Seizure?

[Boonie Baby Roxy]

Hi Everyone,
I'm new to this site. My mixed breed 10 year old dog was diagnosed with severe cushings disease 7 months ago. She weighs 60 pounds. Initially she was extremely emaciated with a massive liver. (the vet had never seen liver enzymes in the 18,000 range!) We opted to treat with Vetoryl 60mg daily. Roxy responded extremely well! After losing all her hair and severe skin infections she has bounced back to being furrier than ever and in good spirits. Unfortunately, severe hind leg arthritis is really bothering her now. We have her on daily Novox along with her Vetoryl.
This morning prior to getting up she let out an agonizing yelp and then appeared to pass away--not breathing, unable to find her heart beat--but after what felt like several minutes she began to breathe and became responsive although very confused. It was horrible! About 2 hours later she is acting fairly normally now and is going in for a repeat cortisol stress test tomorrow. Does anyone have any advice, anything we should be focusing on? I'm really beside myself with worry. I cannot have her suffer like this for my selfish needs.
Please advise,
Thanks,
Jan

[Woodydog]

Welcome to you and your fur baby. It does sound like some sort of seizure but if it was me I would be saying to the vet before I get the test done. I don't have a Cush pup so no doubt more knowledgable people will be along soon

[Boonie Baby Roxy]

Thank you! I did relay all this to her vet which is why we're repeating the test as well as doing electrolytes and liver enzymes again. The vet felt it sounded more like a vascular type injury although she was surprised that she recovered so readily. Usually vascular blockage or such has lingering symptoms she thought. Just reaching out to see if anyone had experienced this and what were the outcomes.

[frijole]

Do you know what type of cushings your dog has (pituitary vs adrenal)? Did they check out the heart? How is the blood pressure? Keep us posted - no doubt that was scary! Kim

[Boonie Baby Roxy]

Vet thinks she's pituitary. While her adrenals were enlarged, her liver was so large it was difficult to see them very clearly. She seems to have recovered from this morning quite well. I am anxious to do the cortisol test tomorrow to see if she's in the right dosage range. I was wrong when I said she was on 60 mg. We give her 2 (60mg) capsules each day. I'm happy to have found dog people who are going through the same thing!

[doxiesrock912]

Definitely sounds like a seizure. Please let the vet know.

[Dawn Anderson]

Hello Kim, so sorry about your baby, but you have come to the right place for support and advice. My girl was diag with cush this month, did the MRI & cat scan, she has PDH and is under going radiation treatment at UC Davis VMTH here in California.
The family here at K9 are very knowledgeable and have been through so much them self's, as a collective they are amazing.
They will ask for lab readings, that will help them get a better picture of what is going on.
So the more info you can provided the better. Have you asks your vet about doing a CS so that you know for sure that it is not the pituitary and that nothing else is going on in or with her brain?

Everyone is here to help

Dawn & Miss Buttercup

[Junior's Mom]

Welcome to the forum. How scary for both of you to have that happen. I hope the vet can figure it out, and your poor pup gets better quick.
You mention a massive liver-have you been giving any supplements to help the liver as well?
Is your dog on 60mg twice a day, or 120mg once a day? 120mg would be a very large dose. Have you been getting regular acth tests done?

Tracey

[Boonie Baby Roxy]

I definitely feel the support! Thank you all!!
We've been doing the ACTH stress tests and her last one in September was perfect level. We were going to move to every 3 months (due in december) but are going to repeat it now. I think that the 120mg daily dose may be a little much for her.
I'm happy to say she's had a very good remainder of the day. :)

[Boonie Baby Roxy]

Forgot to respond that we have her on the Hill's Prescription Mobility diet for the arthritis that got worse once we had her cortisol levels under control. It seems to be helping. Anyone have any other suggestions?

[doxiesrock912]

Our Daisy gets glucosamine chondroitin with MSM every morning. It comes as a small disk that can be broken if half. This is good for joints and may also help.

She has arthritis in her hinds legs and I can tell when she's missed a dose, it definitely helps.

[goldengirl88]

Welcome to the forum. Could you please post how long your dog has been on Vetoryl? How much does your dog weigh? The correct dosage amount you are giving every day? Also what were the tests you had done on your dog to determine Cushings? Would you post the abnormal results of those tests and what that particular lab says are normal results as all are different. What are the symptoms that you dog was showing? I think you need to start there and clarify these things to make sure your dog should be on this drug, and to make sure your dog is on the right dosage of the drug if in fact your dog does have Cushings. I would hold off on any more Vetoryl if it were me, until you establish these factors. You dog could be on too high of a dosage of this drug, and his cortisol may be going too low. If you give more Vetoryl it could cause your dog to go into Addisons. Please post all these results so you can get the proper help for your dog from everyone on here. Blessings
Patti

[labblab]

Thank you! I did relay all this to her vet which is why we're repeating the test as well as doing electrolytes and liver enzymes again. The vet felt it sounded more like a vascular type injury although she was surprised that she recovered so readily. Usually vascular blockage or such has lingering symptoms she thought. Just reaching out to see if anyone had experienced this and what were the outcomes.
I most definitely am not a neurological expert :o, but from the little bit I have read on my own (my dog has a seizure disorder), I agree with your vet that this sounds more like a stroke than it does a seizure. It has been suggested that Cushpups may be more vulnerable to issues with blood clots, so perhaps a clot was indeed involved in some way.

It also does not sound like low cortisol to me, so I will be surprised if the ACTH shows a problem. If anything, it might be transiently elevated as a result of this episode?

I'm guessing the best diagnostic right now would be imaging of the head, but that it is an expensive undertaking. Hopefully this was a one-time event, never to be repeated! But in the meantime, we are very glad that you've joined our family and hope you will share more details about your girl's journey.

Marianne

[addy]

That has to have been very scary. My daughyer had a seizure when she was 2 years old, I thought she had died in my arms. It was from a high fever.

Any lab tests you can post here would be great, especially any ACTH tests.

I am so glad you found us.