Tracheal collapse-wheezing?

[SpaceCadet]

My little guy has been having odd symptoms for about a year and a half. He is only 3 years old(he will be 4 in December).

His symptoms: when he lays on his back, or after licking his paws for a few minutes, he wheezes. When he is making his "happy noise"(he grunts ever so lightly), he will occasionally wheeze as well. I made the mistake of using a slip lead on him for a few months, and he began "honking" after getting excited, or drinking water. I went back to using a harness, and bought him a raised water and food dish. I am used to smaller dogs honking, so I wasn't too worried at first. Until he started to wheeze.

He had blood work done last year, and this year. Everything was normal. He has a heart worm test every 6 months. So far, so good. I was so worried about it over the winter that I finally took him to get x-rays. The vet showed me the x-rays, and said everything looked normal. She suggested it is probably just tracheal collapse. Have any of you experienced this with your shelties/or other dogs? Am I worrying too much?

 

[Tabitha]

F-kap has coughed and gaged when he get's too exited for years. It started when he was about 9-10 months old. Someone had poisoned him for barking, he was sick for months. I remember that if you heard him burp you'd better get him to a place that's easy to clean up as fast as you could, beacuse he was about to throw up. He's had breathing troubles ever since. It's gotten better though. I hope your boy is better soon.

 

[Sheltiemama]

I have 2 that suffer from tracheal collapse syndrome (I think I have that term right but maybe Dr. Shelli or Dr. Mac will confirm).

When they start hacking, gagging, choking, I give them a dose of Magic Medicine as it is called here. Also known as Torbutrol. It's expensive but I have never seen anything work as well or as fast as this does. I can give it to them a couple times a day but generally one dose works for 24-48 hrs on the boys.

The boys are 11 and 13 but have had this cough as long as I've had them. The 13 yo we got 3 yrs ago at 10 and the 11 yo, we got a year ago. So they were both seniors when we got them.