My dog was just diagnosed with cushings.

[tom_c]

Hi all. I have an 8 year old pit bull/lab mix we call Fuselli. He was just diagnosed with Cushings after a series of blood and urine tests. I just want to know what to expect. Will my dog be okay with treatment? I don't want to have to worry that I'll only have a little more time with him. I don't want to lose him sooner than normally expected.

[goldengirl88]

Tom:
Welcome to you and your baby.
Just know Cushing's is not an automatic death sentence. Many dogs with vigilant owners can live out their natural lives. There is no cure, but you can manage this disease with either trilostane or lysodren. All of us are scared when we come here, and this is all new stuff to take in.Read all you can on here and really educate yourself, as you are the only advocate for your dog. With that said, we are going to want to see the tests done, and the abnormal numbers, along with the scale for normals given by the lab, as they are all different. We can better understand what is going on with your dog and help you after seeing them. Keep copies of all tests, keep a daily journal on your dog for reference.
Use a vet that is experienced in this disease, but never put blind faith in anyone. If you use trilostane start very conservatively, this will lessen the chance of any problems. No matter who tells you to start at a dose higher than 1mg per pound, do not do it!!! We are here to help and support you through this journey. Please give us a little history on your dog. Any illnesses, weight, have you had a thyroid and/or diabetes test on you dog? What symptoms was your dog having? Were there any other issues going on when your dog was tested for Cushing's? Sorry for all the questions, but it is necessary.
Blessings
Patti

[StarDeb55]

Welcome to you & your pup! I certainly hope that you haven't seen or heard the old story of "2 year survival" even with treatment. It's absolutely hogwash. I have taken care of 2 cushpups, using lysodren with both of them. My first boy was diagnosed at about 7 or so, survived 8 years with an excellent quality of life. He passed 15 due causes unrelated to his cushing's. My second boy was diagnosed at 13, so he was a little senior gentleman to begin with. He had been under treatment with lysodren for 2 1/2 years, & Cushing's wise was doing very well. He did pass at 15 1/2 due to causes unrelated to the Cushing's.

As Patti has already mentioned about getting copies of all the labwork to keep, it would also help us a lot if you wouldn't mind posting the results. On general lab work such as blood chemistry, we only need the abnormals, along with the reporting units, & normal ranges. Any of the Cushing's diagnostics, we will need the reporting units & normal ranges. On most Cushing's testing, there will be more than one result, depending on the test. Normally, there will be a baseline value, 4 hour draw, & an 8 hour draw, if a low dose dexamethasone test was done. If the test was an ACTH, there will be only 2 results.

If you could give a little more history about your pup, including what symptoms you were seeing that led you to go to the vet. Does your pup have any other health issues or is taking any other medication or supplements? We usually ask for all of this information as it helps us to give you the best feedback we can.

Debbie

[Trixie]

My dog was diagnosed a year ago at age 9. She had all the common symptoms, excessive drinking, hunger, panting..
We started on a low dose or Vetoryl (Trilostane) and worked for months adjusted the dose. After 5 months or so my dogs outward symptoms were controlled but she still had very high liver enzyme numbers. Good news is a year later she's doing well and pretty much a normal dog...very active and doing everything she did before the diagnosis.
Patti's advice is really good--a vet experienced in treating Cushings and conservative dosing of the medication are both important factors in successfully treating the dog. Hoping Fuselli will be feeling well soon!

Barbara

[LauraA]

Hi Tom and Fuselli :) It is scary to start with and it can take some time and tweaking of the meds to get the symptoms under control. You will find that there are Fantastic people here with lots of tips and advice, and great for a friendly ear when you just need a bit of support.

My girl has been on Vetoryl for 5-6 months now and is going great. It took about a month for her symptoms to start subsiding and we have only just got a great result for the protein in her urine. The first couple of weeks on the meds were the most stressful as we had to look out for signs that she had gone too low, after that and the first lot of testing since starting the meds, I was able to relax a bit more. A great vet can make all the difference in my opinion :)

[tom_c]

Yes he was tested for diabetes and it came back negative. I'll have to ask my vet for all of his test records. My dog weighs about 74 pounds and our vet recommends trilostane 30mg once a day. We ordered a one month supply from our vet and we are waiting on it. (Fuselli was just diagnosed yesterday). He never had any health problems, he is a very solid energetic dog. Everyone who sees him can't believe how old he is. He still outruns all the younger dogs! The only symptoms Fuselli has is the excessive drinking and urination. He's had this for about a month now and was recently treated with antibiotics for a bad urinary tract infection caused from the cushings. When I go to pick up his meds I'll ask for a copy of his lab results. Also, thank you so much for making me feel more comfortable about this disease. When your dog has never had a medical issue and all of a sudden he's diagnosed with a disease, its very scary. So I thank you all for that.

[Renee]

if the only symptom is peeing & drinking, and he had a very bad UTI - then it is very possible that the cushings diagnosis is incorrect.

A UTI can skew the results of an ACTH or LDDS, causing a false positive.

Symptoms are just as important as test results when it comes to a proper diagnosis of cushings, so I would question if he really has cushings or not. Especially when the symptoms have only been the last month.

When you treated with abx, did you have the urine sent out for a culture & sensitivity? Using the wrong abx will not cure the UTI and without that culture & sensitivity, you may have used the wrong abx.

[molly muffin]

I agree with Renee, cushings usually comes on slowly, over time. If there was a bad UTI, it might not be cleared up entirely, I'd do the culture and sensitivity to check.

You can start cushing meds at any time, but you can't take them back, so always better to be sure. ACTH can be high if a UTI is or has been recently in play. That would invalidate the test for cushings on both it and the UC:CR.

Sharlene and molly muffin

[tom_c]

Hi there, My 8 year old pit/lab Fuselli was diagnosed with cushings about 6 months ago. He weighed about 76 pounds give or take and was put onto 30 mg Vetroyl. The 30mg wasn't quite doing it was the vet upped his does by 10mg. We were giving him 30mg pill plus 10mg pill. After a few weeks the transformation Fuselli had was quite amazing. He looked like a puppy again. Running around, drinking normally, not snarling for food he looked great. He had lost a lot of weight too he looks way more thin and 5 years younger. My question is, I would say he easily lost 5-10 pounds estimate. Whats your opinion on possibly lowering his dose back to 30 milligrams? I called my vet and we are having one of those tests( the blood taken even 2 hours or so I forgot the name) done this weekend. But I want to hear some opinions from you guys as well. I wouldn't want to be slowly overdosing him and I wouldn't want to underdose and have him go back to his heavy, sick self.

[Harley PoMMom]

Hi, As you can see I've merged your last post into Fuselli's original thread so all information regarding Fuselli is in one place which makes it easier for us to reflect back on his history.


How does Fuselli seem to be feeling? Is he acting his normal self? I believe if everything seems to be good that I would wait until his ACTH stim test is done and adjust his medication according to those results along with how is he behaving, meaning no adverse effects.

Hugs, Lori

[tom_c]

He is acting great! Runs around, plays, loves getting his back scratched, runs back and forth in the house for fun and all of those great things. Haha. Only thing is my mother measured his water intake the other day and it was only 2 and a half cups. Now, shes measuring it again today (i normally would be but Im at college) it could have just been that day where he wasnt feeling as thirsty? Could that be anything bad?

[tom_c]

My mother thinks that since the pills slowed down the increased drinking and excessive urination she thinks we are giving him too much to where hes not drinking as much. Im not sure if thats how those pills work. Shes scheduling his test with the vet today.

[Squirt's Mom]

The 30mg wasn't quite doing it was the vet upped his does by 10mg. We were giving him 30mg pill plus 10mg pill.

Was an ACTH (the 2 hour test) performed before making this dose change? If so, please post the results of that test.

How many ACTHs has he had since starting treatment? There should have been several over the 6 month period. Would you please post the results from those tests as well.

A decrease in drinking is what you want to see - that indicated the drug is working. The normal amount of water for a dog to drink is 1oz per lb or 1 cup per 10 lbs.

[labblab]

Yes, a decrease in thirst and urination is exactly what you are hoping to see by giving the drug. If Fuselli is otherwise behaving normally with plenty of energy, then I wouldn't worry even if he is drinking less water than the typical normal range. Depending on what type of food they are eating, for instance, dogs can get moisture from sources other than just their water bowl. My 80-pound Lab doesn't have Cushing's and has never been treated for it, but she drinks far less than 8 cups of water each day from her bowl.

The ACTH test will be an excellent indicator as to whether or not the dose needs to be changed. If you have been giving Fuselli 40 mg. up to now, definitely don't switch back to 30 mg. now, right before the test. You want to make sure the test is accurately measuring the effect the 40 mg. is having on his cortisol level.

Marianne

[tom_c]

Okay, Fuselli had the ACTH test yesterday afternoon. The vet had called us up today saying to stop giving Fuselli his 40 mg a day. He said "we pushed him too far the other way" and wants to test his electrolytes and do some blood work. Has this happened to anybody? What are your thoughts? I don't like having to hear there is something else wrong with my dog, it honestly scares the heck out of me and its constantly on my mind.

[molly muffin]

Did the vet tell you what the numbers are? If so you can you let us know please.

The numbers are very important when it comes to knowing how they are reacting to the medication.

Push too far, means that to high of a dosage was given to him and now his cortisol is too low. That the vet wants to check his electrolytes makes me think that it has gone Very low which can be very dangerous. If the electrolytes are good, then that is good news, so you want those checked immediately.

How is he Fuselli behaving? No more vetroyl should be given until, symptoms return and an ACTH confirms that his cortisol is again going up.

[tom_c]

He is acting amazing. My vet is absolutely stunned by the condition of my dog. He has never been through such a confusing diagnosis. He has other dogs in the same condition going the other way and are very sickly and is shocked on how well my dog is behaving. Its as if he was 5 years younger. My vet believes the electrolyte test will be fine (we are scheduled for tomorrow night at 7:30). But if it is low he said he may have to be given cortisol until he goes back to normal and then he said that over time we will start him again on the vetroyl but this time at a much lower dose.

I will ask for those numbers tomorrow night when we go for this blood test.