George (7 y/o Great pyrenees/Australian shepherd) Calcinosis cutis

[Cyn68]

Hi I'm Cyndy and my baby is George, he's a 7 year old Great pyrenees/Australian shephard cross and was diagnosed with Cushings last month and today we got the news that he also has a very severe and unusual case of Calcinosis Cutis. George is a wonderful dog who never shows when he's in pain, and is always happy, we adopted him when he was 7 months old from the humane society, he was seized from a native reserve where they had found him and his brother and sister tied up in a basment covered in filth. Now a little history on my gentle giant George.

We learned shortly after we adopted him that he had allergies, after seeing a specialist it was determined that he was allergic to way too(way many things to list here...lol...and he was put on prednisone (he didn't do well with the allergy shots or other treatments). When George was a year we learned a rock that had gotten under his skin on his foot, they figured before the humane society took him from his previous owners (he had been chewing the same spot from the time we brought him home) and he had surgery to remove it. Three years ago he got a pair of abscess on his side from his cat Gracie (she grooms him and scratched him by accident), the vets thought it was only one but when they put the drainage tube in discovered it was two joined together, they had to push the drainage tube through the tissue into the second one, George was awake the whole time and becuase it was an abscess it wouldn't freeze, but he never cried or reacted other than to look at the vet. Last year George started throwing up and couldn't keep his food or water down for over 5 days, after admitting him to an emergency clinic we like and an ultrasound and several tests it was determined that he had a stomache condition similar to an ulcer, probably from the prednisone, so he was taken off prednisone and given a prescription medication to control his stomach. Just over a month later we noticed George was having trouble and getting up and down, we took him to our vet who did x-rays, George was diagnosed with Spondylosis, he was placed on NASIDS, unfortunatley they didn't react well with his stomache problems, so he was put back on predinose. In June George tore his cruciate in his knee which required surgery and a long recovery. And now we're here...

So thats our story, my beatiful baby is sick again and I'm scared.

[frijole]

Hi Cyndy. I'm so glad you found us - your George is obviously loved and I hope we can help you out!

First off, I approved this post so others could see and quickly respond. You should have received an email notification from us... once you respond to it you should be able to immediately view your posts.

I have never dealt with Calcinosis Cutis but we have a lot of members who have. It comes on as a result of cushing's and normally when you treat the cushing's it will go away. It takes a while but it does get better.

That said it could be that the cushings has been caused by the use of prednisone. Most cush dogs have tiny tumors that cause the cushings. Dogs that have been on prednisone for a very long time have a different type of cushings called Iatrogenic Cushing's. It is simple to cure - you gradually wean the dog off of prednisone and other steroids and the cushing's goes away.

Obviously your boy was given these drugs for a reason so we must ask... what drugs is he on now - list them all. also explain why he is taking them. We want to make sure we don't over look anything

Hang in there. In the meantime perhaps some that have dealt with this can offer some short term relief ideas for his skin. Hugs to George, Kim

[Cyn68]

Thank you for approving it so quick, yes George is very loved by any and all that meet him, but mostly by me. :)

George has been weened off the prednisone, but he has not shown the improvement that he should now that he is off it. The cushings has affected him in other ways, the pot belly has mostly gone, however the muscle loss and weakness have not improved, and the lethargy has remained as well. Our vet is a specialist who has seen and treats a lot of dogs with cushings, and has written a few articles on it, and even she is unsure of his prognosis due to how severe his flare up and how poor his improvement has been. We are not sure yet if it is Iatrogenic Cushing's or another form of cushings.

They believe George's cushings is due to chronic and long term prednisone use, and yes his Calcinosis is most likely a result of the cushings, but the specialist has warned me that its going to be a long hard road to get it under control, if we can at all, his Calcinosis is rather severe and she has warned me that its unusual in how far it has gone, George has it all over his body, not one part has gone untouched by it and he has lost more than 70 % of his hair due to the sores and now the scaly skin.

We go for an ultrasound and ACTH testing on the 28th of February, then our vet will determine what medication, if any, George can take, his last blood test showed that his liver values were extremely high, which is another issue we are facing, some of the meds they use to treat cushings cannot be administred with the values showing currently in his blood work, so we have to have more blood work done and an ultrasound of his liver done on the 28th as well. If his tests come back good they will start the medication/treatments for cushings.

At the moment George is taking Atopica (3x100mg once a day) for his allergies, chlorpheniramine (30 mg every 4 hours) for his allergies, Ultram (100mg every 8 hours) for his spondylosis, and Clindamycin (600mg once daily for the last 5 weeks, one week to go) for the skin ulcers and infection that came as a result of the cushings and calcinosis, we also bathe him with Canadian Medicated Shampoo (we were using another medicated shampoo and bathing him every 3 days but he was getting very red and a rash so it had to be changed) and use ResiChlor leave in conditioner once a week, followed by a topical gel they prescribed for the calcinosis. I also home cook for George to control his diet as they believe he has several food allergies and may be allergic to preservatives, so currently he only gets pork, quinoa and veggies or fruit.

Again thank you, for the hugs and the suppport, our vet gave me this link among others and I am truly glad she did.

Cyndy & George

[Cyn68]

Sorry Kim I also forgot to mention that George was also drinking lots of water (now he's drinking less than 5 cups a day, and we're not sure why), panting even now when its winter time and cold, and eats like there is a food shortage or he's starved (trust me he's not :o )

[mytil]

Hi and welcome from me too. I am sorry your boy is having all these troubles, but I do believe he landed in the most wonderful home with the love and care he is getting.

Now, we have quite a few who are dealing with Calcinosis and will drop in soon I am sure.

So he had been on prednisone since he was about 7 mos old with only a short break due to his stomach conditions right? Kim has already mentioned iatrogenic Cushing's.

What were the results of the tests performed - LDDS, ACTH? If so, was he taking prednisone during this time?

Keep us posted and I would love to see a photo of him.
Terry

[goldengirl88]

Cyndy and George:
Just wanted to welcome you two, and encourage you to hang in there. The tale of Cushings has many twists and turns. I love the Pyrenees breed they are beautiful. I hope you are able to get George's situation stabilized soon. God Bless you both.

[Sabre's Mum]

Welcome Cyndy and George,

I just wanted to post quickly to say hi to you both .... I have a busy morning planned and will be back later. Our Hungarian Vizsla Sabre had calcinosis cutis and may be able to share my experiences. Will post again later.

Angela

[molly muffin]

Hi and welcome from me too. Oh poor Geoge, that calicinosis cutis can be such a horrid thing to try to get under control. The best thing that I have heard is to get the cortisol at a very stable level and keep them there. It does take awhile to clear up and some of the others like Angela can tell you of their experience with it.
Welcome to the group! I'm glad you found us. :)

Sharlene and Molly Muffin

[Sabre's Mum]

Hi Cyndy

Sorry I didn't get back to yesterday it turned out to be busy all day!

Along with Sabre, who has now passed on, we also own Flynn .... who is in remission but was diagnosed at 6 months with SRMA (meningitis) and IMHA(immune mediated hemolytic anemia). He was on high doses of prednisone for a period and also had a stomach bleed (caused by stomach ulcers from the prednisone) ... the vet put him on a course of carafate ... not cheap but sorted it out. Most vets don't do it but it is recommended to give a stomach protectant along with prednisone if it is on the higher doses and for a long duration. After the bleed the vet finally allowed us to use zantac.

Sorry I have gone off on a little tangent ... I just read that George is off the prednisone but I thought I would just leave the above so that it might be useful in the future.

So ... how long was George on prednisone and how long has George been off the prednisone? From my experience and research the calcinosis cutis generally will only get better if the cortisol levels are brought down from the high level. It may be that George may have iatrogenic cushings or it may be that George now has cushings. The only way to tell is through tests ... good luck on the 28th :).

It seems to me that you are on the ball with trying to "manage" the calcinosis cutis. We found that the medicated shampoos were too harsh and changed to an oatmeal shampoo which was left on for 5 minutes but we found that didn't really work. I found that DSMO was recommended but we were not able to source this in NZ. A note on this I understand that you should only use this on a certain percentage of total skin cover so would be careful with George. We used antibiotics pro-actively ... as soon as infections arose ... to try to get on top of it quickly. Epiotic to scuff off "stuff". Betadine to "dry" up the areas ... but not on broken skin.

If you have any further queries ... please ask away.

Angela and Flynn