What should I do?

[Carol in Qatar]

Our dog Chewy, a 9-yr old Shiz tzu has recently been diagnosed with Cushings. All kinds of tests were done, costing a small fortune; sorry I don't have his levels. We are trying to find out different options available to us as we are newbies. It will be approximately another month before we start Chewy on any meds if that's the route we take as the vet here also noticed that his numbers for kidney were a little high and wanted us to change his diet prior to re-testing. The vet feels that if Chewy is having kidney issues, any meds for Cushings may hurt him further.

My question is, has anyone heard anything about Adrenal Harmony Gold? I thought I had read it on this website that it was a good "alternative" option, when compared to the prescription meds. As we are in Qatar & it seems everything one possesses is a luxury, medications taken daily can/will be expensive--roughly about $360 a month, when we have to give 2 dosages each day. I'm trying my luck at some web-based vet sites to see if shipping a med from the US or Canada would be an option--so far, it is not.

Any information about anything (online vets, alternative meds, etc.) would be greatly appreciated. While I don't want to lose Chewy, the medicines here are too expensive.

[mytil]

Hi and welcome to our site. I am sorry you and your Chewy are having to deal with Cushing's.

I do not have any direct experience with this but I will say that products like this may help with the symptoms, they do not get to the growing root cause of Cushing's. I would certainly research ALL of the ingredients before even trying it.

There are two drugs that will address the root cause - Lysodren and Vetoryl/Trilostane (all prescriptions). Lysodren can be purchased at a pharmacy and I am not sure if some of the suppliers i.e. Diamondback (Trilostane) will ship to the Middle East. If you are in the military, that may be an advantage as they may be able to ship to a US base.

Yep, when you get the test results post them here so we can offer additional comments, and maybe more options for you.

I will say that give the kidney issues I too would hold off as these meds can be hard on the kidney and liver and be sure to post the kidney values from the blood panel performed.

Is your Chewy on any other meds that could have possibly skewed any testing? Also post all of the symptoms your Chewy has as there are other conditions that mimic these such as kidney disease, diabetes and even thyroid problems.

Keep us posted
Terry

[labblab]

Hello, and welcome from me, too! I apologize that I have only a moment to post right now, but I wanted to quickly address your question about Adrenal Harmony Gold. Unfortunately, we are aware of no research that supports that product's claims of effectiveness. Here's a thread containing a new reply from one of our staffers that addresses this issue:

http://www.k9cushings.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6127

As Terry has said above, once you have settled on a more definite treatment plan, we may be able to help you link up with a pharmacy that can supply the necessary prescription drugs at a more reasobable price.

Marianne