~Anne~

I wouldn't be too concerend with goosehonking. It is rare for a Pug to not goosehonk and not all suffer from such issues as collapsing tracheas.

Goosehonking and coughing are symptoms of tracheal collapse. They are also symptoms of many other illneses such as heart disease, and elongated palate and irritation of the palate and epiglottis. If your Vet is saying 'heyfever' then I would think he feels it is an irritation of the palate causing the dog to goose honk. A rescue bitch that I currently have in care, that had her palate resected a couple of weeks ago, goosehonked quite considerably after the surgery due to the irritation of her trachea and soft palate.

I have had two rescues in with partial tracheal collapse and a foster Pug that had brachy surgery after re-homing and suffered a tracheal collpase and had to have an emergency treacheostomy. One of my foster carers had their elderly Pug die from a total collpase after emergency brachy surgery to try and open up the airways. In my cases: Case one had fluid on the lungs and it was assumed it was heart disease. After a specialist consultation and further xrays it was discovered she had a hypoplastic trachea. She had surgery to resect her palate, remove the everted laryngeal saccules and her nares were widened. This was done to help ease the pressure on her respiratory system in the hope that this would ease the pressure on the trachea. She was 7 years old. Case two also had the palate resected to assit with easing the pressure off the trachea. The trachea walls were weakened due tot he pressure put on them with forced breathing over the years. She was 5 years old. Case three was a foster dog on behalf of another org. She was re-homed and within a few months had brachy surgery to correct her breathing. Her trachea, already weakend by the strain of breathing was weak and totally collapsed on the second day after surgery. She was raced back to hospital and underwent an emergency tracheostomy. This dog was 4-5 years. Case four is my foster carers Pug. He was adopted by them at a late age via a friend and suffered symptoms of brachy syndrome. I odfn;t know of any medical details other than he underwent brachy surgery to ease his breathing and he died within days after a tracheal collapse. He was around 10 years of age. Interestingly, I can not recall any of these dogs suffering from patella issues (not sure about the foster carers Pug though) although I wouldnt neccessarily rule them out. In my experience, the partial and full collpase has been as a direct result of brachy syndrome. Brachy syndrome also includes narrow and deformed tracheas.

They damn well should be if they aren't. That poor little Pug. Bindii - thank dog he has you. He may have ended up with an owner who didn't have the finances, knowledge or cared enough to help him and he would have lived a life of pain and misery and defnite total blindness. His eyes look good on that last pic. Hopefully, that will be the end of his worries. Bindii, what was causing the PK? Does he suffer dry eye too or was it exposure and irritation?

Seriously! ;)

We've had a temporary reprieve of his gutsing and choking as he has injured himself after a round of seizures. Thanks! I like the idea of the larger tray though. I might trial this when he is back on his feet again.

The special bowl I purchased is useless and I am berating myself for not realsing that it would be a waste of money for a Pug. Having no snout means that he can't even get his face close enough to the food to eat it! I have a free bowl, only used once, to anyone who wants to collect it. It is the blue one. P/up western burbs of Sydney or from the city CBD.

I have Periactin on hand (cyproheptadine) but to be honest, I've never had to use them in that situation, only for control of atopic allergies.

MRIs are an expensive diagnostic tool and will not show anything unless the seizures are caused through disease or injury to the brain. Given that most dogs suffer idiopathic epilepsy it is possibly a waste of money. The ice cream is really only neccessary for tonic clonic seizures. It helps in two ways - by assisting in cooling the dog and giving a sugar hit. With tonic clonic in particular, the heart races and the body temp elevates and this also takes up energy. Valium can be given rectally. I have used both oral administration and rectal and the rectal takes affects within minutes whereas the oral can take up to 20 minutes.

I remember this pooch, what was it that you felt helped this Pug recover? It really was a combination sas. When she first came in she had a lot of skin infections and had many bald and black patches. She was put on antibiotics, antihistamines, baths and a good raw fresh diet with the addition of the Megaderm. At the end of this we saw a big improvement in the healing of her skin but she was still itchy. We then set about undergoing an elimination trial and the food she was fed was high quality. Her itchies stopped and her skin continued to improve further. She had a small relapse in her new home and the cause is still being investigated. We believe this time it is atopic. My Vets tell me that most dogs who have diet related allergies will also be prone to atopic allergies. That's great! You had her on an rare meat yeah? Initially, raw minced beef or minced chicken carcas with pureed veges but the major part was beef or chicken mince. She also had a small handful of kibble once a day and pet milk sometimes with egg or yoghurt in the morning. The food trial was done with raw goats meat (cubed or minced) and sweet ptotato. Nothing else. It turned out that the original diet I was feeding her was the worst as she was affected by beef and dairy. She was also a little affected by chicken but not as bad as the beef. We also then trialled her on a kibble aimed at dogs with severe allergies and she was fine on this. I am trying to remember the brand of the kibble. It was one that easily found a Pet Barn though.

I remember this pooch, what was it that you felt helped this Pug recover? It really was a combination sas. When she first came in she had a lot of skin infections and had many bald and black patches. She was put on antibiotics, antihistamines, baths and a good raw fresh diet with the addition of the Megaderm. At the end of this we saw a big improvement in the healing of her skin but she was still itchy. We then set about undergoing an elimination trial and the food she was fed was high quality. Her itchies stopped and her skin continued to improve further. She had a small relapse in her new home and the cause is still being investigated. We believe this time it is atopic. My Vets tell me that most dogs who have diet related allergies will also be prone to atopic allergies.

Mainly water, cereal and loads of preservatives and additives. Contrary to popular belief, commercial food do not cause allergies. Most will say that kibble is the blame more than anything else and that it is because of the high grain content and tis is wrong. The majority of canine allergies are protein related and the biggest culprits are beef and chicken. Therefore, if the commercial food contains the protein the dog is affected by, it will be bad for them. In having said that, I don't like commercial foods. I steer clear of additives in preservatives in the food myself and my family eat and I do the same for my animals.

And what she looked like when we re-homed her...although you can't see much of her body but you see the change in expression in her face. No more itchies!!

And the rear view.

He sounds like he has a diet related allergy, apart from the paws. Have you ever had him tested to see what he is allergic to or completed an elimination diet?? This is the little Pug that came to me with a combination of atopic and diet related allergy.

I use wheat bags all the time for the Pugs and have for many years. We had a youngster in a little while back who chewed through on of the bags and I came home to find wheat EVERYWHERE! It gets in all the nooks and crevices too. Monte, one of my other Pugs hoovered some of it up and it didn;t seem to hurt him. As stated above, it came out looking the same as it went in. My Pugs love them. When they see me walking towards them in Winter with some I have just heated up they get excited and sit on them beofre I can even put them in their beds properly!

Thanks, I didn't realise how completely different they were. Megaderm certainly seems the better product though for this situation from the little I just read. Edited to add the fact sheet about Megaderm; Megaderm Fact Sheet

I had a rescue Pug on Megaderm for some time. She was also undergoing antibiotic therapy, was on antihistamines and an elimination diet at the same time however. Her coat looked lovely and her skin healed very quickly. I would think that the megaderm played a role in all of this definitely.

Yes, but I feed them on my porch and the thought of having to mop the porch twice a day is not appealing. Although, being Pugs they'd lick it pretty clean anyway. I have just ordered the 'Break the Fast' dog bowl. I like it better than the one that has four sections and I think it will work better for my purposes.

We've tried larger kibble and they still inhale instead of crunching. It seems to me that the raw part of it being soft and 'gluggy' sits in blobs and the kibble then sticks to it... if this makes sense... and it makes the blobs even larger and Monte just keeps swallowing big blobs of food without giving himself time to swallow properly. I think I will go with your suggestion of making it more 'soupy' while I await the arrival of the new bowl. Hopefully it will slwo him down. The extra fluid will keep flushing his kidneys too which will be good for him given the medications he is on.

I think one of the nicest sounds ever is the crunch of kibble in a Pug's mouth........ trouble is, the sound is so rare it is almost extinct. Olivia, the little rescue, actually crunches her kibble though and it is great!

Thanks Vampy! The bowls look interesting to say the least. Now I know what they are I will do some further reasearch and see who sells them the cheapest. Monte does the same thing as Wolfy, he gets up and keeps trying to eat even though he is choking and is blue! I pull his bowl away and wait until I can see he has well an truly swallowed anything in there. Damn dogs, they're determined to make me old before my time. Not only did I have to ensure Monte got his meds but now I have to watch he doesn't choke. I though Marley was bad, but Monte takes the cake these days.

And a few more again.

And more;

A few more pics of a sleepy Wuggles and an infant Wuggles.