Constant difficulty breathing through nose; congestion, runny nose, bubbles, snorting

[LucyGoosey]

Hi, guys; I'm at a loss here. I'll preface this by saying yes, I have been working with my vet, but I'm wondering if it may be time for more extreme measures/treatment or a second/third professional opinion.


SITUATION:
Lucy turned 7 in August. For the last year or so, she's been having a wet sound in her nose. Sometimes her she'll have clear snot bubbles, sometimes not. In the morning she'll sneeze repeatedly for a few minutes (usually around 10 times). When she's grooming herself, she'll sound like she's tryiing to breathe at the bottom of a big pot of mac & cheese; it sounds thick, wet, gurgly, and disgusting; the Skesis form the Dark Crystal tucking into some dinner.

When she's sleeping or napping or otherwise not excited, her breathing is relatively quiet, though at times there's some audible wheezing or other respiratory sounds.

Here's the kicker: other than this nasal issue, she is perfectly healthy and happy; she's energetic, eats & drinks fine, pees and poops fine, plays with her doggie brothers and sisters, sleeps well, and continues to have a friendly disposition with the curious intelligence that Yorkies are known for. All I can think is that if I were the one having the issues she's having, I'd be miserable. It's basically like congestion and a runny nose nonstop, only she can't use kleenexes.


TREATMENTS SO FAR
When it first started happening, I started giving her Claritin. This seemed to work for a bit, but then stopped having any effect. Then I took her to the vet once I started to get more concerned and noticed it just wasn't going away.

The vet initially took some labs and prescribed a steroid and antibiotic. I don't think this helped much, if at all. This was prescribed because the labs showed some bacteria, which might've been secondary to chronic allergies. When this treatment didn't help, we tried switching foods a couple times. Still no help. Then the vet prescribed Apoquel. This worked like a miracle for about a month. But as of about two weeks ago, the wet sounds, nasal inflammation, sneezing, snorting, and gurgling are back as bad as they ever were.


MOVING FORWARD
I am still working on switching pill pockets for the pill, but she was doing fine for most of the time using pill pockets. The vet has said we can do a rhinoscopy to see if there's any tumor or debris caught in her nose causing the problem. This is likely my next step, but I'm wondering if I should maybe get a different vet's opinion. I have any number of very good vets in my area to choose from.


So...

What say you, YorkieTalk peeps? Has anyone dealt with anything like this before? I'm still hoping it's something stupid simple and easy to eliminate if it's environmental or food related or something I'm just overlooking.

[Lovetodream88]

It’s sounds like your vet is correct and you need to do a scope of the nose. There is definitely something going on in there and it could end up just being a foreign body or something more serious like a tumor. I personally would do the scope.

[LucyGoosey]

Originally Posted by Lovetodream88

It’s sounds like your vet is correct and you need to do a scope of the nose. There is definitely something going on in there and it could end up just being a foreign body or something more serious like a tumor. I personally would do the scope.

Yeah, I emailed my vet yesterday. She's gonna give me a quote for the rhinoscopy and CT. They said they can do the CT, but if they see something they'd have to do a scope anyway, so I might as well cut out the middle step.

Thanks!

[LucyGoosey]

Quick update: My vet called and gave me the quotes. They said the CT will cost $1000, and the rhinoscopy will cost between $2k and $2500, depending on biopsies, if needed. Now, if they did the CT and saw something, they would have to do the rhinoscopy anyway.

So it could cost as little as $1000 or as much as $3500.

It's super frustrating. I can't seem to find anyone else online with the same problem to get experience or advice from

[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by LucyGoosey

Quick update: My vet called and gave me the quotes. They said the CT will cost $1000, and the rhinoscopy will cost between $2k and $2500, depending on biopsies, if needed. Now, if they did the CT and saw something, they would have to do the rhinoscopy anyway.

So it could cost as little as $1000 or as much as $3500.

It's super frustrating. I can't seem to find anyone else online with the same problem to get experience or advice from

My now passed Callie was having breathing issues with her nose and when we went to the specialist to try and get a scope they took her blood pressure and it was to high to do that scope because when they took biopsies she would have had uncontrolled bleeding. So we couldn't scope at that time. Eventually after multiple antibiotics and a lot of time while trying to get her blood pressure under control it stopped and we never really found out why. but like 5 months or so after that due to other issues, she had to be helped to Heaven which had nothing to do with the nose. Dogs don't generally get snotty due to allergies like humans do so in most cases it means there is something going on in the nose. I follow a vet group and when issues like this happen a scope is necessary and does usually find something whether it be a foreign body or a tumor. We were quoted a lot less money for the scope but maybe that has to do with a location thing. Personally I would go straight to the scope and not the CT and leave that open for if you still can figure it out after the scope because the CT still might now show the issue.

[LucyGoosey]

Originally Posted by Lovetodream88

My now passed Callie was having breathing issues with her nose and when we went to the specialist to try and get a scope they took her blood pressure and it was to high to do that scope because when they took biopsies she would have had uncontrolled bleeding. So we couldn't scope at that time. Eventually after multiple antibiotics and a lot of time while trying to get her blood pressure under control it stopped and we never really found out why. but like 5 months or so after that due to other issues, she had to be helped to Heaven which had nothing to do with the nose. Dogs don't generally get snotty due to allergies like humans do so in most cases it means there is something going on in the nose. I follow a vet group and when issues like this happen a scope is necessary and does usually find something whether it be a foreign body or a tumor. We were quoted a lot less money for the scope but maybe that has to do with a location thing. Personally I would go straight to the scope and not the CT and leave that open for if you still can figure it out after the scope because the CT still might now show the issue.

Thank you so much for your input. I think I'm going to go that route. Allergies usually manifest differently; whenever she's had allergies before, it has turned into skin rashes, eye boogies, and GI upset. It makes no sense that she would have a stuffed runny nose with nothing but clear fluid/bubbles. She has no eye boogies at all (well, no more than any other dog, I suppose).

I was talking to my gf last night about it. She reminded me that Lucy had sort of fallen down the stairs (only like 3 stairs) and potentially landed on her nose last year in October. That's more or less around the time this all started, so I'm kinda thinking it may have actually broke something and healed improperly.

I can't be sure that it started around this time - I wish I would have documented it. But it's gotten better and worse over time and only a few months ago did it become something that I recognized as something that needed to be addressed (again, because she was/is otherwise a perfectly happy and healthy, playful pup).

Anyway, it's miserable for me to see her breathing being so difficult, even though it doesn't really seem to bother her that much.

[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by LucyGoosey

Thank you so much for your input. I think I'm going to go that route. Allergies usually manifest differently; whenever she's had allergies before, it has turned into skin rashes, eye boogies, and GI upset. It makes no sense that she would have a stuffed runny nose with nothing but clear fluid/bubbles. She has no eye boogies at all (well, no more than any other dog, I suppose).

I was talking to my gf last night about it. She reminded me that Lucy had sort of fallen down the stairs (only like 3 stairs) and potentially landed on her nose last year in October. That's more or less around the time this all started, so I'm kinda thinking it may have actually broke something and healed improperly.

I can't be sure that it started around this time - I wish I would have documented it. But it's gotten better and worse over time and only a few months ago did it become something that I recognized as something that needed to be addressed (again, because she was/is otherwise a perfectly happy and healthy, playful pup).

Anyway, it's miserable for me to see her breathing being so difficult, even though it doesn't really seem to bother her that much.

Hope you can figure out the issue. Please come back and update us when you do or after the scope.

[Kiwibaehr]

Could it be a dental issue? Just a thought...

[LucyGoosey]

Originally Posted by Kiwibaehr

Could it be a dental issue? Just a thought...

It's possible; She had her teeth cleaned a few months ago and they didn't report anything problems. The issue has been going on for over a year now; probably since last fall/summer.

But when I take her in for her rhinoscopy in a few days, I'll ask them to double-check

[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by LucyGoosey

It's possible; She had her teeth cleaned a few months ago and they didn't report anything problems. The issue has been going on for over a year now; probably since last fall/summer.

But when I take her in for her rhinoscopy in a few days, I'll ask them to double-check

Please let us know how the rhinoscopy goes.

[Kiwibaehr]

I had a Yorkie 20 years ago already… she made “snorfel” sounds. At one point she had some drainage out her nose. We found out she had an elongated soft palette and the drainage out of her nose was due to an infected tooth; I think the root of the tooth went into the palette. Once the tooth was removed the drainage stopped. But she continued to make the “snorfel” sounds. Anesthesia with yorkies that have the elongated soft palette is risky. Well, good luck with the scope, we were also looking to get our yorkie scoped, but never did it once we discovered the tooth problem.