Lenabelle
08-24-2014, 04:13 PM
Hi all! I am brand new to the forums, but from reading the threads I believe I could not have found a better group for advice. I am desperate and heartbroken. This is a long post, but I feel the full story is necessary.
I rescued my sweet Lena, 43 pound beagle/hound mix, 9 years ago from the pound, when she was between 1 and 2 years old (vet estimates varied between 1 & 2) She is an angel, and I was so lucky to have had such luck at the pound, with no history on her. She was polite, kind and completely housebroken. She has always been very anxious, however. Over time she settled a lot, but when I first had her you could tell someone had seriously mistreated her. She has since been my shadow and best friend, and I have always worked daily to comfort her.
Our issues began about 3 months ago. Until last November, Lena and I lived on a horse farm, where she roamed the pastures and chased birds, always faithfully finding her way back to the house every couple of hours for water and a snuggle. In November, after graduating with my Masters, I got the dreaded 9-5 and had to move to the city. She was now living in a small house with my fiancé and I, with both of us gone most of the day. I will say she tends to lay around, so I thought she adjusted well to city life (we had lived in an apartment in town my first year of undergrad and she was a couch potato, so I assumed she adapted). My fiancé had lost his dog to brain cancer, and we got a puppy around Easter to be his dog, and keep Lena company during the day. In typical Lena fashion, she is not happy not being the queen. She never fights with him, but I could tell her anxiety was coming back. Then it all went south. She started peeing in the middle of the night in her bed, which had never happened before. Then peeing in the house, sometimes when awake and others while sleeping. She was having bouts of inconsolable anxiety that only long walks seemed to settle, and her water intake increase significantly. I took her to multiple vets, and everyone said she looked great and was just rebellious. I never believed it, because vengeful isn't her nature. She had clear bloodwork around the end of May. Then again in July, she had a high liver value when I took her in after another bout of accidents and she became unable to sleep through the night without anxiety. Her liver value was 444. The vet said stress can cause this, but he wanted to test for Cushings, even though she does not have the skin issues, weight gain, or ravishing appetite he expected to see. He said the test came back positive, but assure us we caught it early and we could easily treat it. He put her on 60mg of Trilostane twice daily, as well as estrogen for the incontinence. The estrogen was changed two weeks later to prion, which worked for a spell, and we are now back to accidents. I cannot see any change in her after just over a month on Trilostane. If anything, she seems worse. I began taking her on long walks daily, and honestly exercise seems to make more of a difference in her than any of these pills. It makes sense, as perhaps the stress raises cortisol, and exercise works it out of her system. The vet now wants to do more bloodwork, to the tune of $280. Then try another dosage. This is extremely expensive, and to be honest it's breaking us. I want to help her and get my old happy girl back, but wouldn't I have seen SOME difference by now? I have been tempted to take her off the Trilostane, feed her a holistic, home cooked balanced diet, and try milk thistle, dandelion and lots of exercise like she used to have and see if this helps. If I know my girl, I think this is all triggered by stress.
Any opinions? Advice? I'm open to anything. Are there natural treatments for this?
I rescued my sweet Lena, 43 pound beagle/hound mix, 9 years ago from the pound, when she was between 1 and 2 years old (vet estimates varied between 1 & 2) She is an angel, and I was so lucky to have had such luck at the pound, with no history on her. She was polite, kind and completely housebroken. She has always been very anxious, however. Over time she settled a lot, but when I first had her you could tell someone had seriously mistreated her. She has since been my shadow and best friend, and I have always worked daily to comfort her.
Our issues began about 3 months ago. Until last November, Lena and I lived on a horse farm, where she roamed the pastures and chased birds, always faithfully finding her way back to the house every couple of hours for water and a snuggle. In November, after graduating with my Masters, I got the dreaded 9-5 and had to move to the city. She was now living in a small house with my fiancé and I, with both of us gone most of the day. I will say she tends to lay around, so I thought she adjusted well to city life (we had lived in an apartment in town my first year of undergrad and she was a couch potato, so I assumed she adapted). My fiancé had lost his dog to brain cancer, and we got a puppy around Easter to be his dog, and keep Lena company during the day. In typical Lena fashion, she is not happy not being the queen. She never fights with him, but I could tell her anxiety was coming back. Then it all went south. She started peeing in the middle of the night in her bed, which had never happened before. Then peeing in the house, sometimes when awake and others while sleeping. She was having bouts of inconsolable anxiety that only long walks seemed to settle, and her water intake increase significantly. I took her to multiple vets, and everyone said she looked great and was just rebellious. I never believed it, because vengeful isn't her nature. She had clear bloodwork around the end of May. Then again in July, she had a high liver value when I took her in after another bout of accidents and she became unable to sleep through the night without anxiety. Her liver value was 444. The vet said stress can cause this, but he wanted to test for Cushings, even though she does not have the skin issues, weight gain, or ravishing appetite he expected to see. He said the test came back positive, but assure us we caught it early and we could easily treat it. He put her on 60mg of Trilostane twice daily, as well as estrogen for the incontinence. The estrogen was changed two weeks later to prion, which worked for a spell, and we are now back to accidents. I cannot see any change in her after just over a month on Trilostane. If anything, she seems worse. I began taking her on long walks daily, and honestly exercise seems to make more of a difference in her than any of these pills. It makes sense, as perhaps the stress raises cortisol, and exercise works it out of her system. The vet now wants to do more bloodwork, to the tune of $280. Then try another dosage. This is extremely expensive, and to be honest it's breaking us. I want to help her and get my old happy girl back, but wouldn't I have seen SOME difference by now? I have been tempted to take her off the Trilostane, feed her a holistic, home cooked balanced diet, and try milk thistle, dandelion and lots of exercise like she used to have and see if this helps. If I know my girl, I think this is all triggered by stress.
Any opinions? Advice? I'm open to anything. Are there natural treatments for this?