Oppie has Laryngeal Paralysis

Oppie (yellow lab, age 10.5 yrs) has a definitive diagnosis of
laryngeal paralysis. His vocal cords were examined Monday, and
one of them is fully paralyzed, the other is partially paralyzed.
The vet also saw him in excited mode (when we picked him up),
when he coughs and gets short of breath. Our vet is currently
recommending weight loss (5-7 lb) and preventing him from
running; he says that his case is still mild and may or may not
progress further. He will miss his rabbit searches, but we'll
keep him on a leash on walks from here on out.

I've found one mailing list for LP, and I was wondering if anyone
here has experience with it and can give us information about
treatment, prognosis, etc.

Thanks -

FurPaw
--
"None of us is as smart as all of us."
Oh yeah? None of us is as stupid as all of us, either.

To reply, unleash the dog.

FurPaw wrote:

I've found one mailing list for LP, and I was wondering if anyone here
has experience with it and can give us information about treatment,
prognosis, etc.

Sally's Borzoi, Anna, had LP. You could Google for her posts on the
subject.

I'm sorry about Oppie. And no bunny hunting, either? Poor boy! I
hope the LP doesn't progress, and that Oppie has a good prognosis.

--
Shelly (Warning: see label for details)
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

On Thu, 12 Oct 2006 10:04:21 -0600, FurPaw
wrote:

Oppie (yellow lab, age 10.5 yrs) has a definitive diagnosis of
laryngeal paralysis. His vocal cords were examined Monday, and
one of them is fully paralyzed, the other is partially paralyzed.
The vet also saw him in excited mode (when we picked him up),
when he coughs and gets short of breath. Our vet is currently
recommending weight loss (5-7 lb) and preventing him from
running; he says that his case is still mild and may or may not
progress further. He will miss his rabbit searches, but we'll
keep him on a leash on walks from here on out.

I've found one mailing list for LP, and I was wondering if anyone
here has experience with it and can give us information about
treatment, prognosis, etc.

Our Borzoi, Anna, had unilateral tieback surgery just over a year ago
for lar par. The most important thing with this surgery is for the
vet to do appropriate tests to ensure that Oppie does not have
megaesophagus. Our surgeon did an x-ray and saw some air in the
esophagus, so he asked me if Anna had been regurgitating recently,
which she hadn't. However, there are other tests that can be done for
megaesophagus, and it's important to do them because standard tieback
surgery cannot be done if the dog has megaesophagus. Anna's
megaesophagus began to be symptomatic about three weeks postop, when
she had her first bout of aspiration pneumonia. It got progressively
worse and it was because of that, not the lar par, that she was
euthanized a little over a month ago. Hind end weakness is often
present in dogs with lar par and tends to indicate other neurological
problems.

Just about everyone on the LP list will tell you that there is no cure
for lar par other than tieback surgery and that you must have it done
immediately, before your dog goes into respiratory crisis. (Those who
don't share this belief are afraid to say so publicly, lest they be
eaten alive.) There are a few people who manage the condition without
surgery. My research showed that medications are not helpful and that
lar par is progressive. One person on the LP list had some sort of
debarking procedure done which was successful, and if I'd known Anna
had megaesophagus, I'd have had that done for her. I would say that
if Oppie's cords are fully paralyzed on one side and partially on the
other side, that is not a mild case, and I would be investigating
surgical options if I were you.

Anna's recovery from the tieback surgery went much more smoothly than
I'd expected. She was given free access to water from the beginning,
had it in her crate at the specialty clinic. We fed her only
meatballs of canned food until she stopped eating them during one of
her many episodes of aspiration pneumonia, after which we experimented
with meatballs made from ground soaked kibble and finally just soaked
kibble. Some vets say you can go back to feeding regular kibble, but
our surgeon said no regular kibble or crunchy treats forever. I think
dogs figure out how to use their new throats pretty quickly and do
very well after tieback surgery. Most dogs have at least one episode
of aspiration pneumonia, and your vet will tell you what to look for.
AP can be expensive to treat, even on an outpatient basis,
particularly with a big dog, but most dogs recover without problems.
Anna was hospitalized with her first bout, but the severity of that
episode, and the numerous subsequent episodes of AP, were due to her
megaesophagus.

Good luck with Oppie, and I hope that with or without surgery, his
condition can be managed such that he has good quality of life.

Mustang Sally

diddy wrote:

I have a friend who has not one,but TWO dogs that had lived successfully
for a year following Laryngeal Paralysis diagnosis. But both had other
issues, and both were put down about a year later, due to those issues.
If your dog lives another year with management, it's another year. 11 is
reasonable(although not acceptable to you) lifespan for a GR

Thanks, Diddy. I'm hoping we can do it with management; if he
got not worse, we could, but that's probably too much to hope for.

FurPaw

--
"None of us is as smart as all of us."
Oh yeah? None of us is as stupid as all of us, either.

To reply, unleash the dog.

shelly wrote:
FurPaw wrote:

I've found one mailing list for LP, and I was wondering if anyone here
has experience with it and can give us information about treatment,
prognosis, etc.

Sally's Borzoi, Anna, had LP. You could Google for her posts on the
subject.

I'm sorry about Oppie. And no bunny hunting, either? Poor boy! I hope
the LP doesn't progress, and that Oppie has a good prognosis.

Thanks, Shelly - We'll be monitoring him closely.

FurPaw



--
"None of us is as smart as all of us."
Oh yeah? None of us is as stupid as all of us, either.

To reply, unleash the dog.

sighthounds & siberians wrote:
On Thu, 12 Oct 2006 10:04:21 -0600, FurPaw
wrote:

Oppie (yellow lab, age 10.5 yrs) has a definitive diagnosis of
laryngeal paralysis. His vocal cords were examined Monday, and
one of them is fully paralyzed, the other is partially paralyzed.
The vet also saw him in excited mode (when we picked him up),
when he coughs and gets short of breath. Our vet is currently
recommending weight loss (5-7 lb) and preventing him from
running; he says that his case is still mild and may or may not
progress further. He will miss his rabbit searches, but we'll
keep him on a leash on walks from here on out.

I've found one mailing list for LP, and I was wondering if anyone
here has experience with it and can give us information about
treatment, prognosis, etc.

Our Borzoi, Anna, had unilateral tieback surgery just over a year ago
for lar par. The most important thing with this surgery is for the
vet to do appropriate tests to ensure that Oppie does not have
megaesophagus. Our surgeon did an x-ray and saw some air in the
esophagus, so he asked me if Anna had been regurgitating recently,
which she hadn't. However, there are other tests that can be done for
megaesophagus, and it's important to do them because standard tieback
surgery cannot be done if the dog has megaesophagus. Anna's
megaesophagus began to be symptomatic about three weeks postop, when
she had her first bout of aspiration pneumonia. It got progressively
worse and it was because of that, not the lar par, that she was
euthanized a little over a month ago. Hind end weakness is often
present in dogs with lar par and tends to indicate other neurological
problems.

I'm sorry about Anna. Her last year sounds rough.

Thanks for the heads up about megaesophagus. Oppie rarely throws
up, but we'll have the vet do a check for it if surgery looks likely.

Just about everyone on the LP list will tell you that there is no cure
for lar par other than tieback surgery and that you must have it done
immediately, before your dog goes into respiratory crisis. (Those who
don't share this belief are afraid to say so publicly, lest they be
eaten alive.) There are a few people who manage the condition without
surgery. My research showed that medications are not helpful and that
lar par is progressive. One person on the LP list had some sort of
debarking procedure done which was successful, and if I'd known Anna
had megaesophagus, I'd have had that done for her. I would say that
if Oppie's cords are fully paralyzed on one side and partially on the
other side, that is not a mild case, and I would be investigating
surgical options if I were you.

Our vet is fairly conservative about this, and doesn't do the
surgery himself - we'll have to go to the Big City to have it
done. We'll explore it more next time Oppie goes in for a check.
It doesn't appear to be the easiest surgery for the dog to go
through... and then there's the aspiration pneumonia issue. Then
again, respiratory crises aren't any fun either. So far, the
worst we've seen with Oppie is coughing and panting and getting
out of breath when he tries to run (no longer allowed), and
tiring more easily on walks. No gasping or syncope, so far. But
I can't believe that it won't progress further.

Anna's recovery from the tieback surgery went much more smoothly than
I'd expected. She was given free access to water from the beginning,
had it in her crate at the specialty clinic. We fed her only
meatballs of canned food until she stopped eating them during one of
her many episodes of aspiration pneumonia, after which we experimented
with meatballs made from ground soaked kibble and finally just soaked
kibble. Some vets say you can go back to feeding regular kibble, but
our surgeon said no regular kibble or crunchy treats forever. I think
dogs figure out how to use their new throats pretty quickly and do
very well after tieback surgery. Most dogs have at least one episode
of aspiration pneumonia, and your vet will tell you what to look for.
AP can be expensive to treat, even on an outpatient basis,
particularly with a big dog, but most dogs recover without problems.
Anna was hospitalized with her first bout, but the severity of that
episode, and the numerous subsequent episodes of AP, were due to her
megaesophagus.

Good luck with Oppie, and I hope that with or without surgery, his
condition can be managed such that he has good quality of life.

Thanks for the advice, Sally.

FurPawe
--
"None of us is as smart as all of us."
Oh yeah? None of us is as stupid as all of us, either.

To reply, unleash the dog.

I didn't see the original post, but my sister's Lab had the surgery
for this at around 11. He lived to 15.5, so that's a pretty good fix!
His was done at U of Penn vet center, and while feeding was careful,
he never had any problems.

My first foster dog had the surgery as well. He was a Golden mix and
had it at almost 13. He did well for while, but developed aspiration
pneumonia and died shortly before his 14th "birthday".

All in all, I think I'd have it done, for however long it gave me.
--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com

On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 20:56:20 -0600, FurPaw
wrote:

sighthounds & siberians wrote:

I'm sorry about Anna. Her last year sounds rough.

Thank you. It got progressively rougher, but that was because of the
megaesophagus. Had it not been for that, judging by how well she did
at first, I think she'd have been a success story.

Thanks for the heads up about megaesophagus. Oppie rarely throws
up, but we'll have the vet do a check for it if surgery looks likely.

If you're going to be managing him without surgery for a while, that
gives more time to watch for symptoms of megaesophagus or other
neurological problems. The odd thing about megaesophagus is that the
dog doesn't really throw up, it regurgitates; there's no real
urka-gurka, no heaving, stuff just comes back up the esophagus and out
because the esophageal motility isn't normal. It may sound like
picking nits, but there really is a difference, which one isn't likely
to notice until one has seen the regurgitation common in
megaesophagus.

Our vet is fairly conservative about this, and doesn't do the
surgery himself - we'll have to go to the Big City to have it
done.

That's common. We had to go to a speciality center, as only board
certified surgeons do this procedure.

We'll explore it more next time Oppie goes in for a check.
It doesn't appear to be the easiest surgery for the dog to go
through... and then there's the aspiration pneumonia issue. Then
again, respiratory crises aren't any fun either. So far, the
worst we've seen with Oppie is coughing and panting and getting
out of breath when he tries to run (no longer allowed), and
tiring more easily on walks. No gasping or syncope, so far. But
I can't believe that it won't progress further.

It probably will, and then you have the quality of life issue,
especially if running isn't allowed. Anna was a Rug Borzoi, but even
she liked to run around the backyard at times, and I was happy that
she could do that after surgery. She made some pretty alarming noises
after walking a short distance before the surgery, so I'm sure she'd
have gotten worse. I don't know about how difficult this surgery is
for the dog compared to other surgeries. We asked the speciality
hospital to keep Anna for an extra night (they were going to send her
home the day after surgery), partly because of DH's work schedule and
partly to make sure everything was OK. She was able to drink water
right away and caught on to eating pretty well, too. I think the
major thing with this surgery is that it's a lifestyle change, because
usually the dog shouldn't eat dry food or have crunchy treats. No
more collars, either, only harnesses. Most dogs do have at least one
episode of aspiration pneumonia, but if it's caught quickly it can be
managed as an uutpatient basis. Until the megaesophagus got pretty
bad, Anna was doing very well at learning to cough up things herself
(I taught her to cough on cue) and her body seemed to handle some
amount of aspiration without going to pneumonia.

Mustang Sally

Janet B wrote:
I didn't see the original post, but my sister's Lab had the surgery
for this at around 11. He lived to 15.5, so that's a pretty good fix!
His was done at U of Penn vet center, and while feeding was careful,
he never had any problems.

That's very encouraging.

My first foster dog had the surgery as well. He was a Golden mix and
had it at almost 13. He did well for while, but developed aspiration
pneumonia and died shortly before his 14th "birthday".

All in all, I think I'd have it done, for however long it gave me.

Yeah, we're leaning that way. The question is, when? We've
talked with two vets, and both have advised, "not yet."

Thanks, Janet.

FurPaw


--
"None of us is as smart as all of us."
Oh yeah? None of us is as stupid as all of us, either.

To reply, unleash the dog.

sighthounds & siberians wrote:
On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 20:56:20 -0600, FurPaw
wrote:

sighthounds & siberians wrote:

I'm sorry about Anna. Her last year sounds rough.

Thank you. It got progressively rougher, but that was because of the
megaesophagus. Had it not been for that, judging by how well she did
at first, I think she'd have been a success story.

Thanks for the heads up about megaesophagus. Oppie rarely throws
up, but we'll have the vet do a check for it if surgery looks likely.

If you're going to be managing him without surgery for a while, that
gives more time to watch for symptoms of megaesophagus or other
neurological problems. The odd thing about megaesophagus is that the
dog doesn't really throw up, it regurgitates; there's no real
urka-gurka, no heaving, stuff just comes back up the esophagus and out
because the esophageal motility isn't normal. It may sound like
picking nits, but there really is a difference, which one isn't likely
to notice until one has seen the regurgitation common in
megaesophagus.

Thanks for the explanation. I have GERD myself but almost never
throw up.

Our vet is fairly conservative about this, and doesn't do the
surgery himself - we'll have to go to the Big City to have it
done.

That's common. We had to go to a speciality center, as only board
certified surgeons do this procedure.

We'll explore it more next time Oppie goes in for a check.
It doesn't appear to be the easiest surgery for the dog to go
through... and then there's the aspiration pneumonia issue. Then
again, respiratory crises aren't any fun either. So far, the
worst we've seen with Oppie is coughing and panting and getting
out of breath when he tries to run (no longer allowed), and
tiring more easily on walks. No gasping or syncope, so far. But
I can't believe that it won't progress further.

It probably will, and then you have the quality of life issue,
especially if running isn't allowed. Anna was a Rug Borzoi, but even
she liked to run around the backyard at times, and I was happy that
she could do that after surgery. She made some pretty alarming noises
after walking a short distance before the surgery, so I'm sure she'd
have gotten worse. I don't know about how difficult this surgery is
for the dog compared to other surgeries. We asked the speciality
hospital to keep Anna for an extra night (they were going to send her
home the day after surgery), partly because of DH's work schedule and
partly to make sure everything was OK. She was able to drink water
right away and caught on to eating pretty well, too. I think the
major thing with this surgery is that it's a lifestyle change, because
usually the dog shouldn't eat dry food or have crunchy treats. No
more collars, either, only harnesses. Most dogs do have at least one
episode of aspiration pneumonia, but if it's caught quickly it can be
managed as an uutpatient basis. Until the megaesophagus got pretty
bad, Anna was doing very well at learning to cough up things herself
(I taught her to cough on cue) and her body seemed to handle some
amount of aspiration without going to pneumonia.

I expect we will have the surgery - the question is when. Two
vets have advised us, "not yet" - and this in answer to the
question, "if it were your dog, would you have one of the vocal
cords pinned back?" But I'm still thinking that if it's going to
be necessary eventually (and eventually might be in just a few
months), wouldn't it be better to do it while he's healthy,
rather than waiting until he gets debilitated by it?

Thanks, Sally.

FurPaw

--
"None of us is as smart as all of us."
Oh yeah? None of us is as stupid as all of us, either.

To reply, unleash the dog.