Peripheral neuropathy and laryngeal paralysis

[Fran Griffin]

Has anybody here had these problems with a younger Irish Setter. I know these are often diseases of old age, but one of mine was 7 when she was diagnosed.  The neuropathy seems to have stabilized, and if anything improved since I have got her on a good quality raw food and adding krill oil complete with astaxanthin into her diet, but the laryngeal paralysis is causing my main concern at the moment.

[Dawn Riddell]

I had an Irish that had Laryngeal Paralysis. Looking back, he always had it, to a lesser degree as a young dog but more obviously as he got older.

 

He never ever had a big deep woof like a big dog should have. He had more of a high pitched hoot instead of a proper bark. I can't say it ever affected him really until he was about 7 or 8 years old. By this age I noticed he got quite breathless while running, but he seemed to recover easily.

 

By the time he was 11 years old he suddenly became seriously affected and couldn't even walk for 15 minutes on lead without being almost completely unable to get breath into his lungs. A couple of times he was on the point of collapse.There was no choice but to have surgery to tie back the left side of his vocal chords to allow air to enter his lungs.

 

It was an amazing success, he was a new dog afterwards, money (£1,200) well spent. Bailey was 11 at the time of the operation, and lived an active life able to breathe normally till he was 13 years and 8 months old. (Love ya Boo)

 

Dawn R.

[Fran Griffin]

Thanks Dawn. That is quite encouraging.  I have heard good and bad things about the tie back, from great success to the total opposite. It is a difficult call, but I will leave it until we have no other option I think,. On warm days when she has been running she is really rasping, but like your boy she recovers quite quickly at the moment.

[Ossian]

Hi Fran how are things progressing? Havent had the paralysus in young dogs but have had a collie who at nine was afflcted. He would go down really suddenly and my biggest learning curve was to stay calm!

[Fran Griffin]

Hi Ossian,. She seems to be holding her own at the moment.  The worst days are the hot days (like we have been experiencing down here over the past few days).  Certainly giving her the krill oil and getting her thyroid levels to her optimum level have helped.  On hot days, I try to keep her as steady as I possibly can,  but on the whole, she appears to be learning how to moderate herself.  As you say, she can go down really suddenly, and I try to stay as calm as possible in order to try and rationalize how to be of help to her.  The worst time was when she went off chasing rabbits on the first hot day of the year and had real problems breathing, after the initial OMG, I calmed down enough to get her into the canal which was nearby for a swim, which really helped matters.

 

[Ossian]

Well done you and rejoice in the notion that the silly thing still feels like chasing rabbits!