permanent tracheostomy tube small dog

Re: permanent tracheostomy tube small dog

Virginia Campbell — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 00:50:55 GMT

Thanks for your replies, will pass these thoughts on.

Ginny

Re: permanent tracheostomy tube small dog

Andrew Henfrey — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 19:25:51 GMT

You could get them to look at the following paper in JAAHA.

Bilateral Ventriculocordectomy via Ventral Laryngotomy for Idiopathic Laryngeal Paralysis in 88 Dogs

Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association Jul/Aug 2012 48:234-244;

It does at least allow cordectomy and mucosal suturing to prevent webbing. An oral approach for cordectomy would be challenging in such a small dog.

Andrew

Re: permanent tracheostomy tube small dog

Malcolm Ness — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 18:05:58 GMT

Hi,

Tube tracheostomies are typically temporary. If a permanent fix is needed then a surgical stoma should be created with suturing of the tracheal mucosa to the skin. The surgery is not massively difficult but does require attention to detail - I would suggest reading up in Fossum's surgery book or similar and practice on a dead dog before undertaking the real thing. There are no nice solutions to this kind of end-stage larynx but your colleague might want to consider and discuss other options (cordectomy etc) before going for a permanent tracheostomy.

Long term management of a patient with a tracheostomy is not fun and remember they will only ever be able to go swimming again once.