New member intro (Emmy, 8-9 y/o Lab)

[Emsmom]

Hello everyone, my name is Teresa and I have an 8-9 year old lab named Emmy. The vet estimated her age to be around 4 when I adopted her 4 1/2 years ago.

In about the last 9 months Emmy has had episodes of increased water intake and some urinary incontinance. We took her to the vet and urine was negative, with the exception of being very diluted and bloodwork was normal. She went on antibiotics pending the culture which came back normal. Things seemed okay, then a repeat episode about 5-6 months later with the same lab and urine results. Now once again water intake has happened and at this point I am just monitoring her.

Yes, she is hungry, but she is a lab and always wants to eat. Can't say I see a huge difference there. She is drinking more water, but her sugars are normal.

The vet had mentioned the possibility of Cushings and doing a low dose dexamethasone test. I am seeing here that diagnosis can be difficult and I want to make the best medical decisions I can for her.

At this point I just feel very confused and worried. Is it possible she has Cushings and where do I go next?

[lulusmom]

Hi Teresa and welcome to you and Emmy.

Dogs with cushing's don't stop drinking and peeing buckets with antibiotics nor is their bloodwork normal so I would question whether Emmy has cushing's. The sole objective for treating cushing's is to remedy the symptoms, primarily symptoms which are more problematic for the owner than the dogs. With Emmy having few, if any, symptoms and with the normal bloodwork, you may not want to pursue a diagnosis at this time. However, if you and your vet want to proceed, then I would start with a relatively inexpensive urine test called a urine cortisol creatinine ratio. You would have to collect the specimen at home, prior to any meds and food. If you can't get the urine to your vet within an hour or two, keep it in the refrigerator until you can get it there. You want to collect the urine at home because Emmy will be in a relaxed atmosphere, free from stress. If a dog is stressed out, the body responds by releasing cortisol. Since you are measuring cortisol, you don't want to skew the results. If the ratio is within the normal range, you can pretty much rule out cushing's. If it is high, then it's possible that cushing's is involved but any number of ailments can yield this result so additional testing would be necessary.

I'm glad you found us and we're here to help you both in any way we can.

Glynda

P.S. We have lots of members who share their lives with Labs so I'm sure you'll be hearing from them soon.

[labblab]

Hello and welcome!

I'm one of those Lab-Lovers that Glynda mentioned! ;)

As you can see from my avatar photo, my Cushpup was a sweet yellow boy. Unfortunately, he passed away several years ago. But I have remained a member of this wonderful k9cushings family, and my husband and I now have two Lab "daughters": a 7 y/o black, and a 3 y/o yellow. :) :)

I do agree with Glynda that I'd first recommend starting out with the simple urine test (UC:CR). As she says, it is not typical for Cushing's symptoms to come and go. Once a dog begins to manifest such problems as excessive thirst and urination, usually they never resolve again without treatment.

You've said that Emmy's sugar level was normal. How about results of any other laboratory tests? Are her liver and kidney readings all normal? Dogs with Cushing's typically have elevations in their liver enzymes. Has her urine been tested to see if it is abnormally dilute? That is another issue that can be consistent with Cushing's, although it can signal kidney problems as well.

Anything more that you can tell us about Emmy's complete health history will be very helpful. Once again, I am very glad that you both have found us!

Marianne

P.S. I took the liberty of adding some info about Emmy to your thread title so that all our other Lab-Lovers will also know she's here!