Laryngeal Paralysis in Dogs - (update post 10, 1 month later)

[Displaced_Yankee]

I am beginning to suspect that my darling, ditch dog has laryngeal paralysis…or is developing it.

She is a 15 year old mostly pit-hound mix. Had her annual “senior” exam at my normal vet about 3 weeks ago. Negative heartworm, excellent weight, excellent appetite/water drinker, great mobility, very routine bathroom habits, clear heart and lung sounds. Vet said the dog looks 7, not 15.

What we have been noticing:

• sometime while eating she may gag or retch (for like the last 8 years). This has been getting worse or more consistant. In the past we would say “Lily, slow down” and she would pause, look as us, then keep eating and it resolves.
• she sort of ‘huffs’ or makes those pre-barfing noises with no apparent stimulus. Sometimes just laying on the couch. No full gags, no barf…but when I showed my vet she said it looks like a reverse sneeze.
• No shortness of breath or excessive panting. Pants on daily walks (NC summer humidity) but nothing I wouldn’t expect and it regulates very quickly when back inside.
• Decreased energy…but she’s 15…Not lethargic, but she gets shorter walks and when she does run away on me…its much slower and not as far
• When she has a bad gag or retch she cries to go outside…only to dive for grass like a naughty lesson pony.

We have converted her diet from all kibble to 30% wet food and 70% kibble to help ease her swallowing. We also added a ‘slow feed’ dish to make her work. It takes her nearly 15 minutes to eat her meals now, which is fine.

So what do I need to ask my vet? What does diagnosis look like? Treatment? And goodness costs? Is there anything we can do to help her now?

Two items
1: I trust my vet practice. Her most recent appointment was wellness only and a new vet I didn’t know. She wasn’t concerned…but Google has led me down other paths.
2: diagnosis and treatment is a concern. She is 15 and has been the light of our lives for 11 years. She deserves a graceful and peaceful passing and we don’t want to put her through anything with a low recovery rate or to only buy her a few more months (another year, sure!) Better a day too early for her instead of a day too late.

Thanks all,
Wendy

[GraceLikeRain]

Not a vet of course but I’d take a palliative approach and monitor for any signs of distress. If you leash walk I’d swap to a harness.

The gagging followed by grass eating would make me curious about acid reflux. Could be worth asking about doing a 10mg of fomatidine (sp) twice a day. It’s helped my dog considerably with reflux related nausea.

Mine huff/pre gags but a recent upper airway scope and CT scan actually cleared him for laryngeal paralysis. He’s got some other stuff going on but just as a data point that it’s not always a 1:1.

[islgrl]

My friends dog has this. He’s 15 1/2 . He is on a couple different meds, can only be walked carefully in a harness and they put ice packs on him to take him out in extreme heat. Its definitely a management thing, and perhaps they will decide at some point they can’t manage it but for now they make it work. Its worth trying to deal with it I think if you’re up for it.

[OzarksRider]

I had a dog with these symptoms. In addition to the backwards sneezing, gagging, and excessive panting in hot weather he also had a noticeable change in his bark. His voice was raspy and quieter, and he was weak in his hind end and prone to falling. He was never definitively diagnosed with GOLPP (geriatric onset laryngeal paralysis polyneuropathy), but his symptoms were consistent with it. He was also deaf and developed intractable diarrhea, so we had him euthanized. He was the best dog ever, and I miss him.

To help with the gagging while eating, I fed him three times a day and placed his food bowl on a step to elevate it. I gave him famotidine, and that helped with the sour stomach. Immodium helped but did not totally control the diarrhea. I put carpet runners with a non-skid back to give him traction when walking across slick floors. Anything you can do to make your dog more comfortable is worthwhile, but be prepared for her to gradually decline until you have to make that awful decision. Like your dog, mine was eating well and interested in being with us until the very end, but his care was becoming a real burden. To this day I feel guilty, although I know I didn’t shorten his life by very much.

[Casey09]

My brother had a lab with it. He took meds and it was an issue for YEARS. His breathing really bothered my SIL (because it was loud). Of course he was also a big dog that got excited, so some of that when he was younger I think was normal. He struggled in the heat and did better in winter. However, he died very suddenly of something else (perhaps a ruptured spleen tumor). My vet once told me life expectancy is a year, but my brother’s dog lived several years after diagnosis, and was quite old when he died.

[mfglickman]

I had a Newfie with this and my vet passed off the symptoms to age. But when I reflected back on them, they were neurological. One thing was he started to get up from lying down butt first. He’d push himself up from the front, if that makes sense. He also became much more intolerant to heat and would stress easily outside in his breathing. And random coughing, as well as occasional gagging on food. I had him on a homemade food for the last year or so; I’d cook some chicken or hamburger with a little onion soup mix, pumpkin or winter squash, and peas. Mixed all that with some cooked rice. Stored a week at a time in single serve containers in the fridge, and served warm. What I would not give for another day with him.

[Displaced_Yankee]

Wanted to thank you all for your responses.

Fortunately her breathing seems fine and no major heat intolerance. She does maintain a 9-5 job in the A/C holding the couch down…

I am going to call the vet and ask about some fomatidine/famotidine for her and elevate her bowl. We also have a harness that we can use for walks. I can see how that can help.

@GraceLikeRain Do you remember a price range for the CT scan? Sub $500/$500-$1000/plus $1000? I assume they required heavy sedation to get the scan done?

[GraceLikeRain]

$190 consultation/exam
$90 catheter placement
$68 propofol
$78 anesthesia
$123 upper airway eval
$946 ct scan
$290 radiologist interpretation

For laryngeal paralysis an upper airway scope is typically the first step. I gave them approval to move on to CT if the scope didn’t produce answers because his breathing can sound really rough at times. If we had just scoped it would have only been $472.

[Displaced_Yankee]

Ugh. So I asked my vet about fatomidine. She said that and antacid was fine but that she prefers omeprazole every 12 hours, as it is clinically better at reducing ulcer symptoms.

Lily puked last night about 6 hours after the Omeprazole. Again this morning (anywhere between 2-6 hours after Omeprazole) and again tonight already (no omeprazole or meals). We are stopping the Omeprazole and doing multiple small meals of wet food until her new 10AM appointment on Monday.

They just did a fecal a month ago. Hopefully we can get some answers soon.

[Mallard]

Please ask your Vet about using Doxepin.
My elderly Greyhound did very well on it and I know others who have used it with great sucess.

Doxepin & Non-Surgical Management of Canine Laryngeal Paralysis

.

[cilla1]

As @OzarksRider said one common syntom is a change in their voice. My greyhound Max had it, when we put him on Meloxicam for arthritis also his laryngeal paralysis improved a lot. Vet said it was because it reduced local swelling. I agree your Lily seems more prone to acid reflux, Max didn’t puke or gag and was very heat intollerant

[Displaced_Yankee]

Thank you, I agree. From what I am reading from these first person accounts it is a tummy issue, not a laryngeal paralysis specifically.

I think I am going to request bloodwork and bring in another fecal. She had an abdominal ultrasound in November 2022 that was unremarkable. I would consider another one. Or a scope, similar to what they do for ulcery horses, if possible.

Thanks all. At a minimum this post will be a good starting point for other people researching this problem!

[Displaced_Yankee]

Wow, so a month on…we are still dealing with this issue.

Interestingly, whenever we tried to treat Lily with a tummy med she seemed worse and would throw up (my poor carpet).

We’ve been back to my regular vet twice, an emergency vet once because she developed a UTI out of the blue and now an internal medicine specialist. We have tried allergy meds, Omeprazole, Fomatidine and extended antibiotics for the UTI (14 days). Chest x-rays showed no masses on her lungs or obvious masses along her throat.

Current plan is to evaluate the back of her nose/throat/upper airway under anesthesia. If there is nothing concerning, they want to grab a cough fluid sample while she is out for cytology. The cost was reasonable and they can get us in within two weeks.

Lily has good days and bad days. But her good days make her look so good.