Have any other shih tzu owners experienced this. Daisy is 3 years old. She has had this severe problem 3 times and it is very distressing for her and us.
She seems as if she can't get enough air in and the vet says he knows exactly what it is. He asked me if I thought she was going to 'peg out' (die) when she has an attack. He says she can have an operation but it is quite dodgy (so I won't let her have that). She's on antibiotics and a course of steroids at the moment and has vastly improved. It seems as if she had swollen glands. Please help if you can (reassurance needed because I'm such a worrier where she is concerned - if it was the kids I wouldn't be as worried. Daisy is devoted to me and likewise. Thanks

Hi Daisy.

We had the same prob with Molly our shih tzu. She had an op a few weeks ago(she is now 14 months) as she choked and couldnt breathe properly and we were frightened she would die. The worse time was on New Years Eve. I just couldnt let her keep getting these episodes so our vet recommended a specialist vet and he took out her tonsils as they were enlarged, cut back her soft palette and opened the airways in her nose. I am happy to say she is 100% better and I am so glad we had the operation done. She never chokes now and has only gagged twice when she has got too excited having a mad half hour. Not sure if 3 year olds still have these puppy mad half hour's and if and when she does stop them I am sure there will be no probs at all.

I think you should seriously consider an op to relieve her symptoms. Talk it over with your vet and think hard about having it done. I was only told of things that could go wrong with the op in the general way that we are told about operations and was told it was a relatively simple procedure as this sort of problem happens with shih tzu type dogs.

I wouldnt of course tell you what to do but I think you should have a word with your vet again. I know how distressing it is as we were all ready to go out on NY Eve and ended up staying up all night watching over Molly instead.

I am so happy now that she is, in my opinion, completely cured. It is brilliant watching her behave like she should with no fear of the "choking".

Let me know how you get on. You can e mail me privately if you would like to.

Gina

My Bulldog has had this operation, throat sounds much better now, he also breathes better too as he had his nostrils widened, they are now round, they were just like slits!!! We were lucky we had insurance, this op wasn't cheap by any means, but well worth it! Hope that helps, good luck xxx