Collapsing Trachea in Yorkie

[ladyjane]

Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly

Barbara, I am so sorry to hear about your baby's CT but I don't know much about it. I had always understood that it could be surgically corrected but that is apparently not true??? Is a stent too big of a chance or do they just not work? Your plight has made me want to learn more about this awful condition now.

Please give your little one a big hug and kiss from Tibbe and me.

There is surgery. I personally would not do it. The success rate is low and is temporary. I had lengthy discussions with my vet and with the specialists and opted not to do it...and anyone who knows me knows I will do whatever it takes to help a pup. I simply felt it was too much of a risk for him..he was older and they had no real good stats to share with me.

Here is some information:

ACVS - Tracheal Collapse

[yorkietalkjilly]

Originally Posted by ladyjane

There is surgery. I personally would not do it. The success rate is low and is temporary. I had lengthy discussions with my vet and with the specialists and opted not to do it...and anyone who knows me knows I will do whatever it takes to help a pup. I simply felt it was too much of a risk for him..he was older and they had no real good stats to share with me.

Here is some information:

ACVS - Tracheal Collapse

Thank you! I learn so much here every day but am so sorry it had to be this way. I had just always heard about the surgery and now know there is another way to consider. Like Barbara, I wonder why in the world the vet didn't do or say something sooner.

[Sandysbabies]

Our Kayla has CT and my vet said she would never do the surgery, only as a last thing to do. Losing weight is really important. One of the vet techs told me today that even feeding them their regular food, with maybe greenbeans, carrots or other veggies added after lowing the amount of canned food, is just as good as the diet food. I have her on OM right now but may go back to regular food and do like he said. Just add veggies and fruits and I think she will really like that. She has only lost a pound after being on the OM for several weeks.

[ladyjane]

Originally Posted by ladyjane

It is a very upsetting condition. My last pup with it died in my arms on Christmas Eve morning a couple of years ago. It was sudden, although he had been very ill with it for some time,...and it devastated me. I hope never to have another CT pup.

You really can manage it sometimes. We tried many different medications .. I hope that you can get his weight down without it stressing him. I recently put a pup on a diet with Hills W/D food....and added green beans so he would not be so upset about the decreased amount of food. Worked wonderfully.

I personally would never feed raw. The one thing you really want to avoid in this pup is infection. He is more at risk of pneumonia. I had a pup with CT for many years...and it is not what killed him. He ate grains and I honestly don't believe they have anything to do with CT.

Originally Posted by Sandysbabies

Our Kayla has CT and my vet said she would never do the surgery, only as a last thing to do. Losing weight is really important. One of the vet techs told me today that even feeding them their regular food, with maybe greenbeans, carrots or other veggies added after lowing the amount of canned food, is just as good as the diet food. I have her on OM right now but may go back to regular food and do like he said. Just add veggies and fruits and I think she will really like that. She has only lost a pound after being on the OM for several weeks.

That is what I meant....OM...not WD ..it definitely worked for my pup...green beans and OM. I found that I had to really decrease the amount of the OM.

[Yorkiedaze]

My Zada has been honking and wheezing for a few years, especially if she is excited and one Vet. said it was CT, but another thinks now she has asthma. I can't walk her anymore due to dirt and dust, and am very limited on where I can take her. She is mostly house bound now. Her breathing is labored all the time and nothing we have given her so far makes any difference. We were at friends last month up in the bay area and Zada of course was excited to be there because she loves their Yorkies. Around 10:00 one night she had a very bad spell and was not able to breathe so we tried my friends inhaler on her and it worked to get her breathing again. It was that or she dies. I told my Vet. about this but that's about as far as it went. She thought I should give Zada the hydrocod more frequently, but just one dose speeds her heart up and it doesn't work. Anyway Zada's seems to be more asthma than CT, but it could be both. Her little body is wearing out. My friend gave me her inhaler to use in case of another emergency.

[ladyjane]

Originally Posted by Yorkiedaze

My Zada has been honking and wheezing for a few years, especially if she is excited and one Vet. said it was CT, but another thinks now she has asthma. I can't walk her anymore due to dirt and dust, and am very limited on where I can take her. She is mostly house bound now. Her breathing is labored all the time and nothing we have given her so far makes any difference. We were at friends last month up in the bay area and Zada of course was excited to be there because she loves their Yorkies. Around 10:00 one night she had a very bad spell and was not able to breathe so we tried my friends inhaler on her and it worked to get her breathing again. It was that or she dies. I told my Vet. about this but that's about as far as it went. She thought I should give Zada the hydrocod more frequently, but just one dose speeds her heart up and it doesn't work. Anyway Zada's seems to be more asthma than CT, but it could be both. Her little body is wearing out. My friend gave me her inhaler to use in case of another emergency.

I honestly would not use that inhaler. There is no way that she is getting the correct amount of medicine and that can be deadly for her. If you are not happy with the management of her illness, I suggest you take her to an internal med specialist. You don't have to do a lot of testing on her...there are ways to manage this with medicine that is appropriate for her.....also you want to be sure that she is diagnosed properly.

[Yorkiedaze]

Originally Posted by ladyjane

I honestly would not use that inhaler. There is no way that she is getting the correct amount of medicine and that can be deadly for her. If you are not happy with the management of her illness, I suggest you take her to an internal med specialist. You don't have to do a lot of testing on her...there are ways to manage this with medicine that is appropriate for her.....also you want to be sure that she is diagnosed properly.

I completely agree with you, but that inhaler is her life line right now. She is going to be seen at VSMG, the same hospital that Zada had her last surgery. It's in Ventura which is 70 miles from me and the closest.

[ladyjane]

Originally Posted by Yorkiedaze

I completely agree with you, but that inhaler is her life line right now. She is going to be seen at VSMG, the same hospital that Zada had her last surgery. It's in Ventura which is 70 miles from me and the closest.

I hope they can prescribe something that will help her. Poor baby....and poor you. It is so upsetting when they are that ill.

[Yorkiedaze]

Originally Posted by ladyjane

I hope they can prescribe something that will help her. Poor baby....and poor you. It is so upsetting when they are that ill.

Her appointment is on Monday (halloween) at 1:00 with Dr. Ortega, so will let you know what she finds out. Theresa M. Ortega | Veterinary Medical And Surgical Group (VMSG)
It's the same hospital where Zada had a corrective knee surgery. (the first surgery was done by just a regular Vet. and he didn't deepen the groove).

[ladyjane]

Originally Posted by Yorkiedaze

Her appointment is on Monday (halloween) at 1:00 with Dr. Ortega, so will let you know what she finds out. Theresa M. Ortega | Veterinary Medical And Surgical Group (VMSG)
It's the same hospital where Zada had a corrective knee surgery. (the first surgery was done by just a regular Vet. and he didn't deepen the groove).

Looks like an excellent facility!! I will look forward to the update!

I tell people all of the time to spend the extra money and go to a boarded surgeon...yours is a story that should be shared. So many people end up having to go to one in the end so it ends up costing even more and the poor pup suffers.

[BarbaraM]

The food I found is stella & chewy's freeze dried. "SecureByNature" food safety process: a process that make them safe from harmful bacteria naturally while retaining the food's nutrient value and flavor.

Some of the ingredients-first 12: Lamb, Lamb spleen, lamb liver, lamb bone, lamb heart, lamb kidney, calcium carbonate, pumpkin seed, potassium chloride, organic cranberries, organic spinach,organic broccoli...

The om has - first 12: Whole grain corn, corn gluten meal, soybean hulls*, soybean germ meal, soybean meal, pea fiber, wheat gluten, poultry by-product meal, animal digest, powdered cellulose, tricalcium phosphate, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), salt

I can't imagine eating anything with CORN allows any weight LOSS, could be wrong. Sounds highly allergenic to me, too. Pea fiber, cellulose - just doesn't sound good at all. Nothing nutritional as I can tell in the first 12 ingredients. Please correct me if I am wrong.

I just want the best for TeddE. I really feel his food should contain more nutrients than most traditional dog foods offer. His lamb dinner also contained some organic green beans that were cooked slightly and mashed up by me. He loved dinner--what there was of it!! I really expected him to be thirsty while on the steroids, but he isn't. The filtered water is filled continuously. (I was worried that perhaps he had Cushings? But I don't believe so. Basically weight brought on by the breathing issue.) For treats he gets the smallest amount of mashed organic apples. Such a tiny amount...once a day.

I believe I will look into the Chinese Herbs. Introduce them slowly. And maybe acupuncture to keep him calm instead of those awful meds! I used acupuncture myself with pain management (compressed cervical spine at C3 and C4, C6-C7) and it worked great along with chiro visits. (The infra-red saunas helped me, too - if I thought they would help TeddE, I wold see if I could get him some sessions. )

Haven't checked on homeopathic remedies yet, tho! Might be something there too. Inflammation is bad for all, really. I found relief with homeopathic for sinus issues and nervousness. As well as herbal teas (I love chamomile)

I managed to get off of prescriptions for severe sinus infections, migraines, ibs/gerd, ulcers, multinodular goiter (I still take iodine/iodide), anemia from uterine fibroid tumors and just general poor health thru organic fresh foods. NO more processed. No corn! Ever. My daughter who is gluten sensitive has changed her life thru better food/nutrition as well. No more corn sugar for us, either. Corn sugar! You have GOT to be kidding me

Introducing new items take time and is a slow process, but the rewards are great!!

I am looking into the supplements too with Glucosamine + Astaxathin - for dogs? Meds are important, but I feel they can sometimes be depended on too much and used too often. Just where are those ingredients purchased I wonder? Are they even safe? Does the FDA really care? Can I trust the FDA? If no one watched where the ingredients for our kids vaccines were coming from, why would they care about the animals? Just a thought.

A theory of mine - and it's just a theory - when the food industry decided to remove iodine from baked goods *the kind our thyroids need and replace with bromine which does nothing for the thyroid - goiters and unhealthy people with thyroid issues were on the rise (still are, I feel - just docs never diagnose). So the call came in to put iodine in refined table salt *I only use unrefined, but the medical industry demanded we DECREASE salt (table salt). There go the thyroids again and lots of money to the docs and to the drug makers. Why would I trust anyone who replaces the GOOD in foods with BAD untested chemicals that are generally recognized as safe - to whom? For how long? Really? Did you know soy is NOT safe for humans, especially unfermented soy. No matter what. It was deemed safe to use in industrial settings and the food industry picked up on that and ran with it. Sorry. That is a whole different thread. But the main idea is NUTRITION. REAL FOOD. It's as crucial as synthetic medicines, imo. Cut costs to make money. Let them eat the stuff

I also have NO fragrances or harsh chemicals used in my home. NO glade at all. No swiffer. No scrubbing bubbles. No sprays. Low/No voc paints only. My drinking and bathing water is filtered to remove chlorine, fluoride, mercury and other contaminants. Why would you bathe daily in chlorine and then DRINK chlorine if it is known to be harmful to humans?

Oh, well. That's my soap box. Didn't mean it to drag on and on like that.

[beachdog]

I have researched different medicines. Some of them can't be used because Paris in addition to the CT and being blind, also has a heart murmer.
The meds are working ok now.
I have decided not to do vaccines this year, and I don't use flea stuff, but I will do heartworm because of the misquitos.

[ladyjane]

BarbaraM all I can say is good luck with that....your thoughts concern me, but I have learned that when people think like you do, there is no one going to change that. I hope it works out well for the sake of your pup.

[ladyjane]

Originally Posted by beachdog

I have researched different medicines. Some of them can't be used because Paris in addition to the CT and being blind, also has a heart murmer.
The meds are working ok now.
I have decided not to do vaccines this year, and I don't use flea stuff, but I will do heartworm because of the misquitos.

I hope that your research and all included speaking with your veterinarian about these medications.
I will keep Paris in my thoughts and prayers.

[beachdog]

Originally Posted by ladyjane

I hope that your research and all included speaking with your veterinarian about these medications.
I will keep Paris in my thoughts and prayers.

Oh Yes! Of course it included Paris' vet, he is open to anything I ask and we both have Paris' best inteest at heart. I wouldn't change anything on my own, who knows what interaction something might have with what we are already doing.