Hi Tracy
My soon-to-be 3 year old yorkie Pixie has a collapsing trachea. She was diagnossed as a puppy - 10 months or so.
So we're going on 2 years dealing with the same issue.
During that time, I've done a lot of research and experiments to see what I can learn to try to help her. As far as medication - I found that prednisone helps her the most, though we try to regulate how long she's on it because we don't want to damage her liver too badly either. And we frequently pull her off when we're able. Right now, she's on Prednisone and Torbutrol. We also give her gloucosamine... and something else we've recently discovered to keep it at bay: calming tabs.
A lot of times her collapse is due to excitement or too much activity - giving her an all natural calming tab seems to help those times tremendously, and it kept her off the steroid for a couple months longer than she would have otherwise.
Other things that tend to irritate her: very cold weather - it makes her throat scratchy and irritated, making her cough, thus subjecting her to collapses. She's always on a steroid during the winter months for this reason. Also - cold or hot foods/liquids tend to set her off. I try to make sure that we give her only lukewarm foods and liquids - and if she gets something from the fridge, we put it in the microwave to try to get it room-temperature before allowing her to have it. We also try NOT to give her cold water - fresh, yes - but not cold. Dairy also sets her off - when she drinks milk or has cheese or something, she has more and worse collapses than when she doesn't.
Every dog and every trachea is different. I'm not telling you this to say that you have to do this with Tucker - not at all. But it helps to know what sets them off to try to keep it at bay, and hopefully by reading Pixie's information, it'll give you somewhere to start.
If you find other things that set Tucker off, please let me know - it may just be useful for Pixie's treatment also.