Our eldest girl, who will be 12 this year, has been diagnosed with laryngeal paralysis.
Has anyone had any experience of this and its management?  Surgery is not an option
we would want to consider at her age.
Any advice would be gratefully received.

Karen

Hi Kazz, my Irish Setter Bailey has had this all his life. He's now 11 1/2 and over the years the condition got worse, until last July when it progressed suddenly over a two week period, to the point he couldn't even go for a 10 minute on lead walk. His breathing was very noisy, he almost collapsed on two occasions and his cough was very troublesome.

I would rather have been able to manage without surgery, but I couldn't even take him for a little walk, so he'd have had no life.

He had the operation to tie back the vocal chords on the left side of his larynx, on August 2nd last year and he's back to normal, it was money well spent. I'd reccomend you go ahead with the surgery, the difference it will make is amazing. Of course it's not without it's risks, but Bailey had no life before the operation, so it was a risk I just had to take, and I'm glad I did.

Dawn R.

sorry to hear that. i dont have any personal experience of this. are you using a harness now rather than a lead and and collar? try not get him excited and dont allow him to overheat in any circumstances! thats about as much as i can think of just now.

Sorry to read this but surgery will really help your girlie.  I have had three of my own dogs have this the oldest was 11 years old.  Also one I bred had the tie back surgery done at 12 1/2 years and lived until she was 15 years.  Have a word with a specialist to see if this is an option for you.

Sue

My lab had this, we were advised by the oncologist she was seeing that if it gets to be stressful for her, then tye back surgery would be great for her, we then met a 13 year old lab whilst out on our walks who had had it done a couple of months earlier and it had given him a new lease of life.  we didn't in actual fact have to have the surgery as it never progressed and we lost her just before her 15th birthday but I would have had the surgery done in a heartbeat if it has proved necessary.