Rapid, irregular, or difficult breathing is known as dyspnea, and in all such cases the animal has difficulty in obtaining as much oxygen as it requires.
"Special Report on Diseases of Cattle"
U.S. Department of Agriculture J.R. Mohler
He wants something to relieve his pain, to mitigate the anguish of dyspnea, to bring back motion and sensibility to the dead limb, to still the tortures of neuralgia.
"The Complete PG Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr."
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)
Often the sufferer is sitting up in bed so as to get all the air possible, and, though the windows are wide open, he is gasping for breath, usually pleading for more air with a tense, anxious expression, starting eyes, and the sweat pouring from his forehead, while the accessory muscles of respiration, deeply engaged in moving his thorax to move air enough to keep him from stifling, emphasize his dyspnea.
"Psychotherapy"
James J. Walsh