Count your dog’s or cat’s breathing rate while they sleep, and find out when a rate needs a call to the vet.
Press start, then tap each time your pet’s chest rises. The counter stops by itself.
Use the counter, or count for yourself and enter the number of breaths.
How to use it
Wait until your pet is fast asleep, or lying calmly, in a cool room. Watch their chest or tummy: one rise and fall counts as one breath. Press start and tap the button each time the chest rises, or count yourself for 30 seconds and type in the number.
Don’t count while your pet is panting, purring, dreaming or just after exercise, as the rate will be higher. If your vet has asked you to monitor a heart condition, count at about the same time each day and keep a note of the results to show them.
Contact a vet immediately, whatever the count, if your pet is struggling to breathe, breathing with their belly or neck stretched out, coughing up froth, has pale, grey or blue gums, or collapses. A cat breathing with their mouth open is always an emergency.
Most healthy dogs breathe fewer than 30 times a minute while asleep, often between 15 and 25. Puppies and small dogs can be a little faster.
Most healthy cats breathe fewer than 30 times a minute while asleep. Open-mouth breathing is not normal in cats and needs a vet straight away.
In pets with heart disease, a rising sleeping breathing rate can be the first sign of fluid building up on the lungs, often before any other change. Counting at home can catch it early.
Thirty seconds is a good balance. Fifteen seconds is quicker but less accurate, and a full minute is best if your pet stays settled.
These tools are planning aids, not a diagnosis or a replacement for veterinary advice. If a pet is unwell, has eaten something risky, or you are unsure what to do next, contact a vet.