Let’s make sure you understand what collapsing trachea is, first. Then we’ll talk about how to help the situation.
So our throat- it’s the front of our neck. It’s got a bunch of muscles to hold up our head. It has the airway which is called the trachea. And it has the esophagus which is how food and water goes from the mouth down through the chest cavity into the stomach (there’s a flap that normally keeps food out of the air hole). In humans, you can tap on your airway and you can feel that it’s hard. We have cartilage circles that go all the way around our trachea. And in between the circles is collagen, connective tissue, softer tissue. How dogs are different is that their cartilage is not a full circle. It’s kind of C shaped. So dogs have cartilage rings in a C, and to close the C is a muscle.
If dogs get a weakness of the muscle or far too much pressure across the trachea, the C goes flat, which makes the dog cough because they want air to flow up and down the airway.
OK, I hope you have that visual. In the office, I usually hold up my hand to demonstrate the capital C, and then I put my other hand across the top and bottom of the opening of the C and demonstrate that one can smoosh into the other one.
So what causes too much pressure across the front of the trachea?
- Obesity
- Heart enlargement
- Weak chest and leg muscles
OK, obesity is easy. It’s a bunch of fat that puts pressure on the body.
Heart enlargement. That one’s a little bit different. Because dogs walk on four legs their heart hangs down in their chest at an angle. If the heart gets big, it pushes everything up towards the spine and puts pressure across the airway.
And then the weak leg muscles. This is a little bit odd to visualize also. As humans, we have a collarbone. The collarbone holds our shoulders off to the side. It makes a bony joint. Dogs and cats do not have a collarbone. (well OK if you wanna be anatomically exact, cats have a microscopic little tiny remnant sliver that once was a collarbone but now it’s just a little extra cartilage/bone in the muscle). So, because they don’t have a collarbone, their front legs are attached only with muscles. You can prove this to yourself. You can feel the shoulder blades on the side of their body, and you can move the whole thing up and down. In fact, move one up and one down and wiggle them back-and-forth. Most animals love that.
But when they get older or they’ve jumped off of the bed 155,000 times or they’re feeling a little weak, the muscles that hold the front legs on get weak and the shoulder blades raise up to the back.
You can do a little test on yourself. Pull your shoulder blades behind you as far as you can. Now stretch your neck and chin forward as far as you can at the same time. You can feel pressure across the front of your neck. If your trachea were C shaped and you didn’t have a collarbone, the trachea might squish, which would prevent airflow. Which would make you cough. Thus we have collapsing trachea.
You might need to read those a couple of times. It’s often easier to describe when I can talk with my hands.
Regardless, though, now you have an idea how to address the problem.
- We want our little dogs to not be fat.
- We want them to have good movement of their front legs, along with the rest of the body. And this is where chiropractic, massage, and acupuncture are all amazing modalities to help get movement in the neck and in the chest to decrease pressure and decrease cough.
- And we want to feed food that is not inflammatory so that our little ones are less likely to be predisposed towards heart disease and weakness of the body.
Or
You can go the western medicine route. And all we vets have been told to do is to give hydrocodone. Does that stop collapsing trachea? Not at all. But it makes your dog take a nap. And if he’s sleeping, he’s not coughing.
How do you like that logic?
So, if your little one has collapsing trachea, or if you suspect your little one has collapsing trachea, this is a great reason to evaluate the food, your pet’s body weight, and get chiropractic care.
Consultations available in Tampa, Clearwater and virtually for pet owners seeking natural wellness solutions.