new yorkie owner...need some words of wisom
 

ok well my mom got a little 2 month old yorkie on sunday named Hazel. She is ADORABLE and such a sweetheart. We noticed that she starts to make this odd noise a few times a day...it's almost like a cough/weeze/gag. Kind of like she has a fur ball caught in her throat or something. My mom found out that if it looks as though a dog has been biting the fur off of their paws that it could be allergies. This would make sense seeing as how hazel loves to run around in the backyard. Does anyone else's yorkie have this problem? And if so, can you give then any sorts or medicine to help with it? I feel so bad when i see her coughing(or whatever she's doing) like that. Also, i've given her a few baths, and afterwards she always smells. Its not too bad, but so overpowering that you cant even smell a hint of the shampoo. What could i do about that? Ive never had a dog with allergies or difficult hair so please give me some advice. Thank you!

I don't know about the bathing issue, but Cash also coughs/gags like that, but only when he is playing or excited. It usually happens when something or someone has touched his throat too hard. It looks and sounds like he is going to throw up, but he doesn't.
I don't know whether this is normal or not, but he is 2 years old and has no other health problems. I think it has something to do with his sensitive trachea.
I would love to hear what the other YTalkers say.

See your Vet. Skin issues/diseases will give off an odor.

Many Yorkies have sensitive tracheas. Use a halter as opossed to a collar. This should also be evaluted by your vet as coughing can indicate other problems.

Try a chamomile tea rinse . About 2 or 3 bags to a gallon of water. Pour over whole dog and do not rinse off. You can let it get into eyes it soothes them . Don't worry if she swallows it i'ts not toxic.

Has she been to the vet yet and what kind of food are you feeding her and you can bath them to much, what kind of shampoo are you using, yorkies tend to have allergies food and to the enviroment. Chester has allergies to the enviroment, food allergies can come from food with corn, wheat and soy the biggest dog food allegerns. You can rinse her off in the tub if it happens after she is outside. dogs can chew at their paws for food allergies, the vet is most important and make sure it is not bacterial or something, and then their are things for allergies, salmon oil, benadyrl, Im not sure the age to start the salmon oil though. They can have the collapsing trachea and the reverse sneezing, especially if they play or get excited

thank you for the answers so far. :) and she is eating Diamond Puppy food right now. It's the same thing that i am giving to my 6 week old boxer and apparently he can not have ANYTHING with corn, soy, and all those other things in it. This dog food was recommended to me by his breeder and i was told that it would also be an excelltent food to give to my mom's yorkie. She seems to like it. But i'm pretty sure that it is not the food that she is allergic to because she began making that noise within the first couple ours that we had her (before we even bought the puppy food to feed her). Now that i'm really thinking about it, it does seem like she usually gets her coughing episodes whenever she is excited, or trying to calm down after being excited or after playing with my puppy. She is very hyper. Oh and right now I am just using some puppy shampoo on her with a lavender scent. Should i switch to something that is not scented? Or maybe oatmeal based? Any my mother did give her some benadryl the other day...but i dont think it did very much to help her except make her a little drowsy. i would rather not start her on medicines untill i try everything else that i can to help her.

if the coughing sounds like this:


then it's PHARYNGEAL GAG REFLEX and if it only lasts a few seconds I wouldn't worry too much. it's mostly caused by excitement. If it lasts longer than that go to the vet.

yes it does sound like that...but lasts maybe a minute or two longer. And at the very end she makes this loud noise almost as if she's pushing out a ball of hair from her throat. she will be going to the vet sometime soon, but i was just looking for something that i could do to help her for now so that maybe that wont happen to her as much.

That's what happens to Amelia when she gets over excited. I find picking her up and holding her straight up and down (head toward the sky) seems to shorten the attack. As if it opens her lungs.

That is what Laci sounded like and she had Kennel Cough and she had to be put on antibiotics , it scared me when she coughed because the gagging part made me a wreck:eek:

did the antibiotics seem to help with that at all?

This is an eight week old puppy, right? She is too young to have developed the antibodies that cause an allergic reaction. She is also too young to have left her mother. Yorkie puppies should stay with their mothers until they are twelve weeks old. She is too young to have had any vaccinations (or if she did they didn't take) so she is at a high risk for disease. She needs to be seen by a vet asap.

no she is not 8 weeks. we got her at about 12 weeks of age so she was ready to be away from her mother. that would make her about 14 weeks within the next couple of days. and the coughing is still happening frequently throughout the day. i was holding her as it was happening earlier today and it seemed to me more like a dry cough than anything else. and the gagging sound at the end is still happening....but i have no idea what to do. i tried holding her upright as it's happening and it doesn't do anything at all. i am going to take her to the vet sometime next week so hopefully they can tell me what it is that i can do to help her. i know it cant be comfortable for her to go through that.....

You said in your first post that you got her when she was two months old which is eight weeks...:confused:

Any, regardless of how old she is, a young puppy shouldn't be coughing. I am glad you are taking her to the vet. I would be worried about kennel cough as Jeanm1963 suggested.

Please keep us posted what the vet says! Nolee does this also, but was told it was normal when excited.