Waiting on Blood results

[Fleabagsmum]

Hi to all, I have been reading through the posts in the forum and can relae to many of the symptoms that my little fleabags seems to be exhibiting. She was at the vet Tuesday for a seniors blood and urnie screen as she was being a bit more lazy than normal. Knuckling on her feet / walking into walls and just generally acting as though she were intoxicated. :eek:

She has the typical pot bellied look, that the vet seemed to blow off as a saddle back, she looks depressed.:confused:

She always hoovers the floor but we just thought this was a handy trait as we have 2 small kids so makes the sweeping/ cleaning easier.:p Last week end she began to get muscle tremors, was extremely lethargic, appeared week in the back end and began panting excessively and drinking lots of water. By Tuesday night she had had a seizure, wednesday barely moving except to get up to eat and drink and wee and poo. By thursday evening looked a little brighter and today, aside for the slight muscle tremors that seem to shudder through her body every 20 mins or so is nearly back to her normal lazy self! :)

I called the vet today to chase up results, hoewver the vet has been overwhlemed with Tick cases and has not got back to me yet. I will keep chasing, however my questions for the forum is: Can the build up of the cortisol be the cause for her sudden downturn? Can it cause seizures in dogs if it builds too high?
I really did think I was going to loose her this week and she has proven her self to be quite a tough little cookie.

The pot belly gives me the feelings its Cushings, however I also wonder if, in her food hunt, she has eaten something that she should not have and perhaps poisoned herself in the process :(

I should mention she is a staffy cross, weight is 26.5kg and is 14 years old. She has always been the best dog, and like all of you is the love of my life.

I realise that we have no real diagnosis for this disease, though all the symptoms seem to point to it, and any thoughts advice you can offer would be great.

If it is cushings is there any sort of special diet I should have her on so that I can help her get the levels lower .

Thank you all in advance.:)

[mytil]

Hi and welcome to our site.

I will say that Cushing's is a slow progressing condition and my thoughts are that there is something else going on with your pup; specifically because of the seizures and muscle tremors.

Have you performed any testing for thyroid conditions? What about diabetes?

Is your girl on any other medications? When you get those results, please do post them here.

Terry

[addy]

Hi and welcome from me as well.

Cushings usually comes on gradually as Terry already said it does seem perhaps something else is going on. When we speak of voracious appetite, the dog is getting into the trash, stealing food, is constantly hungry.

Cushings is a very hard disease to diagnosis. We will be looking forward to finding out more information, so please post as you get test results.

Hang in there, I am sure others will soon come around to post.

[sunshinehoman]

You mentioned Knuckling on her feet...Does you mean She was actually walking on her front knuckles as bending them over? If so that sounds to me like what my Stormy did when he blew a disc in his neck. Im not a expert on these things but some of the symptoms you are talking about are the same as what he exhibited, he had degenerative disc disease and we had an x-ray to confirm.
Just a thought..

Shannon & Sunshine

[lulusmom]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Can you tell us when the knuckling and running into walls began and how long after that did the seizure occur? Did you notice that Fleabags eyes were darting back and forth? Was her head tilted? All of the symptoms you describe, including a sway back, could be attributed to Vestibular Syndrome. When a dog is hit with this, it's absolutely horrible to watch and pet owners think their dogs are dying, but miraculously they usually get better over time. The fact that Fleabags is recovering on her own makes me think that she had a Vestibular episode. However, Shannon makes a good point about degenerative disc disease.

If I were in your shoes, I'd let Fleabags completely recover from this episode and watch for problematic symptoms. Who knows, you may not see any once she's feeling more like herself. If she is still showing symptoms, still running into walls and experiencing loss of coordination, there is always the possibility of a brain tumor but I don't think we need to go there at this time.

I'm praying that Fleabags will continue to recover on her own and that testing for cushing's or any other possible causative factors won't be necessary.

Glynda