Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Odd Behavior

Question
My cavalier recently started doing something weird. About a week ago, he started breathing extremely fast at about 5pm, lasting through the night (and his snoring was fast too.) The next day, when he awoke, he was better. That night, around the same time, he did it again, and it's been happening all week.

Here is some background: 5PM is right after he eats, he's been in the vet recently for air licking (also called flylicking/biting), he has is anal gland squeezed monthly (infected) and he recently had an ear infection.

Please help, the vet is stumped.

Answer
Well Josh, I am not a vet, but I have some suggestions for you. I don't know his age, but eating at 5 pm is a bit late for a dog as they get older.

Eating one large meal is also hard on their gut and presses on the diaphragm as they lie down. It's possible that he is having a hard time breathing due to this. Breathing fast, like panting, can be a sign of pain. If his gut is full and he is overweight also, he could really be in pain when he breathes.

I would suggest that you split his meal into two feedings, one in the morning and one at night. Feed him the same amount, or less if he is overweight, and just split the full sized meal into the two time frames.

This could help a lot. Another thing could be what he is eating. If you recently changed his food, it might not be agreeing with him and causing him some discomfort. The air licking could also be from this discomfort.

It's worth trying as a starting point. If it doesn't help, then you might want to see about what he is eating, or have the vet run some tests, such as a blood panel and do an xray of his digestive tract. Could be other things that are causing this, but it sounds like it's food related either directly or indirectly. If there is a mass or such in his gut the full stomach might press on that and cause pain until he digests the food and the pressure goes down.

Just some ideas worth investigating.