First of all, yay!!! I was able to get on. This site has not liked me the last day or so Secondly, I am so grateful for all the wisdom here and I'm hoping for some advice.

Floyd, my quadraped,  went hoarse rather suddenly a about 9 days ago. I was not only using the evil and terrifying vacuum but also a carpet shampooer and thought Floyd barked himself voiceless. But then it seemed like he might be sick. As well as being hoarse he seemed to be panting a bit more on walks and was a bit snorty. He was happy, full of energy and hungry as ever so I had decided to give it a few days and it got gradually better. 

This Monday it started again. By today I had, had enough and scheduled a vet appointment for him for tomorrow.  Tonight he was panting heavily and breathing loudly and I freaked out and took him to the emergency vet. Floyd checked out as not being ill. The dr believes the  panting was a pain symptom and said his lungs were fine. Ok, lots of us here know about that and I knew that was a possibility. That means he was in a lot of pain. The vet also said his trachea should be ok. That he wasn't showing any of the symptoms of trachea issues (drooling, coughing when the throat was pressed, etc).  So, the
vet was doing some more checking found a very sore area on his back and focused on that.  I did see what he's talking about, and clearly his back is sore.  he's got two pain meds and if he doesn't improve he needs to go to his regular vet and get sedated so they can look down his throat.

I just don't get it. I'm not saying his back doesn't hurt but then what about the change in voice, noisy breathing and snorting? The vet seemed to imply the upper back pain could cause that and maybe that's right but it seems so odd. Once we were home and Floyd was calmer, I investigated more. It also seems  like the back of his neck is a bit swollen on one side. Could floyd have hurt himself? Sure, he's a nut. He runs full speed, plays rough, jumps over things, crawls under things while in a sprint. But...why does he sometimes sound like darth vader now?

I do have to brag on my boy a bit. He was terrified of all people when I got him. strangers are still scary and men are very scary. He's been very reactive in the past and has fear bitten  Of course the vet was a man. he was very good for the situation. we did muzzle him  and he had one brief freak out, but even though the doofy vet reacted rather strongly
to that (he was muzzled!), floyd held it together for the rest of the time.  he stood still  and let the vet proud him while clearly terrified. I ran out of treats and the vet tech gave me more and said she was way impressed with how good he did given how frightened he was.