Some questions on narrow nostrils/elongated pallete, tapeworms...

[Raynebowpug]

Hi all!
Ok, so this is about my newly adopted female pug, she is 4 years old. Picked her up Thursday night, she was breathing pretty loud, and figured, the poor thing just had a 2 hour car ride, she was a little scared. However, the heavy, almost labored breathing, hasn't stopped. I can see her ribs, and when she is breathing, regardless of activity level, the skin sucks in between her rib bones. Found fleas and flea dirt on her, immediately gave her a flea bath. We had JUST gotten over a huge terrible flea battle here over the summer. I was literally washing 3 cats and our pug every other day, used DE, flea drops after I was tired of spending so MUCH time washing animals, vacuuming nonstop everything short of flea bombs. they had even started biting my boyfriend's legs...It was that bad. But, alas, I won the battle. :D
So, a bit paranoid on the flea front again. Not a big deal, I know how to battle them better if, God forbid, we do get infested again. Today, I noticed in her poop little specks of white, which in my mind = tapeworms. This poor girl was used for breeding, and with the breathing problems, should NOT have been bred! I am getting her spayed in February. The pug we have, who is ancient, is neutered.

If it weren't for how absolutely wonderfully good she is, I would be getting my money back and bring her back to them. But she is GREAT with my kids, my almost one year old pulled a Godzilla on her aka slowly toddling as fast as she could, arms outstretched, squealing with happiness, and Ellie, the pug, just gave her a "WTF?!?" look and walked away. No growling, snapping. I of course watch very closely, every time my daughter goes near her, I take her hand and pet Ellie gently and tell her good job, keeping little hands away from her eyes.
My big questions are, does anyone have a pug who has the elongated palette, or narrow nostrils? Did their skin go in between their ribs as they breathed? I am gonna film her, and I will put up a video on YouTube, and put the link here, if that is allowed. I know taking her to the vet is the best way to know for sure, but also, I believe that by showing a video of her breathing, other people can learn more about it as well too. I do have plans to get her in, but with one working vehicle, my boyfriend gone for about 11 hours a day between work and school, its a bit tricky. If anyone knows of a good vet in the Minneapolis Mn area, I would appreciate recommendations. The vet we see for Pug has been for shots and check ups.
Also, anyone use DE for worming before and had good results? It worked slowly, but surely for the fleas. I am not a huge fan of chemicals, with all the kids I have, I try to avoid them. Also, is it normal for pugs to fall asleep while sitting up? Pug does it, but I figure its on account of how old he is, Ellie is doing it as well, and I don't remember him doing it when he was younger.
Thanks for the responses in advance. If posting a link to YouTube is in the clear, I will try to get that done tonight when kids are asleep :)

[shaynapug]

I sent you a private message.

[CountryPug]

She may just be really stressed from being in a new home, but could also have ESP or other breathing issues. Sounds like she needs a trip to the vet to be evaluated and wormed, bring a stool sample with you. Specialists are best at doing any soft pallete surgery, so keep that in mind if she needs to have it done.

[Raynebowpug]

I had written the person we got her from and asked if she had the nostrils or palette issues. He wrote back "The vet told us that is the way pugs are and unless we wanted to pay for an expensive surgery, which we could not afford, there would be no change." Now, either the guy is lying to me, or he has a VERY bad or unfamiliar with pugs vet. Not sure which it could be, but yeah...I'm feeling stupid about the whole thing. :/
We'll be doing vet visits soon, I'll be looking into the vets sent to me by Shaynapug (thanks!) Hopefully I can find a good one close to home :) I searched all the videos on YouTube and couldn't find any similar to how this pug breathes...so I will get one up tonight, and maybe you all can take a look and see if any of your pugs breathe like this, or if this is something more serious...I'm leaning to more serious. But, I have also only owned one pug prior to Thursday, and he has never breathed odd like she does. No one I know has had a pug either. So, i am pretty limited on comparing.

[Wally 'n' Leto]

With our foster, who has both stenotic nares and an elongated palate, that is pretty much what we saw with the breathing. However, it did improve after a few days at home to settle. If she's being spayed, you can ask the generalist to assess the palate when he's putting her under, and then you can decide what to do from there. Even though Roobee had the longest palate the vet had seen in years, we decided not to have it done because once she settled and lost a few pounds (she started out badly obese), her breathing is actually almost normal.

Sounds like Ellie's had a rough time of it, probably not the best diet or care in her past ... you may also want to ask the vet to do a dental when he's in there and she's under. It can prevent bigger problems down the road.

Sounds like you've got a keeper personality wise -- thanks for not giving up on her despite her condition.

[Raynebowpug]

That's a good idea, hadn't thought to have them check while she's under. She is a VERY small pug, he said she was 13lbs, and I kinda doubt she is any more than that. She is pretty much skin and bones, which makes sense since her poo was literally covered with tape worm segments. Poor thing, I really feel bad for her, and I do NOT want to send her back to them.
I am guessing once the worms are gone, she'll fill out a bit more, and maybe have more energy to her. Got her on rice and boiled hamburger, the guy didn't give me any of her current food, nor did he ever mention what he was feeding her, just said it was very high quality, which is fairly believable, as her coat is soft like a puppy's.
Her teeth still look very good, white, and clean, but there was a definite odor to it. Picked her up a Greenie to chew on.
And thank you, for the hope that once she does full settle it won't be as bad. She is fairly lazy, but again, that could be the worms, she'll be hyper for about 5 mins and then sleep.

Here is a picture of her, she is little one, Pug is the BIG one. He is very obese, hard to believe that he has lost weight lol my almost 2 and almost 1 yr old love throwing food at him...working on breaking that habit. And yeah, my 3yr old found a pen before I woke up one morning...