collapsed trachea
 

Hi all. Can anyone tell me about trachael collapse? Our little Pipoy Lou is 3 now and and a few months ago she started making a horrible noise when exerting herself...running, getting excited, etc. The vet said she needed to lose a pound or so and it would get better. She has lost a pound and its worse now then before...we walk her more outside now because its warm. The vet also said it's not dangerous and she will be fine, not to worry about it. But she is sometimes fighting awfully hard for air...,it scares me! Please...tell me what you know! Thank you!

Please seek a second opinion from a vet who is knowledgeable with collapsing trachea and will treat it as the serious degenerative condition that it is. I just recently lost my 3 year old boy to a severe collapsed trachea just 6 weeks ago. I also took him to the vet and he was misdiagnosed and he was dead 2weeks later. It is severe when it starts that young. Don't allow anyone to intubate or sedate in order to get a "better look" down the throat as this can cause more damage. They should be able to diagnose with an X-ray and mild sedation. The goal at this point is to prevent the trachea from permanent collapse and to have no "episodes" of coughing. There are quite a few people on here that have much older dogs that are successfully treated on a cough medicine e called hycodan. And they manage very well and there dogs have lived long lives. It is an opiate but there is no long term damage being on it. Your pup will most likely be on it for the rest of her life. But at least she will be alive. You may have to limit her time outside as there are triggers like seasonal allergies that can bring on an episode. I'm not trying to scare you but if you can view my profile and find the post that I wrote about my experience you will understand how urgent it is. I wish you the best. Please don't delay. If she is showing bad symptoms it needs to be controlled ASAP by stopping the cough.

Click on my user name and it will show a link for "other posts by user" and click on that and on page 2 there is a post dated 4/26/16 and its titled "my precious angel is gone".

There are different levels per say of it there are some dogs who only have mild ct and only have a few issues and some that have worse. What happens is their trachea is literally collapsing so they can't get any air. Are you using a harness when taking walks? That's very important. My old man yorkie who went to rainbow bridge a few weeks ago had a pretty decent case of it but was put on hydrocodone and it worked great. My girl has a mild case and doesn't have that many episodes. It essentially can be dangerous and there are many different treatments you can try so I think I would seek a different vet.

I'm so sorry for your loss. Actually getting it young does not mean it is going to get worse. Mine has mild ct since she was a pup and it has not gotten worse. Intebating actually keeps here trachea open and unable to collapse during surgery. Callie who has mild ct and has been intubated multiple times for dentals and other surgerys and never had any issues. My older yorkie who recently passed away due to lymphoma had a worse ct and had even intubated multiple times for dentals with no issues. Generally a regular X-ray will not show ct it has to be a special X-rays done when their having an episode. They don't always have to go on medicine sometimes weigh and activity management works it all just depends on the dog.

I'm just basing my opinion on how fast my boy went downhill. He had his first major episodes and was intubated for X-rays and then dead 2 weeks later. I'm not saying that's the case in all situations, but if it's not done correctly in a small dog (6lbs) they can cause more damage to the trachea. Just depends on how skilled the tech is I suppose. By the time he was diagnosed again (after a second intubation) the collapse had gone all the way into the one bronchi and the lung was partially collapsed. I'm positive that an injury that severe was caused by the second intubation. Maybe the tube they used was too large? Maybe they went down too far.. Who knows? The vet was treating for inflammation in the throat and not concerned at all about the collapse. He was prescribed prednisone and once I started weening him off the cough came back aggressively and he never recovered from the second episode. Had I know it was a trachea issue I would not have intubated (but I did so I learned from that) also I would have been more insistent on the use of hycodan to control the cough. It's all hind sight now. But I've learned that hard way.

This sometimes happens to my Bella. In her case, it's a "reverse sneeze," which is harmless. Maybe that's what your vet thought this was. You should ask your vet for more details and ask your vet if they are sure that it's not collapsed trachea.

It sounds like maybe not a great vet and that intubating wrong is what was actually the cause not the ct.