{"id":844,"date":"2025-07-21T11:09:28","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T10:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/?p=844"},"modified":"2026-03-12T13:22:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T13:22:31","slug":"case-study-coopers-curious-case-of-the-hidden-snort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/case-study-coopers-curious-case-of-the-hidden-snort\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Study: Cooper\u2019s Curious Case of the Hidden Snort"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Background<\/h2>\n<p>In May, Cooper, an energetic and playful dog, began experiencing sudden snorting sounds when breathing through his nose\u2014particularly noticeable when his mouth was closed.<\/p>\n<p>The issue first appeared during a beach run with his usual pack of friends. Known for his love of sticks and stones, Cooper had recently undergone surgery at his local vets to remove two stones from his intestines. Despite a smooth recovery, no abnormalities were found during the initial examination of his upper digestive tract. Interestingly, Cooper could breathe normally and silently when his mouth was open.<\/p>\n<h2>Diagnosis<\/h2>\n<p>At first, nothing unusual showed up during a standard physical exam. However, the combination of noisy breathing through the nose, difficulty breathing with the mouth closed, and no nasal discharge suggested something might be stuck in the upper part of his throat, behind the nose.<\/p>\n<p>To investigate further, our Specialist Surgeon Jan Beranek performed:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A CT scan \u2013 a detailed 3D X-ray of Cooper\u2019s skull to look for anything abnormal.<\/li>\n<li>A retrograde rhinoscopy \u2013 a procedure where a small camera is inserted from the back of the mouth toward the nose to look for blockages.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-849 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ct-scan2-cooper.webp\" alt=\"ct-dog-cooper\" width=\"212\" height=\"248\" \/>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-848\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ct-scan-1.webp\" alt=\"ct-scan-cooper\" width=\"549\" height=\"248\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ct-scan-1.webp 549w, https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ct-scan-1-300x136.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 549px) 100vw, 549px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>These tests revealed a foreign object\u2014a piece of wood\u2014wedged in a very unusual spot: just above the soft part of the roof of the mouth, behind the hard bony section.<\/p>\n<h2>An Unusual Discovery<\/h2>\n<p>What made this case so rare was the location of the object. It\u2019s extremely uncommon for anything to get stuck above the soft palate (the flexible part at the back of the roof of the mouth), making this a particularly tricky diagnosis.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-845 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/cooper-fragment.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"338\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/cooper-fragment.webp 338w, https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/cooper-fragment-225x300.webp 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 338px) 100vw, 338px\" \/>\u00a0 \u00a0 <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-846 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/cooper-op.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"278\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/cooper-op.webp 278w, https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/cooper-op-185x300.webp 185w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 278px) 100vw, 278px\" \/>\u00a0 \u00a0 <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-847\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/cooper-recovered.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"290\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/cooper-recovered.webp 290w, https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/cooper-recovered-193x300.webp 193w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Treatment &amp; Recovery<\/h2>\n<p>To remove the object, the Jan performed a short staphylotomy\u2014a small surgical cut through the soft palate\u2014while Cooper was under general anaesthesia. This allowed them to safely extract the piece of wood. Cooper recovered smoothly from the procedure and was able to go home the same day.<\/p>\n<p>We are glad Cooper made a full recovery and could go back to running on the beach with his friends!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/contact-us\">Contact Kentdale Vets for more information about our services.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Background In May, Cooper, an energetic and playful dog, began experiencing sudden snorting sounds when breathing through his nose\u2014particularly noticeable when his mouth was closed. The issue first appeared during a beach run with his usual pack of friends. Known for his love of sticks and stones, Cooper had recently undergone surgery at his local&hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/case-study-coopers-curious-case-of-the-hidden-snort\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read more&hellip;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":854,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":922,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844\/revisions\/922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentdalevets.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}