As I have said many times, CT is not as common as many people on this forum seem to think lately.
If any of you ever have a dog with CT you will more than likely have no doubt what you are dealing with. I only had one pup with a severe collapse that did not exhibit classic symptoms and I have had a few who did. I pray you never have a pup with it. It is a very sad condition in most cases.
If a dog is coughing, he/she needs to do to the vet. As for how vets diagnose, it simply is not as simple as it sounds; and, yes, if a vet manipulates the trachea they can often get that telling response that it is CT/ but to be perfectly frank it takes a history and multiple exams for a conclusive diagnosis. Vets do it just as *one* diagnostic tool.
I have tried over and over lately to put people's fears to rest on this forum; and, hopefully some are helped by it. It bothers me immensely that so many people are thinking their dogs have this because, as I said before, it simply is not that common; and I go by that old saying "be careful what you ask for". We often have a tendency to think the worst; and it is a vet's job to look at all possibilities, starting with the most obvious which, in a cough, would not be CT.
This thread title really concerned me when I saw it....it looked like Cody had been diagnosed with CT. Thankfully that is not so!
I did not read the entire post but read enough to see that it is not CT. Yay!