YorkieTalk.com Forums - Yorkshire Terrier Community - View Single Post

marioalberico · 06-24-2014, 09:23 AM

My 13.5 year old 7.4lb Yorkie has been diagnosed with Cushings which we suspected she had the start of three years ago. She has had the ski infections, bigger belly, bad breath, and loss of hair. She is about to go on some drug therapy after the confirmation of the disease from an ACTH Stim-1 test. Up until six months ago she was jumping on the sofa, running and playing, and quite remarkable and surprising to others who saw her and found out her age. Other than being on a special ID diet for the last few years (that solved all of her GI issues, great product), she had been doing very well, until this past February.

She had knee surgery followed by almost 20 physical therapy sessions which were okay at best and very inconsistent. As you would for yourself be very careful with a physical therapist. Ours did hydrotherapy in a treadmill pool and no instructions for us until we complained about the therapist after six visits doing ten minutes in the water. It was very stressful for her and because stress is what causes Cushings to accelerate I'm sorry we put there through that process. The surgeon was incredible and with a warm intelligent and patient manner. But, the PT was suspect and in addition to the stress I'm wondering if the water therapy worsened her skin condition which is also a tough side effect of Cushings. Since this type of knee surgery is common for older Yorkies and Cushings is also common, it's a bad combination. So proceed with caution doing PT outside of home because the added stress and side effects of water with chemicals was not good for sweetie, and I would not have had a problem with the $1,000 in PT costs if I worked (yes I'm going to ask for some of my money back).

I would welcome any feedback from others who have had Yorkies in similar situations and what you did to help them and how you went about caring for them while they have had Cushings. It's hard to ask, but I'd welcome thoughts about your experiences with end of life situations with Yorkies suffering from Cushings.

Thanks so much.

06-24-2014, 09:23 AM	#1
marioalberico YorkieTalk Newbie! Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: Arlington Heights, IL Posts: 2	Cushings My 13.5 year old 7.4lb Yorkie has been diagnosed with Cushings which we suspected she had the start of three years ago. She has had the ski infections, bigger belly, bad breath, and loss of hair. She is about to go on some drug therapy after the confirmation of the disease from an ACTH Stim-1 test. Up until six months ago she was jumping on the sofa, running and playing, and quite remarkable and surprising to others who saw her and found out her age. Other than being on a special ID diet for the last few years (that solved all of her GI issues, great product), she had been doing very well, until this past February. She had knee surgery followed by almost 20 physical therapy sessions which were okay at best and very inconsistent. As you would for yourself be very careful with a physical therapist. Ours did hydrotherapy in a treadmill pool and no instructions for us until we complained about the therapist after six visits doing ten minutes in the water. It was very stressful for her and because stress is what causes Cushings to accelerate I'm sorry we put there through that process. The surgeon was incredible and with a warm intelligent and patient manner. But, the PT was suspect and in addition to the stress I'm wondering if the water therapy worsened her skin condition which is also a tough side effect of Cushings. Since this type of knee surgery is common for older Yorkies and Cushings is also common, it's a bad combination. So proceed with caution doing PT outside of home because the added stress and side effects of water with chemicals was not good for sweetie, and I would not have had a problem with the $1,000 in PT costs if I worked (yes I'm going to ask for some of my money back). I would welcome any feedback from others who have had Yorkies in similar situations and what you did to help them and how you went about caring for them while they have had Cushings. It's hard to ask, but I'd welcome thoughts about your experiences with end of life situations with Yorkies suffering from Cushings. Thanks so much.