asthma in poodles?

Question
5 days ago I rescued a 2 year old male poodle from the shelter to foster and hopefully adopt if all goes well. I have a 4 year old neutered male I bought from a breeder as a puppy. The new dog is very needy as far as needing constant holding and follows me even across the room. He pushes his way on top of you all the time, it is rather cute. Today he had this attack like cough/shortness of breath type convulsion that lasted a few minutes. The older dog has epilepsy and the attack was completly different from a seizure. It was more like the upper respitory area was convulsing like when you have hiccups and gasping for breath. Since I am fostering and thinking of adopting, I worry about paying for a full vet eval at this time. What could this be? Thanks for your help.

Answer
Hi Lisa,
Congratulations on your new poodle.  I think it is great your fostering this fella and hopefully he will fit well into your family.  It sounds like he is very insecure right now and hopefully as "cute" as this is right now, he will relax and not be quite so needy.  He will have to learn to share you.  Make sure you give your 4 year old plenty of one on one time as well, you don't want him feeling pushed to the back burner as you care for your new rescue.  
Ok, on to your question, what it sounds like to me is a colapsing tracea.  If he was excitited when this happened, it makes good sense.  Small breed dogs are prone to this condition.  The walls of his "throat" are week and when he breathes in deeply the walls colaps and he can't breath.  This is scary - it would be for anyone so it actually makes it worse as he struggles to get his breath.  Your vet can take a look at him and let you know if this is something that will require surgery or not.  Many many small breeds live there whole life with this condition and however scary these "attacks" are, calm love from mom or dad gets them throught it fine.  I can't be certain that this is what your experiencing but from what your describing - it's a safe bet that I'm correct.

Good luck-
Brandie