Riddle me this pug medical experts

Thursday night, Duke ate his dinner out a new "slow-feed" bowl/raised feeder that I bought for him. He had been perfectly fine up until dinner time. Shortly after, he began trembling and breathing rapidly - occasionally coughing. I thought that maybe he had inhaled a piece of kibble. This went on for awhile and by morning he was doing better but would not eat. I hand fed him about half of his dinner Friday night as that was all that he would take (still eating treats of course - he is a pug after all). He still had an occasional raspy cough. He ate on his own Saturday morning and seemed to be doing better but then on Saturday afternoon, he started falling over. He'd be walking along & it was like one side would just go weak & his legs would give out. This continued off and on yesterday & he seems to have a more pronounced head tilt so I'm guessing that it's something vestibular. He's still raspy & coughing too though. We have a vet appointment tonight at 5 pm. Anybody have any experience with something like this? Buster used to have vestibular episodes for a few years but this seems a little different to me. Buster would have a very pronounced nystagmus & would walk in circles. Duke's not doing any of that. Needless to say, I'm worried about my boy.

His whole body must be out of whack from not being able to consume his dinner at the normal rate!

Okay, jokes aside, not a clue. Is it possible he inhaled a piece and is aspirating on it? Of course, it also could be a strict coincidence about the new bowl and these symptoms.

Good luck at the vet, that does sound like a good idea.

Also, I love Sally's idea for slowing a pug down on eating, just spread out the kibble on a little towel on the floor.

No clues Brenda, I hope all goes well with the vet visit and it is nothing worse than a mild vestibular with maybe a little upper respiratory infection. Good thoughts for you and your boy. Hoping to see a good update.

Renee wrote:His whole body must be out of whack from not being able to consume his dinner at the normal rate!

Thanks! I needed that! My husband thinks the new bowl & this starting is just a coincedence too. It's just the only thing out of the ordinary before this came on so I thought that it was worth mentioning and also why I thought that he might've inhaled a piece of kibble (since he wasn't used to eating out of that sort of bowl). Hopefully we can get some answers tonight.

Got me beat. My guys eat out of elevated bowls, but not the slow feeder ones. Let us know what the vet thinks cause now I'm interested in knowing.

Well, no real explanation for the cough but he thinks that the stumbling is a vestibular episode caused by an inner ear infection. By the time that we got there last night, Duke's nystagmus was much more pronounced. They did a chest xray and there were no signs of pneumonia or an upper respiratory infection but his heart is slightly enlarged. Not totally unusual for an older pug. So, he's on Clavamox for the inner ear and we're hoping that it will also knock out whatever might be causing the cough. He's also on prednisone to reduce any swelling in his ear. He ate breakfast on his own this morning & finished all of it, so that's a small improvement. I guess that the new feeder was just a coincedence after all. None of this explains the trembling or rapid breathing on Thursday night either though. If we don't see any improvement within a few days, we'll have to go back to the vet so fingers crossed that this works!

One other thing they found when they did the chest xray is that he has one disc in his spine that's almost non-existent. It's amazing that he doesn't have any mobility problems (when he's healthy, that is). I don't know what, if anything, we should do about it since it doesn't seem to be affecting him at this point.

Glad to hear you got some answers...here's hoping your little man is back to 100% real soon!

The trembling and panting could be a reaction to inner ear pain.