New to all this

[Kinser]

Hey everyone. I am brand new to having a dog with cushings. Cloie our Chihuahua just turned five Oct 28. From what I gather she is pretty young for all this. This summer I noticed my dog getting sick. She was peeing all over the place and drinking nonstop. She ate food like it was going out of style and just didn't look healthy. We took her to our previous vet who suspected diabetis and sent me home even thought she had a high fever. We switched vets and she had initially suspected cushings but found she had a very bad non-struvyte UTI. We cleared that up with diet and she seemed better for a bit however the cushings was still in the back of my mind. We just did the bloodtest for his about a month ago and she has it. She is currently on Vetoryl 10mg per day and goes back for another blood test on her levels the end of this month. She seems to look better although she didn't look awful before. She has always had sparse hair on her belly and under her arms but my previous vets always told me that was from allergies. She did get a little potbellied but that seems to maybe be getting better. She still eats and drinks quite a bit but seems to not be going in the house like she was. I was pretty depressed at the diagnosis since she is so young but the more I read the better I feel. So she is very food motivated but I am having issues with her taking her meds. I don't know if she can smell it in the treats or what but she seems to spit it out quite a bit. Any tips or anything anyone thinks I should know about all this since I am so new at it :)

[Kinser]

I forgot to add her other symptoms. She has been excessively panting, has had quite a bit of insomnia, a huge neck scruff which is fairly new and I have noticed her back legs kind of give out going up the stairs just a few times.

[labblab]

Welcome to you and to Miss Cloie! From the looks of your sweet avatar photo, I'm guessing that she has a couple of siblings, as well. :)

We are so glad you've found us. We are a bit of a nosy bunch, though, and usually pester newbies with a few questions that help us get a better grasp of the situation. If you could possibly get the actual numbers for the test that was performed to diagnose the Cushing's, that would be great. Also, most dogs with the disease commonly have certain other abnormalities on their blood and urine panels such as elevated liver enzymes, high cholesterol, and dilute urine. So if you have any other recent test results, that would also be helpful if you will post any readings that are listed as being too high or too low. Also, how much does Cloie weigh?

That is good that you are planning to take her in for a monitoring ACTH test by the end of the month. From what you've written, I'm guessing this means she will have been taking the 10 mg. for about a month prior to testing. The drug manufacturer recommends testing even earlier, but as long as dogs do not seem to be exhibiting symptoms of low cortisol, some vets are now waiting for that one-month mark. At any rate, we will be very anxious to learn the results when the test is scheduled.

As far as how to give her the pill so it is more enticing...some people have had success with using "pill pockets" that you can buy at petstores. I've found that the most tempting packaging for my own dogs is to get a package of those processed American cheese slices and tear off a corner. That type of cheese is usually very soft and pliable so I can completely surround the pill with the cheese, but it is not as soft as cream cheese or peanut butter so it doesn't come sliding off. My dogs love it. I only use as much as I need to encase each pill because I need to watch the fat intake of one of my dogs. You generally want to watch the fat intake for Cushpups because there is some thought that Cushpups may be more vulnerable to pancreatitis, and pancreatitis may be triggered by high fat feeding. But I figure the amount of fat in that corner of cheese isn't that big a deal. Plus you can always buy reduced-fat versions.

Oh, and in that vein, I am hoping you have been told to always give the Vetoryl along with a meal. The drug is not metabolized as efficiently on an empty stomach or absent any fat at all (it is a fat-soluble drug). The same is true on the day that you take Cloie in for her monitoring ACTH test. Many vets mistakenly think that dogs should be fasted in advance of monitoring ACTH tests, but fasting will skew the test results because the drug will not be as effective on testing day as it usually is when given alongside a meal.

OK, that's all I can think of for now! But once again, welcome.
Marianne

[Dixie'sMom]

Hello and welcome to forum. You have found a great place to get help with your Cush baby. And by the way, all of your pups are precious. I love the avatar!

I am fairly new to being a Cush Mom myself, so I won't offer up any advice, but just offer a hand to hold or a shoulder to lean on. The experts here are very knowledgeable and will be a great help to you in helping manage Cloies Cushings. I look forward to getting to know you and Cloie.

[molly muffin]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

I use wet canned dog food to form around the pill. Then I have another one with nothing or the second pill in it that she sees, so she eats the first one really fast completely, in the hopes of getting the second one quickly too. That works and for years I had a dickens of a time with her and meds till one of the vet techs told me that is how she would get molly to take her meds. Slick eh.

Marianne asked all the pertinent questions that I would want to know about too.

I'd only add that on the day of the ACTH test, give her medicine with food as Marianne mentioned and then the test should be done within a 4 - 6 hour window of the medicine being taken.

If you notice anything like lethargic, wobbly, not eating, not drinking, diarrhea, vomiting, stop the med and get an acth test done.

We have had dogs on treatment for cushings for a very long time.

welcome again

[Kinser]

Thanks everyone. :) We have three dogs. The white one on the far right is Cloie. The one on the left is our other chi Miley and the one in the middle is Beau. We think he is a chi terrier but are not sure as he was dumped by our house a year ago this last August. He is a sweetie but was never neutered (we got it done of course) but as a result he marks all the time and has to wear a diaper.
Anyway I got the vets records and they are confusing. What info exactly would you like to know. We had done several urine tests to begin with and they were always very dilute with other stuff in them (I should have paid more attention) And we did lots of blood work since we kept checking her glucose levels. I live in ND and to do the cushings test (it was the 8 hour one) they had to send her blood to a different state to have it done. I am very lucky to have an excellent vet though as she has a dog with cushings herself. Also Cloie is a larger chi and has gotten quite a bit larger in the last few months as she is never full. She is about 10-11 lbs.

[Kinser]

Ok bear with me I am just going to post random things I can actually read :)
5/28/14 UTI and Glucose in urine. SP gravity was 1.013, Glucose was 2000mg/DL, PH8, Rare RBC/cocci.
Complete blood panel run at this time- increased ATL 285 (10-118), Decreased BUN 5 (7-25), decreased PHOS 2.2 (2.9-6.6), and increased glucose 155 (60-110)
6/2/14 Temp 104, Stick Glucose 3+ and USG 1.002. Blood Glucose 119
7/15/14 Glucose normal 90. UA showed TNTC Calcium Oxalate Crystals, positive for proteins, negative on WBC/RBC. PH 5.

We did the 8 hour cushings test blood drawn before and then 8 hours later. It looks like it was sent to Abaxis Vet Labs.
Corisol (pre) 13.4
Cortisol (4hr) 1.0
Cortisol (8hr) 1.8
I also remember my vet talking about liver levels and how they were higher than they were supposed to be from her urine but I honestly can't find it in the notes.
I think that is about all I can dechipher. If your looking for anything else please let me know. :)

[Kinser]

Ok from 7/15/14 I found...
Elevated Temp R/O include bacterial infection causing inflammation in the liver causing increased ATL and decreased BUN. R/O for PU/PD include diabetes mellitus, diabetes insipidus. Further tests needed including blood glucose test or fructosamine test.
I am assuming R/O means rule out? Now that I am reading thru this I remember she was telling me her ATL levels were high but I can't remember what they were.

[Squirt's Mom]

:D I edited your post to list the values in a different format so it would be easier for you to add the normal ranges after then forgot to ask you to do that. :rolleyes::p Feeble minded, ya know! :D

SO if you would list those values and include the normal ranges and the little letters that follow that would help us a great deal. It will look something like this -

ALP 150 100-350 ug/dl (EXAMPLE)
BUN 23 7-11 ug/dl (EXAMPLE)

Thanks! I'll let you edit this time. :)