EskiLvr
06-29-2011, 12:35 PM
Good morning.
First: thank you for all of the wonderful information I've already been able to learn from reading through these forums. It's been very helpful. We had a close family friend (Bandit the Beagle) who lived with Cushings for years, so we know that this is not the "worst" thing that Penny could have been dealt.
We've been owned by Princess Penny since December of 2010. We adopted her from our local humane society after they picked her up running the fields south of our metro area. She was a filthy matted mess, and they had to completely shave her while she was "under" for her spay in order to get all of mats off. She looked like a pathetic little mess when I met her, and she stole my heart. We'd just lost one of our Goldens to bloat, and we weren't expecting to adopt again so soon - but we couldn't say no to this poor girl.
We're thinking she was dumped (:eek:). The first night we had her home I gave her a bath - and her skin was extremely dry/flaky, just like when one of our Bridge Eskies was hypothyroid. She was also very lethargic, and her back leg was still bothering her. (She'd been at the Humane Society for close to a month - she developed kennel cough after her spay and had to be kept in isolation). Off we went for a T4 - and oh, yes, she was Hypothyroid. Our vet got her on Soloxine, and she responded pretty well to it (more energy, hair began to come back more quickly, etc). We've been managing it fairly closely, but we couldn't figure out why her hair wasn't completely coming back. She now has a *gorgeous* showdog-like coat, except for a good strip down the middle of her back (which is usually covered by her tail - natch). We've also found out that she's severely hearing impaired - which is fine with us, because we have a son who's completely deaf in one ear. They're a perfect match.
Because we weren't sure of her age, we had bloodwork done before dental work she was scheduled to have two weeks ago. Dr Matt (our wonderful, wonderful vet) was pretty happy with how happy and peppy she was, and our biggest concern was that out of our four dogs, she was the one who got hit the hardest by a Coccidia infection that our newest adoptee brought home with her. (ICK!) She's bounced back pretty well, but her tummy is still kinda touchy, and her teeth really need another cleaning... but that's been delayed.
Liver enzymes were high (ALKT in the 1600 range, with the other 2 key enzymes elevated but not as badly). She's had an increased appetite, wanted to drink more, and has taken to hanging out on our coolest surfaces (dark bathrooms, cold tile, even our shower stall) - but it's been *hot* here, so we didn't think anything of it. She's never had much strength in her back legs to jump on things (remember that gimpy leg from possibly being dumped from a moving car), and she's been having occasional accidents in the middle of the night. But she's got ENERGY!!! I have to take her on a mile (or longer) walk every night to wear her down, or she's up throwing a party until 2:30 or 3 - wanting to eat, drink, potty, and generally be merry. (I'm sure she's got a lampshade and adult beverages stashed to be brought out as soon as we try to go to sleep.) We've also noticed that the "gimpiness" from her leg has gotten much better - no more occasional "bunny hopping" on it like she did when she came home - like she's been taking Rimadyl for it.
Dr Matt ran a bile processing and LDDS test on her. I don't have her exact results with me - BP showed slightly elevated (mid-20s) pre-meal and 36.1 (IIRC) post - which shows her liver is irritated and sluggish, but not diseased. (We've been down the liver disease road before - these numbers were reassuring.) Her LDDS showed 4.1 pre-load, 2.0 at 4 hours, 2.1 at 8 hours.
So... the good news is that it looks like we caught this fairly early - and that her thyroid meds may have helped to "mask" what's really going on. We're starting on Lysodren this Saturday - Dr Matt is timing it so that the 5-7 day response window happens when he's not out of town, or we'd be starting sooner. She doesn't "act" like she's sick, so that's a good thing. We haven't had an ACTH yet because of her other test results - Dr Matt didn't want us to spend money to confirm what he (and we) were seeing both through test results and observations at home. He said we get to give him more money soon enough. :)
The Eskie rescue community has posted with some experiences with Cushings and Lysodren - and our friend Bandit was also a Lysodren dog. I know she'll be on just under half a pill 2x a day for the load, and our vet has a 3/4 page treatment plan waiting for me. I'm lucky - we've had some nasty things that we've brought to him over the years, and he really thinks situations through before he decides on a course of action - and our input is always not just welcome, but actively solicited.
Has anyone else had a dog get diagnosed when the numbers were this low? With her being a recent rescue, and under thyroid treatment to boot, it's been difficult to know what is and isn't "normal" for her.
Also - has anyone else had a recently diagnosed dog with a touchy tummy? She's getting (I kid you not) Vanilla Fat-Free Yogurt with chopped cucumbers and chopped baby carrots for breakfast, and then dinner is a mix of boiled chicken breast, rice (made with beef or chicken broth), chopped cukes, chopped carrots, and we may be adding some green beans soon. Was cheaper than continually feeding i/d, and it's keeping her from having to be on "anti-poop pills" constantly (or at least at a lower dose)... Vet thinks she has a touch of colitis as a leftover from her Coccadia encounter, and that the Cushings and associated liver issues aren't exactly helping. She, however, thinks her new diet is awesome (especially since it makes the the other three dogs jealous).
Thanks. Sorry for this being so long... she's a special girl, and we're trying to give her the care she deserves.
Kris
Mom to Eskies Princess Penny, Luke, and Holly - and Doofy Golden Retriever Murray
First: thank you for all of the wonderful information I've already been able to learn from reading through these forums. It's been very helpful. We had a close family friend (Bandit the Beagle) who lived with Cushings for years, so we know that this is not the "worst" thing that Penny could have been dealt.
We've been owned by Princess Penny since December of 2010. We adopted her from our local humane society after they picked her up running the fields south of our metro area. She was a filthy matted mess, and they had to completely shave her while she was "under" for her spay in order to get all of mats off. She looked like a pathetic little mess when I met her, and she stole my heart. We'd just lost one of our Goldens to bloat, and we weren't expecting to adopt again so soon - but we couldn't say no to this poor girl.
We're thinking she was dumped (:eek:). The first night we had her home I gave her a bath - and her skin was extremely dry/flaky, just like when one of our Bridge Eskies was hypothyroid. She was also very lethargic, and her back leg was still bothering her. (She'd been at the Humane Society for close to a month - she developed kennel cough after her spay and had to be kept in isolation). Off we went for a T4 - and oh, yes, she was Hypothyroid. Our vet got her on Soloxine, and she responded pretty well to it (more energy, hair began to come back more quickly, etc). We've been managing it fairly closely, but we couldn't figure out why her hair wasn't completely coming back. She now has a *gorgeous* showdog-like coat, except for a good strip down the middle of her back (which is usually covered by her tail - natch). We've also found out that she's severely hearing impaired - which is fine with us, because we have a son who's completely deaf in one ear. They're a perfect match.
Because we weren't sure of her age, we had bloodwork done before dental work she was scheduled to have two weeks ago. Dr Matt (our wonderful, wonderful vet) was pretty happy with how happy and peppy she was, and our biggest concern was that out of our four dogs, she was the one who got hit the hardest by a Coccidia infection that our newest adoptee brought home with her. (ICK!) She's bounced back pretty well, but her tummy is still kinda touchy, and her teeth really need another cleaning... but that's been delayed.
Liver enzymes were high (ALKT in the 1600 range, with the other 2 key enzymes elevated but not as badly). She's had an increased appetite, wanted to drink more, and has taken to hanging out on our coolest surfaces (dark bathrooms, cold tile, even our shower stall) - but it's been *hot* here, so we didn't think anything of it. She's never had much strength in her back legs to jump on things (remember that gimpy leg from possibly being dumped from a moving car), and she's been having occasional accidents in the middle of the night. But she's got ENERGY!!! I have to take her on a mile (or longer) walk every night to wear her down, or she's up throwing a party until 2:30 or 3 - wanting to eat, drink, potty, and generally be merry. (I'm sure she's got a lampshade and adult beverages stashed to be brought out as soon as we try to go to sleep.) We've also noticed that the "gimpiness" from her leg has gotten much better - no more occasional "bunny hopping" on it like she did when she came home - like she's been taking Rimadyl for it.
Dr Matt ran a bile processing and LDDS test on her. I don't have her exact results with me - BP showed slightly elevated (mid-20s) pre-meal and 36.1 (IIRC) post - which shows her liver is irritated and sluggish, but not diseased. (We've been down the liver disease road before - these numbers were reassuring.) Her LDDS showed 4.1 pre-load, 2.0 at 4 hours, 2.1 at 8 hours.
So... the good news is that it looks like we caught this fairly early - and that her thyroid meds may have helped to "mask" what's really going on. We're starting on Lysodren this Saturday - Dr Matt is timing it so that the 5-7 day response window happens when he's not out of town, or we'd be starting sooner. She doesn't "act" like she's sick, so that's a good thing. We haven't had an ACTH yet because of her other test results - Dr Matt didn't want us to spend money to confirm what he (and we) were seeing both through test results and observations at home. He said we get to give him more money soon enough. :)
The Eskie rescue community has posted with some experiences with Cushings and Lysodren - and our friend Bandit was also a Lysodren dog. I know she'll be on just under half a pill 2x a day for the load, and our vet has a 3/4 page treatment plan waiting for me. I'm lucky - we've had some nasty things that we've brought to him over the years, and he really thinks situations through before he decides on a course of action - and our input is always not just welcome, but actively solicited.
Has anyone else had a dog get diagnosed when the numbers were this low? With her being a recent rescue, and under thyroid treatment to boot, it's been difficult to know what is and isn't "normal" for her.
Also - has anyone else had a recently diagnosed dog with a touchy tummy? She's getting (I kid you not) Vanilla Fat-Free Yogurt with chopped cucumbers and chopped baby carrots for breakfast, and then dinner is a mix of boiled chicken breast, rice (made with beef or chicken broth), chopped cukes, chopped carrots, and we may be adding some green beans soon. Was cheaper than continually feeding i/d, and it's keeping her from having to be on "anti-poop pills" constantly (or at least at a lower dose)... Vet thinks she has a touch of colitis as a leftover from her Coccadia encounter, and that the Cushings and associated liver issues aren't exactly helping. She, however, thinks her new diet is awesome (especially since it makes the the other three dogs jealous).
Thanks. Sorry for this being so long... she's a special girl, and we're trying to give her the care she deserves.
Kris
Mom to Eskies Princess Penny, Luke, and Holly - and Doofy Golden Retriever Murray