Dogs don’t get bloody noses

Thinking it was foxtail, we made a beeline to the vet. Since the only symptom was full-body sneezing, we were sent back home. Sophie didn’t have any nasal discharge and had not been scratching or pawing her nose, so the vet thought that foxtail was unlikely.

The next day, however, Sophie had an impressively bloody nose. It’s possible that she simply sneezed so hard that she knocked her nose against the floor and made it bleed. However, most of the blood was on the bed….looks like she was sleeping when a full-body sneeze triggered a serious rush of nose blood.

So back to the vet. This time we got a referral to a veterinary surgeon.

 

First symptoms

A dog’s sneeze is almost always funny. When a dog is going to sneeze, he gets a look in his eye and a tilt to the head meaning “stand back…..” I invariably congratulate Sophie on an excellent sneeze because it seems like such an accomplishment.

If a classic dog sneeze is funny, Sophie’s sneezes last week were hilarious. They would start at the tip of her nose and run through her body and escape out her tail. The sneeze would shake her whole body and she’d look a little tired afterwards. It was quite a spectacle.

I was describing these new sneezes to a co-worker who did not laugh along with me. Instead, she suggested that Sophie might have a foxtail in her nose. Foxtail is a nasty grass top that can get into a dog’s nose and work its way into its lungs.

Now, I’m wishing it was something simple like foxtail.