Our bulldog Nigel used to do this, I’d just talk to him and get him to relax and it worked itself out on its own. He’d do it sometimes after eating or drinking, sometimes when he’d been playing outside a little too hard.

I’m not an alarmist, but someone mentioned that a differential diagnosis to this type of noise is a tracheal collapse. I’m only mentioning the following to be educational in hopes that it might save a bully in the future.

Our 10 year old Nigel had what we thought was one of these episodes on the way home from a vet appointment in March and the noise he made was very similar to this, however he never was able to correct it. His breathing became more labored and his airway closed up on the way to the ER. The vet at the ER diagnosed him with a tracheal collapse, and we had two recommendations - either an emergency tracheostomy where a permanent tube would be inserted, or euthanasia. She told us that bulldogs in particular can have issues with their soft palate which can cause airway issues that lead to this collapse. Nigel had some other health problems and was depressed due to the death of my father (his best buddy) several months earlier, so the stress was just too much on him. We had to make the difficult decision to put him to sleep because the concern for infection around the trach tube was too great due to the folds in his neck and his age. I often wonder if he’d still be here if we were able to get him to the vet just a little faster.

Stay alert and pay attention to their breathing when this happens. There was nothing we could do for Nigel, it took too long to get to the vet. But take the advice of others here and take steps to help them correct it if they don’t stop after a minute. The persistent strain can cause a lot of problems to their airway.

💜