A couple of months ago, an owner rushed into the clinic carrying a collapsed dog. The poor dog’s gums were blue and its mouth filled with frothy saliva. It was gasping for air and seconds away from death. Our team of vets and nurses managed to intubate the dog (pass a breathing tube into its windpipe) and get much needed oxygen into it, as well as an IV line for fluid therapy and shock treatment.

The dog’s colour rapidly improved, its breathing settled and a series of blood tests and x-rays were quickly performed. The dog’s blood results and chest x-rays were remarkably good for a dog of its age, but when it had been intubated the vet had noted that the dog’s larynx was barely moving as it tried to breathe. Reassessment of the larynx confirmed that the dog was suffering from laryngeal paralysis.

This is an age related deterioration/neuropathy of the larynx. Essentially, the larynx works like two trap doors, opening fully to allow air to get into the lungs and closing when food and water is swallowed to prevent aspiration. In some old dogs the nerve control to the larynx deteriorates and the trap doors end up being mostly shut. This leaves the dog breathing through a very narrow opening that can become critical on hot days or when they try to do too much exercise.

Sometimes only surgery will help

There’s no medication to treat this. If a dog is only mildly affected, it can sometimes be managed by reduced activity and avoiding exercising in the heat of the day.

However, if the dog is severely affected only surgery will help. The procedure is called a “tie-back” where one side of the larynx is permanently tied open. This gives the dog a decent air flow without making it too prone to aspirating food.

In this case, as the poor dog was already collapsed, surgery was the only option other than euthanasia. Given the dog was still in good health, we went ahead with the surgery. The surgery is quite delicate work, involving identifying two specific pieces of laryngeal cartilage that can be tied together with a non-dissolvable suture. There is always a nervous period after surgery waiting to see how successful it has been. Fortunately, our patient not only recovered well, but is now better than before and will hopefully live a full and active senior life.