Possible Cushings....need advice please

[Bathsheba24]

I apologize in advance for this being so long, but I want to give the history so you know what has been happening. I have a 2 year old female spayed dog who last May after staying in a kennel for a week when we were on vacation became sick when we picked her up. She was lethargic and she got worse the following 2 days she would no longer jump on the bed to sleep instead she would stay in the closet and stare and she would not eat or drink unless I put the bowl right up to her, like it hurt her to bend down. I took her to the vet and she had a fever so they gave her 3 weeks of amoxicillin and metronidazole. After a day or 2 she was normal like nothing was wrong. 4 days after the last does she was sick again, so we went back to the vet. They tested her for valley fever, tick disease and giardia. They were all negative, they sent her home with 3 weeks of doxycycline and a couple days later she was fine. This time she ended up sick again 5 Months after her last dose. She went back to the vet and they did blood work and her wbc were 27,000 fever of 104. Since she seems to have an issue with her back legs or back since she won't jump anymore when this hapens they did x-ray on the joints but they were fine except for hip dysplasia. They sent her home with 2 Months of zeniquin. 4 Days after finishing the last dose she got a rash on her belly and under her arms, they did a scraping and said it was staph, so they gave her 10 days of cephalexin and 2 weeks after last doese she got the illness again. This time they tested again for tick disease, auto-immune panel for lupus and toxoplasmosis. All were negative but the blood work showed elevated liver, elevated cholesterol, and elevated wbc again. Also low potasium. The vet said the results being what they are point to cushings so they did the urine test to rule it out, but it came back high at 58 so she said it is possibly cushings. She wants to do the acth stimulation test, but I am wondering if it is really possible that she has cushings, i have already spent $2000 and can't afford to keep spending money on things she cannot possibly have. I am confused since the antibiotics always make the symptoms go away. She is usually very high energy, she is a 1/2 German Wirehaied pointer and 1/2 Wirehaired Pointing Griffon so when this hapens it is sad since she does not have any energy and she also gets confused when she has an epoisode, she will whine like she needs to go out but then she doesn't almost like she does not know why she is whinning. And she sometimes will stand and just stare all stiff for a long time like she doesn't know what she is doing. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Harley PoMMom]

Hi and welcome to you and your girl,

I am so sorry for the reasons that brought you here but glad you found us.

The symptoms your girl is displaying are not the typical clinical signs we see with Cushing's disease. Strong symptoms make up a huge part of the diagnosis, these symptoms include but not limited to: excessive drinking/urinating, ravenous appetite and a pot-bellied appearance.

I would suspect that the urine test which was probably an UC:CR to be high since your girl is having issues. The cortisol will elevate due to stress or illness. If it were me, I would not pursue any more tests for Cushing's and try to find out why her WBC is high.

Is your girl having any episodes of vomiting or diarrhea?

Could you get copies of all the test/s that were done on her and post the abnormalities here and we will try to help sort them out with you.

Please know we are here for you and your sweet girl and will help in any way we can so feel free to ask any and all questions.

One more thing, could you check your emailbox (or spam folder) for a communication from us. Once you respond to that email, your membership will be finalized, and anything that you post will become visible on the the forum immediately. Until that time, your replies must be manually "approved" by a staff member before they are visible to the public -- so there may be a bit of delay between the time that you write your replies and the time that you actually see them...Thanks!

Love and hugs,
Lori

[mytil]

Hi and welcome from me too.

I agree with Lori, these are not classic symptoms of Cushing's.

Was thyroid testing performed? Has your vet mentioned anything about chronic pancreatitis?

Keep us posted
Terry

[labblab]

I also agree with Lori. Except for the difficulty with jumping up, nothing about your dog's outward symptoms are consistent with Cushing's. Plus, the sudden onset and cyclical rebound of the fevers/symptons would seemingly point to an unresolved infectious issue. I don't think the ACTH would be worthwhile at this point, because it can return a "false positive" when a dog is suffering from an illness or ailment other than Cushing's.

I am so sorry that you are having these issues! If you have not already done so, I believe I would request a consultation with an Internal Medicine Specialist. This is a vet with additional training in particularly complicated illnesses. Since this whole thing started right after your dog was kenneled, I'd have to wonder whether she was exposed to an infection that has yet to be identified.

Marianne