Sleeping respiratory rate chart for dogs and cats

What’s inside

• Your pet’s name, species and breed, your vet and the clinic’s phone number.
• “What your vet told you”: lines for the range your vet gave for your pet, when to call and how often to count. You write the numbers; the form prints none.
• The log: date, time, asleep or resting, breaths counted, seconds counted, breaths per minute and notes, continued on page 2.
• Page 3: two blank charts of 14 days each, with a row for the date and the count under every day, so a trend is easy to see.
• US Letter and A4, with fields you can fill in on screen.

How to count

1. Count the same way each time, for example while your pet is asleep or relaxed, or exactly as your vet showed you.
2. Watch the chest: each rise and fall, one in and one out, is one breath.
3. Count for 30 seconds and multiply by 2, or count for a full minute, and write the breaths per minute.
4. Write whether your pet was asleep or awake and resting, and anything that may have changed the count.
5. Plot the count on the chart on page 3, and take the log to every check-up.

Why asleep or resting matters

Vets use counts that owners take at home. In a study of 190 dogs with heart disease, owners took ten one-minute counts each, and the sleeping rate was lower than the resting rate in the same dog. In a study of cats, owners took 8 to 10 counts at home, said it was easy, and the resting rate was again higher than the sleeping rate.

In both studies a pet’s own counts changed little from day to day. That’s why a log is useful: it shows your pet’s usual number and any change from it. What range is normal for your pet, and what to do if a count is outside it, is for your vet to say. Write their answer on page 1.