# Aging Vizsla with difficulty breathing



## Jay Dibley (Jun 25, 2009)

Our baby Tessa ( AKC Legacy's Sure Bet) will be 15 years old in August. She is still very energetic and full of life. Recently she would begin wheezing and coughing after her runs around the yard. Nothing serious and only for a few seconds. Tonight she really scared us when the coughing and wheezing turned into not breathing. She laid over on her side gasping for air. Very similar to my son's asthma attacks he had as a child. Her tongue turned blue and she salivated profusely. Immediatley we were in the car to the vets, and after about 5 mins she began to recover. The breathing came hard to her at first but by the time we got to the vets she was again taking deep full breaths. The vet did x-rays and bloodwork, but ultimately found nothing evident. She did however imply that a heart attck could have caused the symptoms. Does this sound right? It didn't to me. Tessa is fine now. Home with her family happily napping next to our bed. I'd really like any insight or info if anyone's experienced this before.
Thanks


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## Bob Engelhardt (Feb 14, 2012)

This topic is more than 7 years old. I stumbled across it searching for something else. But the nature of it (the scary symptoms) were such that I wanted to know more. So I emailed Jay and got the following response (used with permission):



> So, our vet determined that what we thought were seizures were actually cardiac related. At 15 years old there was little we could do, but she continued to lead a active V life despite several more attacks and visits to vet. A severe attack in mid March caused temporary loss of use of her hind legs. We constructed a cart to support her legs and she recovered use by end of April, but another severe attack took her from us in early August 2010. She was a wonderful part of our family and still missed. We were fortunate to be able welcome our newest member Grace (AKC Tessa's Graceful Legacy). She's 3 now and just as wonderful.


So, as bad as it sounded, Tessa did live another year & was 16 when she passed.

The attached picture is of Grace.

Bob


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

How blessed they were to have her for 16 years.


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