hounddomain
07-24-2013, 11:29 AM
Hi :)
This forum has some great info on it and so I thought I'd register and share our story - so far.
Our dog is Coco (about 7 years old) and around 2 weeks ago we noticed very unusual and sudden behavioural change...walking in circles, bumping into furniture and generally lethargic. My first thought was that she had a stroke, but our vet ran a blood sugar test and returned a result of above 30, confirming diabetes. We were given insulin at the amount of 2 units twice a day. We were told 2 units twice a day was an intermediate dose...Coco weighs around 5 kgs (but nearly 7 previously).
A week later we returned to a blood glucose curve test done and the results showed 27. The vet told us that we needed further blood work done, but that either a natural resistance to insulin was possible or another (as yet) undiagnosed problem. They ran a dex test and returned a positive result for Cushings.
We were told that managing both is very complicated and asked if we wanted to proceed with treatment. We were offered trilostane or another drug (name I can't remember which was a chemo drug). We elected for trilostane and began that today. We were told that there is a small side effect risk of sudden fatality with trilostane due to complete adrenal failure...so we are watching closely. The vet believes that the cushings is of the pituary gland variety - that wasn't very well explained, so not sure what help that info is.
To add further complication, Coco has cataracts which we think appeared very suddenly - although our vet assures us it usually happens over a long time. When we first went to the vet with our concerns Coco had had a general check up and vaccination about 6 weeks earlier. Between the check up and the first visit she had dropped 1.8 kgs (from 6.8 to 5).
The day we began Coco on insulin we noticed a marked improvement in behaviour - for one day only. Then she seemed to dip in behaviour. She is ravenously hungry, incredibly thirsty (I watched her drink two whole bowls of water in 20 mins!), doesn't seem to be able to control her bladder and has quite a lot of diarroeah. I think her skin is more oily than normal and for her breed she doesn't seem to be growing her fur back as quickly as I would have expected. I think her bumping into things is caused by her blindness from cataracts. I am told dogs adapt quickly to blindness so her confusion supports my theory about the cataracts onset being very fast.
I don't have her detailed blood work results, but I will ask our vet for a copy and post them here. The treatment plan is to keep a detailed diary of her food and water intake, along with behavioural observations. Then in around 2 weeks the vet plans to run a further blood test to determine the effectiveness of the trilostane as well as a glucose curve. During this time we'll continue on 2 units of insulin twice a day and one tablet of 30mg trilostane once a day.
Keen to hear others experiences managing both cushings and diabetes along with any comments on our journey so far.
This forum has some great info on it and so I thought I'd register and share our story - so far.
Our dog is Coco (about 7 years old) and around 2 weeks ago we noticed very unusual and sudden behavioural change...walking in circles, bumping into furniture and generally lethargic. My first thought was that she had a stroke, but our vet ran a blood sugar test and returned a result of above 30, confirming diabetes. We were given insulin at the amount of 2 units twice a day. We were told 2 units twice a day was an intermediate dose...Coco weighs around 5 kgs (but nearly 7 previously).
A week later we returned to a blood glucose curve test done and the results showed 27. The vet told us that we needed further blood work done, but that either a natural resistance to insulin was possible or another (as yet) undiagnosed problem. They ran a dex test and returned a positive result for Cushings.
We were told that managing both is very complicated and asked if we wanted to proceed with treatment. We were offered trilostane or another drug (name I can't remember which was a chemo drug). We elected for trilostane and began that today. We were told that there is a small side effect risk of sudden fatality with trilostane due to complete adrenal failure...so we are watching closely. The vet believes that the cushings is of the pituary gland variety - that wasn't very well explained, so not sure what help that info is.
To add further complication, Coco has cataracts which we think appeared very suddenly - although our vet assures us it usually happens over a long time. When we first went to the vet with our concerns Coco had had a general check up and vaccination about 6 weeks earlier. Between the check up and the first visit she had dropped 1.8 kgs (from 6.8 to 5).
The day we began Coco on insulin we noticed a marked improvement in behaviour - for one day only. Then she seemed to dip in behaviour. She is ravenously hungry, incredibly thirsty (I watched her drink two whole bowls of water in 20 mins!), doesn't seem to be able to control her bladder and has quite a lot of diarroeah. I think her skin is more oily than normal and for her breed she doesn't seem to be growing her fur back as quickly as I would have expected. I think her bumping into things is caused by her blindness from cataracts. I am told dogs adapt quickly to blindness so her confusion supports my theory about the cataracts onset being very fast.
I don't have her detailed blood work results, but I will ask our vet for a copy and post them here. The treatment plan is to keep a detailed diary of her food and water intake, along with behavioural observations. Then in around 2 weeks the vet plans to run a further blood test to determine the effectiveness of the trilostane as well as a glucose curve. During this time we'll continue on 2 units of insulin twice a day and one tablet of 30mg trilostane once a day.
Keen to hear others experiences managing both cushings and diabetes along with any comments on our journey so far.