In today's VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we discuss paradoxical breathing in our canine and feline patients. As we all know, pleural space diseases like pleural effusion, pneumothorax and diaphragmatic hernias can sometimes be difficult to diagnose. You might not always hear obvious muffled heart or breath sounds, and often our veterinary patients aren't stable enough for radiographs right away. In one study of dogs with pleural effusion, almost 1/3 died during initial examination and diagnostics!1 Remember, we always want to rapidly identify and stabilize our dyspneic patients to maximize survival and patient comfort!