joannayeo
03-26-2013, 04:17 AM
Hi everyone,
I'm so glad I found this support group for cushing dog owners. Everyone seems so helpful (: I've been reading up a lot on this forum and various other sites I can find on the internet with regards to care and treatment for cushing dogs. Here's our story:
My 10.5 year old miniature poodle (male, still intact) got diagnosed with pituitary-dependent cushing's and chronic kidney failure (previous vet says it's around stage 3. Current senior vet says it's quite mild, probably early stage 3?) about 2+ weeks ago. But both vets are pretty sure it's cushings. We've done LDDS, ACTH, blood & urine test and even an ultrasound scan.
Unlike normal cushings dogs that have an enormous appetite, he is not so keen on food :/ He's naturally picky too. Hills K/d diet and royal canin's renal diet are not to his liking. We simply cant get him to eat them after MANY tries. We've decided to get a homemade recipe from BalanceIT. He responds to that quite a bit except for the rice and canine K supplement. I guess the taste is not really to his liking :( So, to add carbs and add calories, we used cabbage (steamed w/o salt), sweet potato, potato, raw honey, pears and apples. -> these are foods that we manage to get him eating and are relatively low in phosphorous.
He tried trilostane (vetoryl) 10mg, once a day for 5 days last week but got taken off after he started losing appetite since day 3/4 and vomited on e 5th night. Blood test showed his kidneys worsen and he's also having a bit of problems with his liver. Vet told us to put him on iv fluids for a week or so before starting on trilostane 10mg again. He lost 0.7kg already and is 6.5kg now.
I'm afraid that the same might happen again so I decided to switch vet to get another opinion.The current one is more senior and has got quite a bit of experience with Cushing's dogs. He advises us bring him home and get him in a better shape (I.e eat more, increase weight) before deciding on what to do next. He is doing well now with eating (: He said one possibility would be to start trilostane at an even lower dose (break e pill. He knows that by right the pill shouldnt be broken but I think his lab can fix that for us). In desperation,I've even bought cushex drops (from Petalive, native remedies) online and am waiting for the shipment to arrive.
I ran into an owner of a cushing dog at the vet's who has tried cushex for 1.5 months. Her dog, a 9 year old papillon is reacting well to cushex and won't be needing to start on trilostane. I'm very tempted to consider using cushex to avoid the complications that we experienced with his kidneys on the first try :( We don't have lysodren in Singapore and will have to ship it in if we decide to use it.
Any suggestions for treatment, diet, how to increase his water consumption (im giving him more fruits [apples & pears] and veg [cabbage] to increase his water intake) and the use of cushex drops? Sorry for the super long post. I'm really worried about my dog and hope that you guys can help me out. I'm praying alot for him to get better too. Thank you so much in advance! (:
Other problems:
1. A bit of liver problems - Vet gave us hepavite
2. 3 lumps on his body (current vet suspects it's abscess). Size range from ~2cm to 4 cm in diameter
3. Frequent bruisings on body that comes and goes (takes a while though). I'm not sure why they are gone.
4. Hind leg weakness. He's got a bit of problems getting up from the floor (perhaps our granite and parquet flooring is a bit too slippery for him?). He could lay on the floor for hours if im not at home to pick him up. He gets aggressive when my mom or dad tries to carry him up. When he starts to cry/ bark, we know that he needs to poop or pee. Since then, we've bought quite a few rugs for him to walk/ rest on. It gives him better grip and he's able to walk and stand better on them. I'm also keeping him in my room where I have covered the floors with these rugs, mats and mattress. If he's goes out of my room, he'll start walking ALOT and end up slipping and fallling. He gets a bit aggressive when we try to help him up :( Now he's spending more time resting in bed.
5. Drinking less water (since 2 days ago). Could it due to inactivity thus less need for water? I'm trying to increase his water intake by giving him fruits (apples and pears. sometimes asian pears). I guess water content in cabbages might help to supplement too?
6. Panting quite a but in his sleep. Not too heavily though.
Medications he is on now;
1. Hepavite- once a day
2. Curam antibiotics- 1.33ml, twice a day
3. Phospate binder - half tab, once a day
4. Ranitidine- 1ml, twice daily. But we're giving him once daily since vet says it's optional
Diet:
1. Cabbage- he loves and eats quite a lot of this
2.Roasted chicken breast meat. Portions according to BalanceIT's recipe
3. White rice- he eats very little of this
3. Sweet potato
4. Raw honey- 3/4 to 1.5 teaspoons a day
5. Occasional- pears, apples
I'm so glad I found this support group for cushing dog owners. Everyone seems so helpful (: I've been reading up a lot on this forum and various other sites I can find on the internet with regards to care and treatment for cushing dogs. Here's our story:
My 10.5 year old miniature poodle (male, still intact) got diagnosed with pituitary-dependent cushing's and chronic kidney failure (previous vet says it's around stage 3. Current senior vet says it's quite mild, probably early stage 3?) about 2+ weeks ago. But both vets are pretty sure it's cushings. We've done LDDS, ACTH, blood & urine test and even an ultrasound scan.
Unlike normal cushings dogs that have an enormous appetite, he is not so keen on food :/ He's naturally picky too. Hills K/d diet and royal canin's renal diet are not to his liking. We simply cant get him to eat them after MANY tries. We've decided to get a homemade recipe from BalanceIT. He responds to that quite a bit except for the rice and canine K supplement. I guess the taste is not really to his liking :( So, to add carbs and add calories, we used cabbage (steamed w/o salt), sweet potato, potato, raw honey, pears and apples. -> these are foods that we manage to get him eating and are relatively low in phosphorous.
He tried trilostane (vetoryl) 10mg, once a day for 5 days last week but got taken off after he started losing appetite since day 3/4 and vomited on e 5th night. Blood test showed his kidneys worsen and he's also having a bit of problems with his liver. Vet told us to put him on iv fluids for a week or so before starting on trilostane 10mg again. He lost 0.7kg already and is 6.5kg now.
I'm afraid that the same might happen again so I decided to switch vet to get another opinion.The current one is more senior and has got quite a bit of experience with Cushing's dogs. He advises us bring him home and get him in a better shape (I.e eat more, increase weight) before deciding on what to do next. He is doing well now with eating (: He said one possibility would be to start trilostane at an even lower dose (break e pill. He knows that by right the pill shouldnt be broken but I think his lab can fix that for us). In desperation,I've even bought cushex drops (from Petalive, native remedies) online and am waiting for the shipment to arrive.
I ran into an owner of a cushing dog at the vet's who has tried cushex for 1.5 months. Her dog, a 9 year old papillon is reacting well to cushex and won't be needing to start on trilostane. I'm very tempted to consider using cushex to avoid the complications that we experienced with his kidneys on the first try :( We don't have lysodren in Singapore and will have to ship it in if we decide to use it.
Any suggestions for treatment, diet, how to increase his water consumption (im giving him more fruits [apples & pears] and veg [cabbage] to increase his water intake) and the use of cushex drops? Sorry for the super long post. I'm really worried about my dog and hope that you guys can help me out. I'm praying alot for him to get better too. Thank you so much in advance! (:
Other problems:
1. A bit of liver problems - Vet gave us hepavite
2. 3 lumps on his body (current vet suspects it's abscess). Size range from ~2cm to 4 cm in diameter
3. Frequent bruisings on body that comes and goes (takes a while though). I'm not sure why they are gone.
4. Hind leg weakness. He's got a bit of problems getting up from the floor (perhaps our granite and parquet flooring is a bit too slippery for him?). He could lay on the floor for hours if im not at home to pick him up. He gets aggressive when my mom or dad tries to carry him up. When he starts to cry/ bark, we know that he needs to poop or pee. Since then, we've bought quite a few rugs for him to walk/ rest on. It gives him better grip and he's able to walk and stand better on them. I'm also keeping him in my room where I have covered the floors with these rugs, mats and mattress. If he's goes out of my room, he'll start walking ALOT and end up slipping and fallling. He gets a bit aggressive when we try to help him up :( Now he's spending more time resting in bed.
5. Drinking less water (since 2 days ago). Could it due to inactivity thus less need for water? I'm trying to increase his water intake by giving him fruits (apples and pears. sometimes asian pears). I guess water content in cabbages might help to supplement too?
6. Panting quite a but in his sleep. Not too heavily though.
Medications he is on now;
1. Hepavite- once a day
2. Curam antibiotics- 1.33ml, twice a day
3. Phospate binder - half tab, once a day
4. Ranitidine- 1ml, twice daily. But we're giving him once daily since vet says it's optional
Diet:
1. Cabbage- he loves and eats quite a lot of this
2.Roasted chicken breast meat. Portions according to BalanceIT's recipe
3. White rice- he eats very little of this
3. Sweet potato
4. Raw honey- 3/4 to 1.5 teaspoons a day
5. Occasional- pears, apples