Lexi - 8 Year Old Samoyed - Possible Cushing's

[Lexi's Human]

Lexi, my 8 year old Samoyed, female, possibly has cushing's. Symptoms began last month with her showing some incontinence. She received a hormone shot for it on 06/27/2014. At the same time she received the injection she was being given a 5 day course of antibiotics that she receives every 6 weeks to prevent bladder stones. Her incontinence improved until 07/06/2014 when it came back. She also began drinking a lot of water. Previous to this I had not observed her drinking more than normal. A urine test on 07/07/2014 showed that she had dilute urine with a specific gravity of 1.005. A blood panel was run at the same time and the results were normal. On 07/08/2014 a Dex suppression test was run. The 1st blood sample was 3.3 ug /d/, the 2nd sample (8 hours later) was 1.2 ug /d/ which my vet says is perfectly normal. My vet, who is an excellent diagnostician, thinks that there is a possibility that it is too early in the progression of the cushing's to be diagnosed via the Dex test. Lexi is in excellent health other than the symptoms that I have listed. Her energy levels are good and she is behaving normally. One symptom that is contra indicative of cushing's is her food intake. She has never been food oriented and frequently would skip breakfast. She has now quit eating breakfast entirely. She is still eating supper and her daily treats. Does anyone have any ideas or input about the situation? My vet and I decided to give her a 10 day course of the antibiotic cipro in the hopes that it might help since she seemed to improve when she was taking the antibiotics for the bladder stone prevention. This was started 07/10/2014. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!! Lexi is my 24/7 companion and I feel virtually helpless at this point in time!!

[Harley PoMMom]

Hi and welcome to you and Lexi!

Although one of my furbabies was prone to oxalate stones antibiotics were never mentioned as a preventative measure for them. Has Lexi's stones been analyzed to find out their formation? Struvite stones can be caused by urinary tract infections due to bacteria that produce certain enzymes. Was Lexi ever checked for an UTI (urinary tract infection)? Since her urine is dilute a regular urine analysis may not be sensitive enough to pick up any bacteria, so I would recommend having an urine culture and sensitivity test done before anymore tests are done for Cushing's. An urine culture and sensitivity test will be able to detect exactly what bacteria has caused an UTI and then the correct antibiotic can be prescribed.

When a low-dose dexamethasone suppression (LDDS) test is performed there are 3 blood draws, and this test does take 8 hours to complete, so if you could get a copy of those results and post them here that would be helpful to us.

Dog's with Cushing's almost always have a high elevation in the ALP along with the ALT being mildly elevated. Also with Cushing's increased levels may be seen in cholesterol, triglycerides, and glucose. Since you mentioned that Lexi's most recent CBC/chemistry blood panel results were all normal, and with her only symptoms being the increased drinking/urination, I think a diagnosis of Cushing's, as of right now, is questionable.

So, like I mentioned before, my recommendation would be to have an urine culture and sensitivity test done and see if that shows anything.

Again, welcome to you both, and I am glad you found us as we will help in any way we can.

Hugs, Lori

[molly muffin]

I would definitely second the urine culture recommendation Lori made. Improvements of drinking/urinating when on antibiotics is opposite of cushings, which antibiotics have no effect on.

It might be something that can be treated easily. That would be great. If it does turn out to be cushings, it is treatable and we'll all be right here with you.

Welcome to the forum.

Sharlene and molly muffin

[Lexi's Human]

Thank you for your responses. Our next course of action is to take a complete set of xrays and then possibly an ultra sound. Frankly, at this point in time I would welcome a diagnosis of Cushing's. We could start treatment.

[molly muffin]

Cushings has to be one of the hardest diseases to get a firm diagnosis of. There are just so many things that Act like, with the same symptoms that it makes it difficult.
So, did they rule out a UTI with a culture? Is she still drinking more than normal?

Sharlene and molly muffin