Managing respiratory distress

What is one key point that every veterinarian should know about caring for a patient with respiratory distress? April Blong, DVM, DACVECC, an associate clinical professor at the Iowa State University Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center in Ames and the medical director at Iowa Veterinary Specialties in Des Moines, discusses techniques for stabilizing a patient with respiratory distress, in a dvm360 interview.

Blong presented continuing education (CE) sessions on emergency and critical care at the 2025 Fetch dvm360 Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, where her interview was recorded. These CE sessions presented insights on abdominal and thoracic injuries in blunt force trauma cases as well as identifying and stabilizing possible traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury. In this video, she addresses one of the key takeaways from her CE sessions.

RELATED: Recognizing blunt force trauma injuries

The following is a transcript of the video.

April Blong, DVM, DACVECC: There are lots of causes of respiratory distress, but the vast majority of respiratory distress cases can be stabilized with low stress handling, oxygen and sedation. Don't overlook giving these animals some butorphanol...It doesn't matter the cause of respiratory distress. Every respiratory distress patient should be sedated.

RELATED: Common causes of blunt force trauma in pets

For more coverage of the Fetch Kansas City conference, visit the dvm360 conference news page. You can also learn more and register for the 2026 Fetch dvm360 Conference in Kansas City here.