debarking mess

[rescuelady]

Hi everyone this looks like a good place for advice. We rescued a little five year old toy manchester female. She has been struggling with her breathing. took her to our vet and he said the de barking job was horrible and tried to reconstruct taking out lots of scar tissue. Three weeks later her throat is closing again and she is REALLY gasping for air. The vet says the only thing he can do now is a tracheotomy and she will have a breathing hole in her throat. We are by no means rich but want to do the best thing for "Lola" has anyone ever had to deal with this problem ?

 

[Buddy'sParents]

Never heard of a problem like that, but it would be wise to go with what your vet suggests.

If you are wary of the diagnosis, there is always the option of getting 2nd and 3rd opinions.

Best of luck to you.

 

[bubbatd]

What a horrible shame !!! I'm glad you rescued her !

 

[PoodleMommy]

This is the very reason I hate that people would ever debark a dog.
GRR....

I am glad she seems to be in a better home now.

I would also look into getting another opinion, if you do not feel comfortable with the first one...

Good Luck

Elissa

 

[dogsarebetter]

i have never heard of it happening.
we have at least 15 dogs at work de barked, and none of them have ever had any problems

 

[elegy]

god that's horrible. i have to admit, in that kind of a situation, i'd be asking for a referral to a specialist if there were any way i could afford it.

poor dog. i wish you the best with her.

 

[misticaleclipse]

Poor dog. I would also in this type of situation get a second opinion. I would be concerned about a breathing hole in the neck of such a small breed and the effect of the surgery. If you can avoid this procedure of if there is another vet who has seen it before then I would speak with them.

 

[rescuelady]

Hello everyone thank you for your replys and interest. The vet that originally did the debarking did four dogs at once and one died right after. For some reason instead of going in through her mouth and snipping the barking tabs, he cut an incision through her neck to her throat. This is not done much anymore and certainly not on little dogs. Nevertheless this is what happened. Our vet tried reconstruction but it was such a mess of hard thick scarring that it just healed up again narrowing her wind pipe. This has been hard on us as we have two other dogs that are also rescues. Thank goodness they are well now. "Lola" is our only little girl and we love her lots so the tracheotomy is our only option besides putting her down. We do trust our vet as he seems to really care about animals and has never let us down. I'll keep watching to see if anyone else has had this happen to their dog. Thanks everyone

 

[rij73]

Poor baby. Good for you for trying to help her...

 

[bubbatd]

Poor baby !! I'm sure a Trach will be hard to keep clean . Best of luck to you .

 

[squirtsmom]

That is an unfortunate situation. You have to think about what is best for the dog. Good luck.

 

[joce]

Trach are hard with people to keep clean-I'd say next to impossible with a dog.

If the dog has any quality of life like this I would stick with it. Keep the dog from getting excited and needing to breathe deeply etc.

 

[rescuelady]

Hello everyone just an update on little Lola and her tracheotomy. She had the surgery tuesday and woke up in shock that she could breathe. It will take some getting used to for her, us and the other dogs who are more curious than anything. Her energy has increased ten fold so in order to keep her quiet we have to put her in a room with her kennel once and a while. Next we will try and devise a filtration collar for her as they don't make them for animals. All in all we think we did the right thing. The extra work is no big deal one of our other rescues is a born blind shitzu who is also autistic, so someone has to be here anyways. We're just one big happy family of misfits LOL

 

[bubbatd]

Bless her heart , and you for taking care of her !!!

 

[ToscasMom]

How sad. And how lucky this dog is that you were the rescuer! Might I suggest that you use one of those doggie triangle scarfs to lightly cover the trach, to help avoid getting it dirty or dusty. Normally, humans with that kind of apparatus do that with a cotton triangle. You might be able to find these at a medical supply place.

 

[rescuelady]

Thank you ToscasMom thats a great idea. We were using some of my hubbys hankys when we let her outside but they are too big. I'll check them out today.

 

[Fran27]

I'm glad to hear that she seems better now

 

[Buddy'sParents]

Bless her! I hope all is well now.

 

[bubbatd]

Does this interfere with eating or drinking ? Not the cloth of course !

 

[Doberluv]

Oh my....late to this thread. I'm so glad she's doing better. Bless you for taking such good care of her. You know.....I have read that somewhere that it is a risk....for scar tissue to be a problem sometimes. I don't know where I read it. It's been a long time, but somewhere during my studying, I know I came across something.

Anyhow, so glad she's having a better life now...poor little thing. If the previous owners would have just taken the time to find out how to train, they could have lessened the barking with training. I know I have with my little yapper Chihuahuas. They're not bad about it at all.

Kudos to you! Hugs for your little lucky dog.