[lvgirle]

Hi all! I haven't been on here in a while.. I've just been super busy. A little background on my little one, Bigge.... sorry this post is going to be long.

-He was diagnosed with a collapsed trachea (very minor not requiring surgery), and an enlarged heart was ruled out.
-He's been living with the condition quite well. He only had trouble breathing when he is very excited (friends over, being in the car, other excitment). So Biggie's been going on less car rides and I haven't had very many friends over.
-He was on theophilline (sp?), which helped for a while, but then he stopped responding to the meds and our vet put him on prednisone (sp?). This did not help at all. With his collapsed trachea being so minor the vet just told us precautions (limit his excitement ect) and he should be ok for the time being.

Just yesterday, there was a problem with my smoke alarm. It kept on going off for about an hour (no fire the fire department came over and fixed the problem). During all this craziness and excitment, my little Biggie was having more and more breating issues. With the firefighters running in and out and the alarm constantly going off, of course he was excited.

Cut to last night.... his breathing was still labored. Normally after he is excited it will go away after a short amount of time, depending on how excited and how long he was excited for. It sounded like he was in a lot of pain. I was petting him and he was wagging his tail, when I stopped petting him he would stratch my hand to pet him more. During the night, I was contemplating bringing him to the emergency vet. I didn't end up doing it because he was still "happy" (wagging his tail, eating and drinking normally). Also, it's a tough time for me financially and I would not be able to afford the vet.

This morning, he seemed tired (we both barely got any sleep) but still doing his normal activites while I'm getting ready for work. He still had labored breathing and was weezing/coughing but was normal otherwise. I'm having my bf go over there later to check on him but I'm still worried right now if I did the right thing.

Anyone else have their yorkie living with a collapsed trachea? What do you do in "flare up" situations? What kind of medication is your pup taking? Any vitamins or over the counter meds to help? I'm trying to save up money to bring him to the vet. I'm scared he may have more issues if I don't do something soon.