QuestionMy husband and I adopted a pom back in August from a rescue down in Oregon. We can not believe how much we love him, he truly is the light of our lives. He is currently about 15 months old and weighs 12 lbs and is very lean for his frame. He was just diagnosed with collapsing Trachea and we are worried that this will affect him adversely for the rest of his life. Any suggestions? or success stories? We feel so helpless when he goes through his coughing spells. These happen about 1-3 times per day and last maybe 30 seconds to a minute at most. Our vet told us that this is a condition that worsens over time so if it is this bad now what does this mean for later? Thanks for any/all help that you can give. We use this site often to see what other Pom parents are going through and really appreciate it. Happy holidays! ~Alison
AnswerI am sorry he has to go through that. I am afraid that your vet is right-it usually doesn't show up till they are about 5 yrs old and gets worse with time so at this early age I wouldn't give him a very good prognosis. Having said that you MIGHT have some options. There are surgeries that can help some of the cases and then there medicines he can be given for the rest of his life that may help. Unfortuatly they don't help all dogs and this condition tends to put a lot of stress on the heart muscle leading to other problems.
Good luck with him. He was lucky to find you to love him while he is here-5 years or 15! Activity and excitablity usually make the episodes worse so try to keep him calm and unstressed.
-Trish
