Trachea collapsing
 

Hi there Yorkie friends! My 10 year old Yorkie, Shorty, has a trachea collapsing problem which leads to coughing when he gets excited. We got him at the animal shelter 2 years ago and he had it then. He does not wear a collar, only a soft harness and has been under veterinarian care. His heart is strong, so the vet says, and he is on medication prescribed by our vet. There is so much on the Internet about herbal treatments for this coughing...just wondered if anyone else has experienced a trachea collapsing problem and if they have ever used herbal remedies and what other advice they can give.

No, I have never tried herbal remedies and would not hold out much hope that they would do much.
What medications is he on?
The best things to do is keep his weight down, keep him in a cool and stress free environment.
I have been through this with 3 pups over the years....all different degrees. Sometimes they do well with medical management and don't progress. I hope that will be the case with Shorty. :)

Thanks for your advice LadyJane. Wouldn't you know the name of the medication is now smeared on the bottle so I cannot make out what it says. I do know when I first got the stuff I looked it up on the Internet and it said it was used for dogs with emphyzema, bronchitus, etc. Shorty only starts this coughing stuff when he is excited or just comes inside from being out in the cool air. The coughing doesn't last for long. None the less, I want to be proactive to his health needs. Shorty was a shelter pet. He was dropped off at the animal shelter's night receiving kennels with no paper work etc. He had fleas and smelled of urine. We had all of his teeth (which were black) removed. He now lives the life of luxury!

Oh, that is wonderful of you to have saved him! He is indeed a lucky boy!

Sounds like his trachea is not really horrible...I hope it stays just like that. I had a pup who lived to be an old man with CT...and he did not die from it! :)

Would love to see pics of him! Welcome to YT :)

To tell you the truth, I have not found much that really works. My Zada has the same problem. We can't take her for walks or to visit anyone. We have to put her upstairs in the bedroom when we have anyone over, and I have to pick her up right away each time I come home. We have to keep the humidifier set at 50 to 55%, and make sure she doesn't get hot as it makes things worse. The medicine the Vet. prescribed is Hydrocodone Syrup, but it doesn't help. That's about all the information I can give. Hope you find something that works.

Is it hard to know if this is T.C. or reverse sneezing? Sounds like the same symtoms are present? Just wondering, because I have a shih tzu that has the reverse sneezing at times. Not my yorkie , she has never done that before.

thanks for your thoughts. I am not quite sure what the symptoms of reverse sneezing are...Can you enlighten me? The last time I was at the vet's, the vet deliberately would massage Shorty's neck to get him to cough so that he knew exactly what I was talking about..Although, when I got Shorty 2 years ago, the vet heard him coughing then as well. For the most part, during the day, he doesn't do it much unless he gets excited. I do check his tongue and gums and they are pink (not blue) when this happens. Thanks for you input!

I've had two yorkies with trachea problems. There are different degrees to this problem. One just coughed when he drank water and lived to 14. I just lost my 9 year old to this. After 30 years of having yorkies I never knew they could die from this. I had him on Tussigon, 1/4 of pill and Torbutrol, 1/2 pill. More medication when the honking got rea:aimeeyorklly bad. They are doing research on collapsed tracheas in the University of Tenn. I wish herbs would help this condition but I don't think so. I hope in 5 or 10 years they are able to correct this condition. They are now using stents that they use in humans but it's not a cure all and doesn't always work without complications. My 9 year old was from Argentina thru a person who judges dog shows. His brother does not have the problem. I believe the only way to try to avoid this problem is know the history of the yorkie you are buying. Most people who purchase yorkies don't even know this is a major health issue as 90% of collapsed trachea cases are from yorkies. Just try to stay as informed as you can. We got very use to living with this condition and medications but the yorkie's activity was limited. I would do this 100 times over to have my Besame back. :aimeeyork:aimeeyork:aimeeyork