Pre Cushings Diagnose with blood work results

[Dalton tiny sheltie]

Dalton shows every sign of Cushings except for the pot belly. His most noticeable symptom is thinning of body fur and a lack of any hind end fur. His skin is flaky with brown markings but it is not CC. He is loosing the richness of color in his face. He is 10lbs, 10" tall and 7 yrs old Sheltie.

Dalton's blood work results are -

Free T4 is over 100 (range is low 8 with high 40)
T4 - 0.9 (range is low 0.8 to 3.5) Dalton's
Triglycerides - 1,460 (range is low 29 with high 291)

I'm to drop off a urine sample tomorrow morning. Can someone shed some light on these numbers?

[littleone1]

Hi and welcome to both of you.

Thyroid problems often mimic cushings disease. Since the thyroid numbers are not in range, you might want to consider having a full thyroid panel done, a UCCR, and an ACTH stim test, which would help in diagnosing what is actually going on.

Corky had both of these issues.

I hope you find a solution that helps resolve these issues.

[goldengirl88]

Welcome to you, so glad you found this forum. Cushings is a disease that is hard to diagnose. There are other diseases with similar symptoms. It takes several test to confirm Cushings such as LDDS, Urine, ACTH, Blood, Ultra Sound. Has your dog had any of these tests? If so could you post the abnormal results along with the reference guide from the lab as to that they consider normal as all are different. I know you listed some signs your dog was exhibiting, are there any more things you have noticed. If you dog is consuming large amounts of water you will want to start measuring those. There are so similar symptoms in diabetes, and thyroid disease so you need to have your dog checked out by someone that knows that they are doing. If it does end up being Cushings it is manageable and they can have a good quality of life. The most important factor in all this is for you to get up to speed on these diseases. You are the only advocate for your dog. Please do not put blind faith in anyone, even your vet. You must stay vigilant in order to help your baby. The more you know the better off your dog is. We are all here to help and guide you so please do not hesitate to ask questions as there are no stupid questions. We all walk the same path together with this. Blessings
Patti