Respiratory rate and effort are pretty much performed as soon as you see the animal. We’ll cover this in more detail in the respiratory weeks. We’re going to cross reference here in a couple of ways. First, look at the animal’s head and see whether its distress matches the movement of the chest. If its chest tells you that there’s a lot of effort but its head tells you that the animal is not too bothered then a chronic condition is more likely. You should also work out whether the lung sounds match the rate and effort. If it is moving more air, there should be more sounds unless there is something else going on. And lastly, it is absolutley paramount that you remember how unstable dyspnoeic animals can be so you don’t end up having to make... the dreaded phone call...