FrankieandBlaze
12-01-2014, 02:14 AM
HI! I'm so grateful to have found you all!
Here is my story if you would take some time to read it.
I have a 13 year old Husky (Blaze) who was just recently diagnosed with Cushings. Looking back he has had symptoms for YEARS. He tore his ACL in 2011 without much reason, I imagine that was our first symptom... then last December I took him to our vet specifically because he was drinking a TON, peeing in the house and his urine was noticeably dilute, and a lot of it. He also had noitceably thinner hair, calluses on his elbow, and muscle wasting of his head. He has always had a huge appetite, but started stealing off the counter. At the time the vet did a urinalysis and blood work, said his liver enzymes were slightly elevated, but not worrisome, and we just chalked it up to old age. This summer he started panting A LOT, drinking more and more in house accidents...again we thought well, he's hot because it's summer and he IS getting older...then it all came to a head this fall. First he tore his other ACL...literally by walking up a hill in our yard. He was taking Rimadyl for pain, we did not do surgery (we did not feel at 13 he would tolerate it well, and our vet said his knee would naurally develop scar tissue which would stabalize his knee), he was not lame, and he rebounded fairly well naturally. Then he decided to try and eat a porcupine. He required anesthesia to remove the quills, before the anesthesia the emergency vet (not our normal vet) did blood work on him because he's elderly, they called and said his liver enzymes were 5 times normal (no I don't have the numbers, I'm going to call and get them tomorrow), and that his liver felt slightly enlarged. We stopped the Rimadyl immediately, and they prescribed him Tramadol for pain, and Denamarin and suggested a work up for his liver enzymes.
When I spoke to our vet the next day she suggested lots of things, xray, ultrasound, bloodwork and suggested it could be Cushings and that the Cushings could be causing his liver enzymes to be elevated. When I looked up Cushings symptoms I KNEW this was what he has, he has just about every symptom you could list with the exception of black head like marks on his skin...I wish I had looked this up a year ago OR that our vet had thought of this a year ago when I brought him in for these symptoms!
Given finances, we delayed xray and ultrasound, and asked if he could just start with blood work. They did the ACTH test (again, I'll get the results) but it came back positive for Cushings. And he is now on Denamarin and Trilosate 30 mg (he is a 70 pound dog) once a day. He has been on it for 3 days now...I might notice less panting, and more concentrated urine..but perhaps I'm wishful thinking so early on :) After 10 days we will repeat the test to see if there is any change.
My big question is this. We had assumed that his hind leg problems were due to old age. Since the stress and anesthesia of the porcupine incident he has not rebounded. He used to beg and follow us around and get up to the door when someone came, and now he does not, he has noticeable weakness in his hind legs and it is difficult for him to get up, and now that we have snow, it is difficult to walk outside. We have shoveled paths for him and built ramps so he can get in and out. His quality of life is not great, and while he doesn't seem uncomfortable, and appears happy and wags his tail, all he can do is lay around and go out to pee. So while I see many comments about how the drinking and peeing and ravenous eating can get better on meds, I'm wondering specifically about the muscle wasting, and decrease in strength, can I expect this to improve?
And one thing I'm wondering, could the stress of the porcupine and anesthesia made his symptoms worse so that he couldn't rebound? This happened on Oct 26, and he just is so different than he was up to that point (darn porcupine).
Thanks for your time,
I appreciate your input.
Here is my story if you would take some time to read it.
I have a 13 year old Husky (Blaze) who was just recently diagnosed with Cushings. Looking back he has had symptoms for YEARS. He tore his ACL in 2011 without much reason, I imagine that was our first symptom... then last December I took him to our vet specifically because he was drinking a TON, peeing in the house and his urine was noticeably dilute, and a lot of it. He also had noitceably thinner hair, calluses on his elbow, and muscle wasting of his head. He has always had a huge appetite, but started stealing off the counter. At the time the vet did a urinalysis and blood work, said his liver enzymes were slightly elevated, but not worrisome, and we just chalked it up to old age. This summer he started panting A LOT, drinking more and more in house accidents...again we thought well, he's hot because it's summer and he IS getting older...then it all came to a head this fall. First he tore his other ACL...literally by walking up a hill in our yard. He was taking Rimadyl for pain, we did not do surgery (we did not feel at 13 he would tolerate it well, and our vet said his knee would naurally develop scar tissue which would stabalize his knee), he was not lame, and he rebounded fairly well naturally. Then he decided to try and eat a porcupine. He required anesthesia to remove the quills, before the anesthesia the emergency vet (not our normal vet) did blood work on him because he's elderly, they called and said his liver enzymes were 5 times normal (no I don't have the numbers, I'm going to call and get them tomorrow), and that his liver felt slightly enlarged. We stopped the Rimadyl immediately, and they prescribed him Tramadol for pain, and Denamarin and suggested a work up for his liver enzymes.
When I spoke to our vet the next day she suggested lots of things, xray, ultrasound, bloodwork and suggested it could be Cushings and that the Cushings could be causing his liver enzymes to be elevated. When I looked up Cushings symptoms I KNEW this was what he has, he has just about every symptom you could list with the exception of black head like marks on his skin...I wish I had looked this up a year ago OR that our vet had thought of this a year ago when I brought him in for these symptoms!
Given finances, we delayed xray and ultrasound, and asked if he could just start with blood work. They did the ACTH test (again, I'll get the results) but it came back positive for Cushings. And he is now on Denamarin and Trilosate 30 mg (he is a 70 pound dog) once a day. He has been on it for 3 days now...I might notice less panting, and more concentrated urine..but perhaps I'm wishful thinking so early on :) After 10 days we will repeat the test to see if there is any change.
My big question is this. We had assumed that his hind leg problems were due to old age. Since the stress and anesthesia of the porcupine incident he has not rebounded. He used to beg and follow us around and get up to the door when someone came, and now he does not, he has noticeable weakness in his hind legs and it is difficult for him to get up, and now that we have snow, it is difficult to walk outside. We have shoveled paths for him and built ramps so he can get in and out. His quality of life is not great, and while he doesn't seem uncomfortable, and appears happy and wags his tail, all he can do is lay around and go out to pee. So while I see many comments about how the drinking and peeing and ravenous eating can get better on meds, I'm wondering specifically about the muscle wasting, and decrease in strength, can I expect this to improve?
And one thing I'm wondering, could the stress of the porcupine and anesthesia made his symptoms worse so that he couldn't rebound? This happened on Oct 26, and he just is so different than he was up to that point (darn porcupine).
Thanks for your time,
I appreciate your input.