Collapse Trachea Survey
 

Hello everyone, I am trying to do research on Collapse Trachea where as my moms puppy has had this quick gagging cough like he is clearing his throat and the vets think it is CT. I feel he is kinda young do have it and it does not sound like the typical cough of CT. I want to survey people out there that has dogs with CT


How Old was your dog when it started?
How did it start? ex: quick gagging cough or honking cough
How long did they live with it?
Any treatments that you believed helped the dog live longer with it or so it did not progress so fast
Did all the dogs with CT get to the severe stage?


Thanks - hopefully this can help other people with dogs with CT and diagnosing them

Hi - just wanted to welcome you to YT and say good luck w/ your info gathering :)!

I hope some people respond because i have the same thing with my puppy. He does the quick cough and I too was wondering if it could be the beginning of CT.

My puppy also has what could be the beginnings of collapse trachea. She has been coughing since I got her at 3 months old and she is now 8 months old. She only coughs after drinking. I have attached a video of her cough. It's not the best since it's only one quick cough, but it is usually 2-4 quick coughs followed by a sound like she is about to throw up, but never does. The vet said it could be the beginnings of CT, but it is too early to tell.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMopfKgfu2s

Two of my Rainbow Bridge babies had collapsing trachea. Gracie, my littlest angel, had it from the time she was little. She whoever let it stop her, and she did everything at full speed. She lived a great life, even though she was only 9.5 when she passed away. I was hugely protective of her because I needed to be to prevent severe attacks, but she still played all the time. She had dentals yearly, often twice yearly, but it got to the point that our vet said it was too dangerous. It got steadily worse each year. Gracie had attacks where her throat would start to close and her temperature started to rise. She needed to be put on ice or submerged in cool water to get her temperature down. We always had air conditioning on for her, but she knew herself when she needed to cool down. Gracie would go to the back door, and I'd let her out. She ran immediately to our pool and stayed on the first step until her breathing went back to normal.

Gracie's sister, Ashley, had a collapsing trachea, but it was much milder than Gracie's. We discovered she had an enlarged heart close to her eleventh birthday. Since everything was within normal limits on her echocardiogram, our vet said it was enlarged because of her tracheal issues. In later years she had many gas pockets in her abdomen that we needed to treat. They were also caused from taking in too much air due to her tracheal problems. Ashley walked at least two miles a day up until a couple of days before she died. She was a month shy of seventeen.

There are many different degrees of collapsed trachea. I believe that, because of the devastating effects it can have, people tend to overreact to any cough a pup has. I have had a few pups with collapsed trachea and there is no cookie cutter way to treat them since they vary so much. It comes down to trial and error in terms of the meds used. The common things to do are to keep the pup in a calm environment, keep them cool and keep their weight within normal range.

To get an accurate diagnosis, a flouroscopy should be done. Of course, sometimes it can be diagnosed by manual manipulation of the neck by the trachea or by xrays but that is not 100% as the flouroscopy is.

Some accurate information is found here:

https://www.acvs.org/small-animal/tracheal-collapse

Following because this is a topic I to am very interested in.

Following because this is a topic I to am very interested in.
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Me too R-Teddy I am interested in it too. I have looked online for statistics on dogs with CT and there is not much out there.

Great article, thanks for sharing ! :thumbup:

Bogie was just diagnosed last week with CT. He was coughing when we went in for annual checkups. I thought it was just allergies. Our vet did the manual manipulation only and I haven't scheduled a flouroscopy. Linda do you recommend I go ahead and have Bogie scoped. He doesn't have any symptoms unless he is on a harness or sometimes when he gets overly excited

How old is Bogie? My vet said my 5 month old had CT because when she pressed on his throat he did that quick fast cough. I would think you would need more than that test to diagnose it. Sammie does cough that quick gag cough a few times a day and it only last about 1 second.

I wouldn't because usually if they manipulate and elicit a cough it is CT. I mean if you really want to know, it would definitely tell you much more such as how severe it is.

Regardless, the treatment would be the same. It's not like there is a cure for CT and having a definitive diagnosis will make a difference.

Try to keep him from getting overly excited....the more they cough, the worse it can get.

Thanks everyone. Out of 84 views I was hoping to get more response than this. I find it hard to believe that there are only a handful of people on here that has a dog with CT. Well hopefully more people will respond. I tried to look up statistics online but there is none.

How old is your mom's puppy? How often does he cough

While it is commonly seen in yorkies and some other small breed dogs, I don't think it is necessarily common. Sometimes we tend to think things are more prevalent here on YT because we see so much but that is because many people post in Sick & Injured looking for information. They don't necessarily come to YT to post about their healthy yorkies.

Thanks Linda. From the research I have done in the last week, I was leaning towards not doing the scope. I'm heartbroken that he has CT, but we will do everything we have to do , to make sure he has the treatments needed and that he remains a happy baby boy.

Bogie will be 6 in September. He has always had this cough when out walking and I've always used a choke free harness or buddy belt. I always just thought it was allergies and he had never coughed at the vets office.
I usually carry them into the office when we go. But last week I let them walk in on a leash with their harness on. That how our vet heard him and subsequently diagnosed him.
I feel so bad that I never mentioned it to the vet or that I didn't think of CT. I always thought they sounded like a goose honking not like a cough or at least in my mind it didn't sound like a honking noise.

Hi Jada I think I just emailed you. So your dog has had it since he was a baby too? And he has the quick fast cough like a clearing of the throat too? I had a maltese with CT and hers was more of a loud honking cough and hers did not start till she was 8. So when my new puppy did this quick cough I never thought CT either.

Keep in mind that while it is a progressive thing, some really do not get as bad as others. Bogie could live a long life and not have problems with this.

My Georgie who just passed had a severely collapsed trachea, yet it never really bothered him. What got him in the end was a mass on his pancreas. He was anywhere from 14 - 17.

I also had another pup, Maxwell, who passed at a very old age. He had CT and it is not what got him in the end....so try to just keep a positive outlook.

I like to keep myself knowledgeable about conditions/diseases with yorkies. So, CT can start at any age correct? Also if they are diagnosis with it they still can live a long life as long as they are not too excited and not in the heat correct?

No, those things can help; but they still can have very serious issues no matter what you do.

I have had a couple of them die due to the CT and nothing I did made it better.

Thanks Ladyjane. I guess like everyone in life. We never know what will take us at the end. Like you said we have to stay positive and hope for the best. You even had a dog with a severe case and that was not what got him at the end so you never know. I am finding more and more about it. That's why I am glad yorkieowners is doing a survey. Some sites say dogs don't usually get it till they are middle age. But some sites are saying they can get it at any age. Some sites say it is a distinct honking cough well other sites say it can be a hacking up a furball cough. I think the best answers come from the owners that have had experience with CT so I think if more people can come on and do the survey it will help many owners out there.

Thank you very much for the info! I hope Remy will never have to go through having CT.

Yikes! This thread has me feeling a little panicky. My guy sounds like a little piggie and sometimes coughs when he gets really excited or drank / ate fast... should I be worried? I didn't ask my vet about CT, but he did a health check and said he was the perfect puppy...

Paisley, not every cough means CT. How old is your dog? What does the cough sound like? It is more like a clearing of the throat real fast or a honking loud cough? I am finding more and more people with Yorkies that have a cough and I don't think it means they all have CT.

Dogs commonly do that .... could be a harmless reverse sneeze...or, as you said, just a mild coughing from drinking too fast.

Unless symptoms are constant and worrisome, I would try to relax. You can always video it for your vet.

Yes, coughing is more common and normal then CT. The internet is a great thing but it can also cause hypochondria and sometimes doing more damage then the symptom. Puppies especially will cough from stress/exercise, lint, strings or fur from playing with toys or picking up new stuff from carpet or yard.

Ha! I don't really think he has CT. He's 14 weeks and very healthy. He just snorts like a little pig and hacks a little once in awhile when he gets really excited and runs himself out of breath.

I'm just a panicky new yorkie mom. I get the same way whenever I use webmd for myself LOL