Charlie

[Charliek9]

Hello...I am hoping someone can tell me all is well. Charlie is a toy fox terrier that up until about 4 months ago was a totally over active ball playing healthy dog. Charlie is 8 years old and has been diagnosed with Cushings. He has been taking Vetoryl for 3 weeks. The first 2 weeks he was on 10 MG and after the followup testing his dosage was increased to 20 mg. His weight is 11 pounds and he is neutered. It just seems like the water drinking and urination is not getting better. His liver is oversized and has not seemed to decrease. The vet told me it would take a couple months for this to improve. He is also on Denamarin and Prescription I/d Heptic Health can food. It is another week before he gets tested again to make sure the dosage of the Vetoryl is correct. My question is....shouldn't the water drinking and urination get better. The poor thing will sleep and have small amounts of urine leaking. When he walks sometimes he looses urine.

[Roxee's Dad]

Hi and welcome to you and Charlie, :)

It would be a big help if you could post the results of his most recent ACTH test. Their should have been one performed before the dosage was increased. In my experience, most times the excessive urination and excessive thirst seem to dissipate within about 10 days given the proper dosage.

Has Charlie been tested for diabetes? Once again, welcome, their will be many others to stop by and welcome you and help you and Charlie get through this.

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[frijole]

Sorry you haven't seen major changes yet. How much water is Charlie drinking a day? Normal consumption should be around 11 ozs per day for an 11 lb dog. (about 1 1/2 cups) If you haven't please measure it so you can watch for changes even if small.

Caution re increasing dose - we have noticed that dogs might start off slowly but over time the dosage kicks in and so you need to be careful not to increase too much too soon. Your original dose was the recommended starting dose. You start low and you tweak as needed.

It is helpful if we have test results and the back story on Charlie so we have the big picture - please share! Also if they didn't tell you - don't withhold water. The water isn't making him pee - it's the reverse. Cushings causes the kidneys to go into overdrive and in doing so he is peeing more and he needs the water to replenish it. Weird I know.

Kim

[Charliek9]

Thank you. The vet increased dosage after the first STIM test showed that his cortisone levels were still elevated. Good idea to measure water intake...I make sure he has plenty of water no matter how much he drinks. He can't go more than 2 hours without urination which seems to be getting worse. Other than the urination he seems to be gradually getting better. We are seeing some of his personality coming back...like wagging his tail again and trying to run after squirrels...even though he can't run. We get up during the night and it seems he drinks as much as he urinates. Just want him to get better. Xrays were done that showed his enlarged liver so additional blood work was completed. I don't have his cortisone levels but his first Catalyst DX test was:
ALT 744
ALKP 759
GGT 51
LIPA 2907

after the first test the vet put him on the special liver food and meds. The following test after a month had the following results:
ALT 820
ALKP 2000

That is when we ran the Cushing test and his cortisone was very high. When it was run 2 weeks later the first reading was normal but the second reading was high...that is when they increased the Vetoryl dosage to 20. That was about 8 days ago.

Just thought I would see more improvement on the water/urination side of things. Just seems to be taking so long since we spent over a month before he was diagnosed with Cushings. He is our baby and it has happened so quickly it seems like I had a young dog that now is an old man. So sad

[Charliek9]

Charlie has not been tested to diabetes because the thinking is it is Cushings because of the high cortisone levels.

[molly muffin]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
If there ever a full blood panel run on him, there would have been a glucose result in that too. If it was high, then you'd know that would be something that needs to be looked at, if it was within normal range, then doubtful that is is diabetes. With thyroid if there was a T4 result then that would tell you if that might be something to be looked at.
The problem is that several things can have the same symptoms as cushings. Then to make it even more confusing, if anything else is going on, it would cause the cortisol levels to rise. Nothing like making a diagnosis difficult right. :)
However, if it is indeed cushings, every dog is different and finding that perfect dose for Charlie can take some tweaking. Since every dog has their own unique interaction with the drugs, while we have the general guidelines, there is nothing to say that Charlie read the play book. As his cortisol levels come down (and Kim mentioned that they can continue to drop even past the initial 30 days), then you should see a difference in the drinking/peeing, eating.

Again, welcome to the forum,
Sharlene and Molly Muffin