sneezing and gagging noise from my 2 month old german shepherd

by tasha
(atlanta, ga, usa)

My 2 month old german shepherd girl has been making a sneezing and gagging noise for the past 2 hours. She also looks like she has a stuffed nose.

She eats and drinks but looks miserable. I am a first time puppy owner.

Is this something I should stress about and take to the vet or should I wait and see if she gets better.





Hi Tasha
It's very difficult to say whether this is something you need to worry about or not as it's only been going on for a few hours. It could be that she's simply got something tickling her throat or has inhaled some water and that's causing her to gag and sneeze. In that case she should get over it pretty quickly and be back to normal.

However, it could be that she has an upper respiratory tract infection or something similar that's causing her symptoms.

If you've only just added her to your family then the 'miserable' look could be due to the stress and homesickness most puppies experience during the first week or so in a new home. You can learn more about this on my Bringing Home A New Puppy page.

As you're a new puppy owner, and this is a young puppy, if you're at all concerned I would definitely recommend getting her to your veterinarian for an examination. It's a good rule of thumb to ALWAYS have a new pup get a thorough check up by your own vet within a day or two of bringing them home. That way you can make sure there are no underlying health issues and that they're up to date with deworming and puppy shots.

Hope this helps, best of luck with your puppy.