What can you tell me about collapsing trachea?

My boss told me today that his pug, Reggie, has collapsing trachea. The ER vet yesterday recommended they take him to the referral/surgical center nearby and have the surgery performed to repair it. I've never had experience with this. Reggie's 11 now. Has anyone had a pug who had the surgery? How was the recovery? The surgery itself? Is it too risky to put an older pug through the surgery?

Any insight I can pass on to my boss would be greatly appreciated.

I wish I had something concrete to share! Angel's is constricted, but not to the point of being collapsed, so I got nothing.

Sending some good thoughts for Reggie and your friends.

Jana will be a world of reference here as her Baby Girl had the surgery. It depends on where in the trachea the collapse is if the surgery can be done or not. I am assuming they are talking about a metal stint in the trach to help keep it open. I fostered Skylar who had one, but where hers was we couldn't do surgery.

Just the fact the vet is suggesting surgery I think is, in itself, a positive thing. I hope Jana sees the thread, if not, PM her. Good thoughts for your boss's boy!

FYI - Jana doesn't have electricity right now, so you may want to reach out to her on FB. I think she's checking that from her phone.

I think she has electricity now!

Jana will be able to tell you a lot about the surgery since Baby Girl went through it and is doing pretty good. Depending on the severity of it, medicine could be used to manage it. I would go to a specialist though.

Almandine's Onion went through that surgery. She posted a lot of information about it elswhere.

Rach-you never contacted me! Here is the link to my blog where I post about CT, it is a document that I've been working on for awhile. I've emailed it to serveral people, but never posted it. It also has the link to Yorkie Angel Patrol that has more information from other people and the University of Tennessee Vet College abt CT. CT sucks! And I've been blessed by how well Baby Girl has done with the stent, but even with a stent, there is no cure. Sometimes dogs do great and sometimes they don't. BG has some collapse in one of her Brochial Tubes, not nothing can be done about that. If you want, I can email you the document. Just msg me on FB or at janahallpapa@yahoo.com

http://papaspugs.com/blog/2009/09/26/janas-guide-to-collasping-trachea/

papaspugs wrote:Rach-you never contacted me! Here is the link to my blog where I post about CT, it is a document that I've been working on for awhile. I've emailed it to serveral people, but never posted it. It also has the link to Yorkie Angel Patrol that has more information from other people and the University of Tennessee Vet College abt CT. CT sucks! And I've been blessed by how well Baby Girl has done with the stent, but even with a stent, there is no cure. Sometimes dogs do great and sometimes they don't. BG has some collapse in one of her Brochial Tubes, not nothing can be done about that. If you want, I can email you the document. Just msg me on FB or at janahallpapa@yahoo.com

http://papaspugs.com/blog/2009/09/26/janas-guide-to-collasping-trachea

Jana, I forgot that I never updated this thread. Apparently, as you point out in your blog (very informative BTW and I'll be sure to bookmark it for future reference), Reggie was misdiagnosed by the ER vet. He doesn't have collapsing trachea after all. Another reason why it's always so important to get second opinions. But my poor boss and his wife were worried sick about him for a few days til he was correctly diagnosed.

It was Sunday last week that he was at the ER vet. They wanted Susan to take him down to the specialty center that night. She wanted to wait to see his regular vet on Monday. So they gave him some sedatives to help keep him calm Sunday night. He spent the day at his regular vet on Monday for tests and observation. By Tuesday, they had his test results back and it turns out that he had such a massive bacterial infection, which caused him to have an upset tummy the week before last. The vomiting from his upset tummy really irritated his esophagus and trachea and caused it to be so inflamed, which resulted in the coughing and struggling to breathe on Sunday. So they started him on antibiotics for the bacterial infection and also kept him on sedatives to help keep him sedated and keep his esophagus/airway time to relax and recover.

Reggie is back to himself, feeling better, cough is better, breathing is normal again. I'm so glad that it wasn't collapsing trachea after all - because at his age, I told my boss that I'd honestly have to do some serious soul searching before deciding to put him through the surgery. So grumpy old Reg is still kicking and still being Reggie!! Thank goodness.

Again, Jana, thank you for the information.

Great news on Reggie. I have mixed feelings about ER vets. Obviously many a dog/cat/animal have been saved in 'after hours', but for diagnosing??? I look to an e-vet to get the situation stabilized until I can see my regular vet.

A dog was mis-diagnosed in CA by an x-ray and the owners & the dog flew to TN to UT and their doctors took one look at the x-ray and said it wasn't CT! But then many vets have not diagnosed CT after a dog had a cough for years and just said it was kennel cough. Actually the county vet that the people who had Baby Girl said that she had asthma, but part of it could have been that the people could not really afford to a whole line of diagnostic testing. Anyway, I hate that I know so much about CT, but love that I have Baby Girl.

Lots of pugs are misdiagnosed by many vets. So many vets think that all pugs breathe badly and will not even consider an elongated soft palette, small nares or trachea issues. It is the same with the eyes. They just think all pugs have bad eyes. Pugs are often misdiagnosed with enlarged hearts due to the way their chest cavity is built. Before Taz was diagnosed with Laryngeal Paralysis, the vet where I took him when he collapsed told me he was in congestive heart failure and had COPD. I knew he didn't have COPD as he did not have any symptoms, and Pugsly had it for 4 years so I was very familiar with it. Many times a second or even third opinion is needed.

Glad to hear that Reggie is doing better