Anyone have any experience in dealing with this in an older dog. We just had a 12 1/2yr old diagnosed with it. I will google it to get info, but thought maybe someone on the forum may have personal experience..

TIA

I thought I did. Our foundation bitch was about the same age as yours when she was diagnosed. There's a surgical procedure that you can have done that basically removes the larynx. If you've ever heard a dog that has been "debarked" they sound like that afterwards. Anyway, we got Katie home, and the next day she started wheezing really bad ("wicked bad" as they say up around Boston). Well, we took her back in and the surgeon couldn't understand why that would be, so she aspirated some tissue from her lungs and found very late stage cancer. We made the difficult and heartbreaking decision to let her go. It was not the best day I've ever had. My only advice, especially for an older bitch like yours, is to consider that it could be something else before you opt for the surgery. I would never have put her through that had I known...

My old girl Gussie started showing early symptoms of LP a few years ago. She had some lung congestion that my Vet felt was due to not enough air moving so she went on mega antibiotics for the lung congestion.
I opted to not pursue surgical treatment to wait and see if her symptoms persisted. She will be 14 in December and knock on wood, she's still doing fine. She goes into a coughing spell if she gets too excited and starts running around and hot weather seems to make her condition flare up. I have not regretted taking a wait and see with her but her symptoms have never been real severe nor have they progressed.

Contact Doris at Godiva Labs. She had a dog with it and was very active in telling others about it.

The surgical procedure is called arytenoid lateralization, aka - tie back. The larynx does not need removed. I would suggest a Board Certified surgeon do the surgery if indicated after an evaluation. Some of the larger Vet. hospitals do a number of these procedures.

I have a 13.5 year old with laryngeal paralysis. For the last 7 or 8 months she has been subject to episodes in which her breathing becomes severely affected when she gets excited or hot. At times her breathing is like sucking air through a straw, and she whistles when she breathes. But it has not really progressed. In fact, I think she has fewer of the really bad episodes now than she did 6 months ago, possibly because we have both learned to avoid incidents that will bring them on. And cooler weather is undoubtedly a factor. In my experience it is important to keep them calm and cool. However, my girl goes on walks with the rest of the crew. I have a partially fenced field, so the dogs are off leash when we go for these walks. She lags behind but comes along at her own pace. This summer there were days when she would have to lie down and catch her breath before continuing on, and the first time it happened I thought it was going to be the end, but then the next day she would be fine. Now that it has cooled off, she is much more able to keep up.

I have not seriously considered the surgery due to her age and the fact that I understand they become very susceptible to choking if the muscle is tied back. Also,I had a friend who had the surgery done on a 13 year old. He almost died and had to have emergency surgery to close a bleeding wound in his laryngeal area. She spent $7000, and he lived one more year after that in reasonably good health.

I had a 13 year old neutered male diagnosed with LP. The first symptom I can remember is that his bark did sound like he had laryngitis.
From when he was diagnosed to when we decided to PTS was about 6 months. His symptoms didn't progress rapidly until the last 2 weeks. Yes, excitement, stress (like going to the vet clinic) and heat would bring on an episode. Since we knew just pulling into the clinic parking lot would set off an episode, when it came time to let him go as peacefully as possible, we had our vet come to our house.

Check with your vet regarding meds that can be given as well. Sometimes surgery is not an option, and the meds offer relief. It depends upon the severity of the condition and symptoms. I am also told the only real way to diagnose this condition is to put them under anesthesia and scope them. The laryngitis and other symptoms can also be attributed to heart disease and other medical conditions. Best of luck!