Dudley Do-Wrong
Senior Member
Do you own a small dog? If so, this is something you need to be aware of. Many small dogs, suffer from a genetic problem, collapsed trachea. The problem is most common with many toy breeds, especially Yorkshire Terriers (Yorkies).
How do I know this, we had 2 Yorkies, we now have one. I have just gotten to a point that I can discuss what happened, it was the most horrible night of my life.
As I said, we had 2 Yorkies, Maggie (female, 9 years old) and Jack (male, would have been 7 the 25th of this month. I am going to describe what happened, hopefully my story will help save another loved one.
First, our dogs are our family, especially since out son and daughter have moved very far from home. Maggie is the typical female, while Jack was all boy. I often talked to Jack as if he were human, many times I called him "son". He truly had very many traits that were very "human" and they both slept in bed with us every night. I can tell many stories of the various things Jack did that made him so unique, so special. But, that would not be the purpose of this post.
We had always known that Yorkies hav a problem with their trachea, Jack was no exception. I just did not know how severe it could get. He sometimes hacked and made a honking sound when excited, so we knew. He would sometimes tear the stuffing out of toys and we thought that he sometimes would get some in his throat; his cough and sometimes gagging would not last long at all. Let me make this perfectly clear, we have always, always, taken very good care of our dogs; always fed them the best foods and always taken to the vet.
During the early morning hours of Oct 2, jack woke us with some coughing and gagging. We were not alarmed at that time as it had happened before. But, this time his condition got worse so my wife took him to the vet. The vet said he had bronchitis, gave us an antibiotic and something for his cough. His conditioned remained about the same through the weekend, but we could not get him to take the pill for his cough. believe me3, we tried a dozen different ways to mask the smell of the pill (smelled bad) but he just wouldn't take it. So, we decided that we would take him back to the vet on Monday, I was at work and my wife called to let me know that he had gotten worse and she had to rush him up there. he evidently had quit breathing and his tongue had turned blue. They gave him some shots and put him in an incubator with oxygen for several hours. They made an appointment for us to take Jack to Auburn for Thursday (Oct 9). On Tuesday (7 Oct) Jack seemed to be a lot better, I thought he was out of the woods. He was eating better and had a lot more energy. On Wednesday, after I got home from work, he had relapsed. He was honking, coughing, and gagging. I said, OK, he had been worse and we had the appointment at Auburn the next day. Later that night, we became very concerned and tried to reach the vet. We left messages and were waiting for a call back. During that time, Jack quit breathing. We administered CPR to him and frantically tried to find a vet. We finally reached out vet and rushed Jack to his office. There were many times he quit breathing and while administering CPR, we could hear a gasp come from him. When the vet arrived, he immediately fed jack oxygen, his heart had stopped and the vet gave him a shot to restart his heart. He looked down Jack's throat and it was completely closed, so he inserted a tube down his throat to get oxygen into his lungs, he had to pump his chest to get his heart started. Jack finally started to breath on his own. The vet put him in the incubator with direct oxygen, we hung around for a few more minutes talking to the vet, I knew that we would not be able to get Jack to Auburn the next morning as scheduled. We said goodbye to Jack, he never regained consciousness. The vet called us about 7:30 to tell us that Jack didn't make it. he wasn't even 7 years old.
I cannot begin to tell you what my wife and I have been going through. I cannot even look at pictures of Jack without falling apart. This has actually been worse than losing my parents, I don't even want to imagine what it is like losing a child.
I am 57 years old and even writing this has been very emotional. I guess I could have made my message without giving a play by play account, but I feel like I needed to in order to convey the severity of Jack's condition.
I have since read many accounts of people who have lost their pet due to this condition. The signs were there, I failed Jack by not being aware, the vet failed with a bad diagnosis, and now Jack is gone. He was my best buddy, he entertained me on a daily basis, he was my son.
Educate yourself and if you love your pet and he/she exhibits the symptoms, get to a vet immediately. tell them that you want you pet's trachea examined. One of the biggest problems is that the procedure to correct the problem is specialized and cannot be done by your ordinary vet.
I hope this helps someone and if just one pet is saved, the Jack's death will have counted for something.
How do I know this, we had 2 Yorkies, we now have one. I have just gotten to a point that I can discuss what happened, it was the most horrible night of my life.
As I said, we had 2 Yorkies, Maggie (female, 9 years old) and Jack (male, would have been 7 the 25th of this month. I am going to describe what happened, hopefully my story will help save another loved one.
First, our dogs are our family, especially since out son and daughter have moved very far from home. Maggie is the typical female, while Jack was all boy. I often talked to Jack as if he were human, many times I called him "son". He truly had very many traits that were very "human" and they both slept in bed with us every night. I can tell many stories of the various things Jack did that made him so unique, so special. But, that would not be the purpose of this post.
We had always known that Yorkies hav a problem with their trachea, Jack was no exception. I just did not know how severe it could get. He sometimes hacked and made a honking sound when excited, so we knew. He would sometimes tear the stuffing out of toys and we thought that he sometimes would get some in his throat; his cough and sometimes gagging would not last long at all. Let me make this perfectly clear, we have always, always, taken very good care of our dogs; always fed them the best foods and always taken to the vet.
During the early morning hours of Oct 2, jack woke us with some coughing and gagging. We were not alarmed at that time as it had happened before. But, this time his condition got worse so my wife took him to the vet. The vet said he had bronchitis, gave us an antibiotic and something for his cough. His conditioned remained about the same through the weekend, but we could not get him to take the pill for his cough. believe me3, we tried a dozen different ways to mask the smell of the pill (smelled bad) but he just wouldn't take it. So, we decided that we would take him back to the vet on Monday, I was at work and my wife called to let me know that he had gotten worse and she had to rush him up there. he evidently had quit breathing and his tongue had turned blue. They gave him some shots and put him in an incubator with oxygen for several hours. They made an appointment for us to take Jack to Auburn for Thursday (Oct 9). On Tuesday (7 Oct) Jack seemed to be a lot better, I thought he was out of the woods. He was eating better and had a lot more energy. On Wednesday, after I got home from work, he had relapsed. He was honking, coughing, and gagging. I said, OK, he had been worse and we had the appointment at Auburn the next day. Later that night, we became very concerned and tried to reach the vet. We left messages and were waiting for a call back. During that time, Jack quit breathing. We administered CPR to him and frantically tried to find a vet. We finally reached out vet and rushed Jack to his office. There were many times he quit breathing and while administering CPR, we could hear a gasp come from him. When the vet arrived, he immediately fed jack oxygen, his heart had stopped and the vet gave him a shot to restart his heart. He looked down Jack's throat and it was completely closed, so he inserted a tube down his throat to get oxygen into his lungs, he had to pump his chest to get his heart started. Jack finally started to breath on his own. The vet put him in the incubator with direct oxygen, we hung around for a few more minutes talking to the vet, I knew that we would not be able to get Jack to Auburn the next morning as scheduled. We said goodbye to Jack, he never regained consciousness. The vet called us about 7:30 to tell us that Jack didn't make it. he wasn't even 7 years old.
I cannot begin to tell you what my wife and I have been going through. I cannot even look at pictures of Jack without falling apart. This has actually been worse than losing my parents, I don't even want to imagine what it is like losing a child.
I am 57 years old and even writing this has been very emotional. I guess I could have made my message without giving a play by play account, but I feel like I needed to in order to convey the severity of Jack's condition.
I have since read many accounts of people who have lost their pet due to this condition. The signs were there, I failed Jack by not being aware, the vet failed with a bad diagnosis, and now Jack is gone. He was my best buddy, he entertained me on a daily basis, he was my son.
Educate yourself and if you love your pet and he/she exhibits the symptoms, get to a vet immediately. tell them that you want you pet's trachea examined. One of the biggest problems is that the procedure to correct the problem is specialized and cannot be done by your ordinary vet.
I hope this helps someone and if just one pet is saved, the Jack's death will have counted for something.
