Does cold, dry air worsen my dog's collapsing trachea cough?

Hello, and thank you for your question. If Lacy is only coughing once or twice at night, you can ask your vet about trying a cough suppressant for the night time only. However, if she is coughing frequently at night, I'd also want to rule out heart disease as an underlying cause. Coughing due to heart disease often happens during rest, as fluid accumulates in their lungs when they are lying on their sides. Chest x-rays would be necessary to rule this out. For dogs with collapsing trachea that cough regularly at all hours, you can ask your vet about using a bronchodilator, and/or inhaled steroids, which get the medicine directly into her lungs where she needs it, with minimal absorption into the rest of her body, in turn minimizing side effects of steroids. Check out the Aerodawg, which is an inhaler designed just for dogs. However, as stated earlier, if her coughing is minimal, just a cough suppressant at night may be enough. In addition, switching to a harness instead of a collar can be very helpful, as it minimizes pressure on the trachea when the dog is pulling on the leash. I hope this helps, and that Lacy is doing well!

Usually dogs with collapsed trachea will show signs (honking cough, possible breathing problems, eating, drinking, tracheal irritants (smoke or dust), obesity, and hot and humid weather.) after exercise, or excitement or jumping up and down. Treatment consists of giving cough suppressants, bronchodilators, corticosteroids to control inflammation, and/or antibiotics. In obese patients, weight loss helps decrease respiratory effort. In severe cases surgery is needed.

Poor guy. If the Temaril alone is not helping him I would highly recommend telling your vet so that they can also prescribe additional medications. Tracheal collapse is often treated with several medications in more severe cases. Cough tabs or Torbutrol tabs are given to help reduce the cough. Also a bronchodilator is helpful in some pets to open up the airway just before the thoracic inlet. For now you can mix a small amount of honey mixed with water and offer that to Ferris until you an get him seen again by your vet. Honey has anti-inflammatory proerties that may be somewhat helpful. Also make sure not to place a collar on him, harness only, and try your best to keep him in a quite room with limited stimulus. I hope that Ferris feels better soon! Best wishes and take care.

Typically, medical management of collapsing trachea includes cough suppressants such as hydrocodone, tapering doses of prednisone or inhaled steroids such as fluticasone. If Chaisey has developed an acute worsening of symptoms, thoracic radiographs and an airway wash should be considered to rule out infection. Albuterol is typically not helpful in my experience.

Poor dog. Benadryl can help with mild allergies but in some pets this isn't enough and other pet formulated antihistamines prescribed by your vet are needed. Unfortunately a collapsed trachea is a mechanical abnormality caused by lax tracheal muscles that fold inward causing a narrowed airway which then leads to reduced oxygen intake and coughing in pets. This condition is typically managed with prescription medication from your vet including anti-inflammatory steroid medication, pet prescribed medicine to help control cough and sometimes bronchodilators if the bronchi are also inflamed and affected. I would discuss these treatment options with your vet so that your pet can get started right away with managing this disease because the constant coughing can cause serious complications with tracheal collapse making things much worse to manage later.

You are correct that intubation can exacerbate (but not cause) tracheal collapse. However, we frequently see tracheal irritation after intubation which commonly causes coughing and slowly improves after 24-48 hours. We do sometimes recommend a cough suppressant for dogs if they are having excessive coughing after intubation. I have included a link below to tracheal collapse. If Dougie is having trouble breathing, please seek medical attention immediately. https://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=1527 Please let me know if that was helpful. Thanks for using PetCoach.

Hi, I'm Dr. Johnson. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I think if she drinks water slowly and has no issue I think that she is just vomiting the water because she drinks it too fast. Just try to slow her down when she is drinking. I do not think she has kennel cough if she's had this hacking cough for months. Kennel cough is self limiting. You didn't indicate what breed Pepper is but I see that she is small. My best guess for the cough is that she has collapsing trachea. Collapsing trachea is a congenital abnormality of the tracheal rings making them weaker. It effects small breed dogs like Yorkies, Pomeranians, etc. Usually they cough when exercising or pulling on the leash. I'd monitor for progression of the cough or issues with her breathing. Keep her thin because dogs that are overweight have a harder time with collapsing tracheas Good luck!