additionally, knowing what choking looks like and how to handle it can help you remain calm in a crisis and provide your pet with the potentially life-saving support they need.
Common Causes of Choking in Dogs
Choking in dogs occurs when there is a blockage of the airway that impedes their ability to breathe. Food, foreign objects, medical conditions, or injuries typically cause these blockages. Below are some of the most common culprits.
- Balls
- Kibble
- Sticks
- Bones or chews
- Vomiting
- Neck or throat trauma
- Accidental strangulation (from things like window blind cords or tie-out stakes in yards)
- Conditions such as allergies, laryngeal paralysis, or brachycephalic airway obstruction syndrome (common in flat-faced breeds)
How to Reduce the Risk of Choking in Dogs
National Pet Choking Prevention Day on June 22 raises awareness of the dangers that can be a hazard for your dog. While accidents can always happen, Johnna Devereaux, Certified Clinical Pet Nutritionist, explains that there are various ways you can reduce your dog’s risk of choking. These include:
-
Picking the right toy size: “Balls that are too small can get lodged in the back of the dog’s throat,” Devereaux says. She recommends picking ones wider than the diameter of your dog’s jaw.
-
Pet-proofing your home: Keep your home clutter-free, tie up blind cords, and consider using child locks if you have a clever canine that counter surfs or can open cupboard doors or trash cans
-
Supervising pets with chews: “Dogs have a great ability to use their paws tactilely to hold a chew, but when it gets down to that last one inch, they no longer have that ability,” Devereaux says. She suggests supervising and using a bully stick holder to prevent them from swallowing the chew stub whole.
-
Selecting safe enrichment options: If your dog is prone to swallowing large chunks of chews, lick mats or tough treat toys can be safer alternatives to traditional chews
-
Getting the right training: Attending a first-aid for dogs course run by a qualified instructor with a background in emergency medical care can help you avoid misinformation and master the techniques to help a choking dog.
Signs of Choking in Dogs
It’s easy to confuse choking in dogs with other behaviors or problems, such as coughing or gagging, where the dog is trying to push air out of their lungs. Tom Rinelli is a seasoned 35-year pre-hospital emergency medical care provider and educator, and the owner and operator of Paws N Claws 911, which provides Pet CPR and First Aid training. He explains that a choking dog will also exhibit signs of having difficulty inhaling air into the lungs.
One common telltale sign of choking, according to Rinelli, is when they assume what he describes as the “tripod position” in their efforts to draw more air in. Drooling is another one to watch for. “We’re not talking a little dribble because they’re excited to get a cookie,” Rinelli says. “We’re talking gushing because the body is trying to lubricate the airway to get that object out.”
Other signs of choking in dogs vary depending on whether it’s a full or partial blockage and where it’s occurring in the airway, but some to watch for include:
- Out of the ordinary restless or distressed behavior
- Pawing at the mouth
- Rubbing the neck against objects
- Repeated coughing or gagging
- Retching
- High-pitched noise when trying to breathe
- Blue-tinged gums
- Collapsing
- Becoming unconscious
What to Do If You Suspect Your Dog Is Choking
If you suspect your dog is choking, following these steps can help prevent an already panic-inducing situation from becoming more serious.
Assess the Situation
According to Rinelli, the most important thing you can do is take a breath, try to remain calm, and assess the situation.
There are times when you might think your dog is choking when something else is going on. Rinelli explains that many concerned pet owners confuse reverse sneezing with choking. “While this is a disruption in their airway, they’re not having difficulty breathing, and it’s not usually serious,” he says. Reverse sneezing typically results in dogs rapidly inhaling air through their nose and producing a loud snorting or gagging sound in the process. While it sounds alarming, this usually resolves on its own.
“A lot of people want to go right to the Heimlich maneuver or CPR,” he says. However, doing this is often unnecessary and can ultimately do more harm than good.
If your dog is choking but still has an airway and is making an effort to dislodge a blockage, Rinelli recommends giving them a second. “They’ll probably cough it up, or it’ll go down,” he says.
Check the Mouth
If the choking continues and your dog is calm enough to allow you to look inside their mouth, you may be able to see if there is a foreign object stuck in the throat. Consider using the light from your phone to get a better view.
Sometimes, you can carefully grab and remove the offending object. However, Rinelli cautions against a “blind finger sweep” in the back of the throat with a breathing, conscious dog. He explains that a dog’s airway is very narrow. You can easily push an object further down, worsening the blockage. This would make it harder (or impossible) for your dog to breathe. In their panic, your dog can also clamp down on your finger.
Rinelli also cautions against using the eXternal eXtraction Technique™ (XXT™) to remove a ball lodged deep in the airway of an unconscious dog. This method has gained popularity on social media recently, featuring veterinary professionals removing the obstruction by applying pressure to the trachea in a specific open diamond hand position. While it can be an effective technique, it’s highly technical and best left to those with appropriate training.
Apply Chest Thrusts
“If your dog gets to a point where they’re not moving air, they’re not making noise, and you can see they’re getting lethargic, now we have to intervene,” Rinelli says.
Sometimes, physically forcing air out of the lungs can dislodge a partial or full airway blockage. The complex Heimlich maneuver can be tricky to get right even with training. Rinelli recommends applying basic chest thrusts. “If you think of the lungs as being like bellows, you want to squeeze the air up and out of the bag,” he says.
To do this, Rinelli recommends standing behind the dog and applying inward pressure to the lungs by placing your hands into the “armpits” directly behind the front legs, adjusting the force depending on the size of the dog.
Perform Rescue Breathing
If your dog passes out because they’re struggling to breathe, manually blowing air into their lungs can supply sufficient oxygen to keep them alive until you can get them to a veterinarian.
Rescue breathing involves holding your dog’s mouth closed and breathing into their nose until their chest expands. This was previously known as mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Align the neck and head of your dog with their spine. Otherwise, you risk further blocking the airway. Continue administering one breath every 5 seconds until you reach the closest veterinarian.
Initiate CPR
In the rare instances when your dog’s heart stops beating because of an airway obstruction, administering CPR, while not always successful, offers the best chance of survival until a veterinarian can provide assistance.
Rinelli recommends performing five cycles of 30 chest compressions and then two breaths. Reassess for breathing after two minutes.
- For small dogs: Lay the dog on their side and squeeze the chest between your thumb and fingers.
- For barrel-chested dogs: It’s better to lay dogs with round and wide chests on their backs. Press down using the heels of your overlapping hands on the sternum (the flat, vertical bone in the center of the chest).
- For other medium to large dogs: Overlap the heels of your hands over the widest point of the chest. Locking your elbows minimizes fatigue and helps produce appropriate pressure.
“If you are unable to do the breaths (injury, chemical exposure, etc.), you can simply do constant non-stop compressions (rather than 30-to-2). This continues to move oxygenated blood to the brain and forces air out of the lungs, possibly relieving the obstruction,” Rinelli says.
Get to the Nearest Vet
Even if your dog appears to have recovered from a choking episode, it’s always a good idea to take them to your veterinarian for an evaluation of the mouth, throat, and neck. They can check there are no airway injuries or remaining obstructions.
This article is intended solely as general guidance, and does not constitute health or other professional advice. Individual situations and applicable laws vary by jurisdiction, and you are encouraged to obtain appropriate advice from qualified professionals in the applicable jurisdictions. We make no representations or warranties concerning any course of action taken by any person following or otherwise using the information offered or provided in this article, including any such information associated with and provided in connection with third-party products, and we will not be liable for any direct, indirect, consequential, special, exemplary or other damages that may result, including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness or death.