I do trust my vets. They have always cared for my dogs very well and are the best in my town, so this is hard for me.

I'm going to continue to watch for different signs and record the coughing the next time I see it to be able to show them.

that is a good idea to record it. i recorded my dog - the vet watched it and she said it was her trachea and so we decided to do xrays. she knew immediately that is was ct. the xrays were taken to see how bad it was. Last June Samie's xrays showed on the xray the opening was about 1/4 inch wide. A month ago you coudn't believe she could even breathe... there was a hair line opening only. I think it was so bad though because of her ct fainting episode that morning-just 2 hours earlier. I literally thought she had died in my arms that day. She just stopped breathing. she was out for about 3 minutes. she had stuck her tongue out and it was totally purple. I was holding her, she was not breathing at all. I was talking to her and loving her and pretty much saying goodbye to her and then all of the sudden she started peeing!! It was running down the whole right side of my body. She had a bowel movement also. But the vet still says she does not think she had a seizure. it was ct and then she fainted. I was just glad to see my little dog still alive. it was a very sad day for me and i still re-live it. it's hard. i thought i had lost her.

Aw, I am so sorry. He sounds like he was a fighter. I know we can sure get attached to these little furbabies.

Take care.

Kate

I can definitely feel your concern.

Sadie will be six years old in April. She had a honking episode about 8 months ago when my parents were Grandog sitting. When I picked her up at 1:00a,
my folks walked out and Mom said, "Your Little Girl is not well". I knew it was bad news when I saw my folks, as they usually don't get up when I come to pick her up.

Mom said she had her chin on the floor, and honked and begged for air.
They did not know what to do and said they did not want to care for her anymore as it was too stressful. My parents are elderly, so I can understand this. But, age has nothing to do with it as it would scare anyone.

I took her to the vet the next day, and he tried to get her to cough, and she did just a little. He said it if gets worse, they can give her medication.

Since then, she has had one episode, and it was short. He told me when Sadie does this to hold her neck up, to try to straighten the trachea which is like a small straw. Then stroke her neck, and also get her outside for fresh air.

It is so scary that I hate to move her, but I did get her outside and it helped.
So far, she is doing very well, so I hope and pray this does not happen to your baby again.

Pls. let us know how the surgery turns out.

Lots of prayers coming your way.

Kate & Sadie Girl

Yes he was, Corky has been gone a month now, and my 10 year old little girl "Cassie: still
is grieving. We got "Spanky" three months old Nov. 21st 2007 and Corky and Cassie were so happy. I knew Corky's time could come someday, but not three weeks after we got the new pup. Corky did teach him to lift his leg and hide in the closet. Spanky has some big paws to fill and has helped his sister so much. I didn't want Cassie to be alone and we were blessed Corky had the time with his new brother.

Hi all,

So I just took Kylie to the vet for the same kinda reverse kinda hacking cough. she said all looked fine, but decided to take an xray. found out she does have a collapsed traeca (sorry about spelling, i'm really upset). She's on meds now, i'm just worried about her in the future, she has been having the coughing episodes over 15 times just today (we really started noticing it yesterday). She's only 8 weeks old, and we do have a warrenty with the pet store that we got her from. i've grown really attatched to her in the past 5 days i've had her and wouldn't want to "trade" her for another pup, i'm just worried with her having these episodes and me being gone for 8 hours a day, that something serious might happen. Should she have a different owner that could take better care of her and be there more for her? Please respond. I'm really scared.

My guess is that it is more of a kennel cough right now and that yes, obvious a narrow trachea, but at that age probably not the trachea acting up, just the cough. You see, they are born with the narrow windpipe, it's anatomy that's a bit out of proportion. Usually their symptoms don't appear until they are older and fatter. Your puppy will probably clear up when the respirtory puppy thing goes away. It may come back to CT coughing at a different age. Like allergies can be harder on a CT dog. So can kennel cough. I bet many little dogs have undiagnosed CT because an xray hasn't ever been done. I'd give that pup a chance to clear up and I bet will be cough free for quite some time.

What kind of meds is she on? How did the xrays look? can you see an opening in her trachea or is it compressed? How does her heart look? did the vet say anything about her heart? How much does she weigh? I know so many questions.... but i know how scared you are and depending on how bad her trachea is can help you treat her and not be so scared. I know this sounds weird and crazy to ask but check the carpet in your house with a black light. see if there is any urine on the floor. My two little girls (as much as i love them to pieces) soiled the carpet in my front room. Samie's episodes were constant until we tore out the carpet and put down wood floor. My dogs will not pee on the floor. As crazy as this sounds- the urine that was on our carpet really got to her breathing. Do you burn candles or smoke in the house. If you do smoke that is really bad for your dog and you will have to stop in order for her to be better. there little lungs cannot take the smoke. Any plug in air fresheners in your house? do you spray hairspray? all of these things i mentioned impacted my dog and in order to help her i quit everything. It took 3 yrs to get everything out of my house that i knew bothered her. I know for a fact that a urine soiled area will really impact the trachea. you can get a black light for 30.00 at petsmart. please let me know how her trachea looked on the xray and what the vet said. You may be able to treat this vicious disease with meds and your little girl will be fine. My little one is doing great now that we took her off of her allergy meds. (chlorephenaramine) the allergy med was causing her to pant more and cause more attacks.

I know how you are feeling. I will pray for you that everything will be okay.

My vet prescribed my Samie Hydromet (cough syrup) for when she coughs. After her first cough, i give her the Hydromet w/o any delay. She will stop immediately and maybe will have one more. I give it to her for maybe 3 days once in the morning and once at night. then when i am home with her on the following weekend after her coughing episodes-I get a chance to see her all w/end long and she does no coughing so i only give her for a few days in a row after a cough. And she has been doing very well. So then i don't give anymore hydromet. But she is also on Flovent 2 x's a day ( i mask her with an infant mask) the flovent is 250.00 a month for her to be on this. the cough syrup is 16.00 and a small bottle lasts at least 6 most to a year bc i only give to her as needed. I will treat her like this as long as i have to. the flovent really helps her a lot. And also eliminating any candles, hairspray, or air fresheners. And i am one of those candle freaks - i love to burn them. But i will give up them and the hairspray and air fresheners to have her in my life. It's not even an issue. She is my baby and i will do what i have to do.

oh also we change our furnace filter every other month. it helps her a lot too. we also are looking into getting an air cleaner. The vet said it would help her a lot. My husband has bad allergies so they both will benefit from an air cleaner. :-)

she's on clavamox .25 ml 2 times a day. I'm guessing right now the vet is just trying to get her over the mucus-y stuff she has (like kennel cough) she was vaccinated for kennel cough a month and 1/2 ago. she's 2 lbs, 8 weeks and 5 days old. (she has lost an ounce since monday-probably since she's feeling icky and not really hungry)

as far as the xrays, it gets smaller towards the front of her front legs (kinda hard to see since she's so small the muscle was covering it some) and then it gets larger past the front legs. the vet didn't say anything about her heart.

i talked to my bf's sis's bf who is finishing up vet school this semester and he said to focus on getting her over the cough now. i'm going back to my vet on thursday for her shots.

she hasn't tinkled on the carpet and i do have air fresheners plugged in. i stay away from candles cause my cat loves them.

my vet told us to call her if she gets worse as in coughing more. i'm going to ask her more questions for sure on thursday.

The Clavamox is an antibiotic so that would make sense with the cough too. I would remove all plug in air fresheners. Although they smell good they are very strong for our little dogs lungs. That's good that you could see an opening in her trachea. If you go to veterinarypartner.com and search for collapsing trachea, i believe there are really good pics of the trachea and how it works. It can collapse in the chest region and the throat region. My Samies xrays showed her trachea very closed up towards her throat area. It was closed so small it looked like a fine line as opposed to a tube like opening. I am praying that it has opened up more since her last fainting episode. Keep a watch on her tongue to make sure it does not turn purple when she is coughing. Don't want to scare you at all- these are just signs to look for. Try to limit her excitement even when she starts feeling better. Sometimes thats hard for me to do with Samie. She is so playful. She rolls around on her back and throws her head back and i have to pick her up and stop her from playing because all of the excitement is causing her tongue to not so much turn dark blue but it will turn gray. when normally it is pink.

any questions just ask. you take care hon and i hope your little girl will be feeling better very soon. :-)

here is a link i found...
http://www.buzzardsbayvetassociates....heaWebPage.htm

here ia another link
 

So sorry about your baby, sending prayers for a good recovery:hands:

new user
 

I also have a 18 month 2. 8 lb yorkie with collapsing trachea. Isnt there any successful surgeries for this condition...greyhame

Hi, my Zander started doing this same thing, in July of last year. I freaked out, the vets that I called said don't worry it is reverse sneezing, for peace of mind I took him in, yeap, .. he is fine. The vet said Zander had allergies to something in the air. My instincts told me, or something he is eating? The vet was more than eager to dispense meds. I told him, I'd do some research.... and get back to him. Well around the time, this was happening, I had gotten my Baby Jazzie she was on Natures Variety so I was transitioning Zander to it as well. I started to wean him off of the NV, I haven't seen a reverse sneeze ever since. Sooo, he was allergic to an ingredient in the food. Phew!

Sharon,

my lil one HATES taking the cough medicine. I administer the med through a medicine dropper. She's so tiny though and she moves her head about frantically - I'm scared I'm going to hurt her. Do have any tips on getting her to take it?

Just wanted to add my 2 cents. I have a 1.5 year old yorkie-poo (she weighs 2.5 lbs) and she does the same thing every time she drinks her water. The vet says she's fine...

Our dog Jingles, a 5 year old Yorkie died on 2/9/08 from a collapsing trachea. He was diagnosed with it last year and was on meds for it. The day he died he reversed sneezed twice, I gave him his pill and it didn't help. We brought him to the vets twice that day but it didn't help. My vet held Jingles nose too but nothing happened, so he gave him X-Rays and the collapsed trachea showed up. Be smart- X- Rays!!!

This is just heartbreaking. My condolences. I just don't know what else to say. So sad!

I'm sorry about your baby :(.

We haven't done xrays yet as the vet doesn't see it necessary. I put a humidifier in their bedroom and it has helped tremendously.

I think it could be the really harsh winter we are having here. She doesn't take medication anymore and only coughs after drinking usually.

Thanks for the update. I have a 2 year old yorkie, Dylan that has a collapsed trachea (CT) and the humidifier at night will help. It sounds like your yorkie probably does have a slightly collapsed trachea. If it is only slightly collapsed it is hard to see on xrays anyway. I switched vets because my old vet didn't really know what to do for the CT.

Dylan currently isn't on any medications because he is so young and the new vet wants to wait until he really needs them. CT usually continues to get worse as they age. University of Tennesse does surgery on CT babies but only if the dog cannot be managed with medicine anymore. The surgery is pretty risky and the success rate is not that great yet. I'm hoping by the time my baby needs surgery that they have made lots of progress with the procedure.

My new vet said the most important thing for a CT baby is to keep them from getting overweight and keep them in good shape. I hope your little one continues to do well.

Did you get her spayed?

me too
 

I also hope your lil one continues to do well. My vet told met that if you gently blow in their face while they are having an episode, it helps them to breath.

Thank you for the reply! It makes me feel better to know others are dealing with this as well (even though I wouldn't wish it on anyone's babies).

I did have her spayed and she came through with flying colors! Her recovery was extremely fast and she didn't even seem phased afterwards thank goodness!

She does love her walks so we make sure to do that daily (as long as it isn't bitterly cold out) as well as playing around the house.

I do free feed and probably give too many treats, but I am starting to cut way back on the treats and give tiny tiny treats as opposed to larger pieces.

She's just over a year and is 4.2 lbs.

At her annual coming up soon I will be talking more in depth about the CT issue to see what else I can do to help her through this.

Thank you so much again!

Thank you very much -- sometimes that does help when I do it.

Normally I only notice the episodes after she drinks water too quickly and sometimes on very very cold days.

How old?
 

How old was your dog when you found out her had CT?
I just found out he has it and Angel is now 20 months old..
And he is on a 3 small meals a day diet, taking 2 different meds every 12 hours and exercising is minimal and NO stairs...Im freaking out, but the last few weeks since I have found out I think I have heard him cough a total of 2 times.
How long can yorkies live with CT? Do you now, anyone know?
Please help!
:confused:

There is BUT..
 

Success is very poor :( Ive looked into it.
Im in Greece and I have a 20 month old Yorkie.
Angel was diagnoded 2 weeks ago with CT and I have been a wreck since.
He is too tiny to be suffering.
Anyhow, Im from America, called docs in USA & Canada and no one suggests the surgery, just the diet, minimal exercise and diet (3 small meals a day) :(