6.5 y/o Morkie - How long for results with trilostane?

[brittlough]

How long does it typically take before you see symptoms decrease? My Morkie has been on Trilostane a week, but his symptoms have not improved. He is still eating, drinking, panting and urinating a ton and he is always exhausted. He is only 6.5 years old and he use to be full of energy. I heard that splitting the dose 1/2 in the morning and 1/2 at night can be effective with some dogs. Is anyway doing that?

[labblab]

Hello and welcome! I'm sorry that this earlier post of yours was overlooked until today, but I've taken the liberty of moving it here to create a new thread that is your very own. This way, it will be easier for all of us to reply to you directly.

First of all, it is not unusual for it to take some time to figure how exactly which dose of trilostane is optimal for any given dog. So it may be the case that your dog is needing a higher dose than he is currently receiving. However, from a safety standpoint, it is much better to start out at a lower dose and work upwards, rather than vice versa. Your vet should be scheduling a monitoring ACTH blood test in another week or so, and that result will give you a good idea as to how much your dog's cortisol is being lowered by the current dose.

Can you tell us how much your dog weighs, and what dose of trilostane he is taking? Yes, it is true that twice-daily dosing is recommended by some vets. Some specialists prefer to start out that way right from the get-go. Others wait to see whether a once daily dose is actually failing to control symptoms adequately even when the monitoring ACTH testing shows that cortisol is within the desired therapeutic range. So we have dogs on the forum that are being dosed both ways.

Before discussing that in more detail, though, can you tell us more about your dog's overall medical history, and also the symptoms and testing that led to the Cushing's diagnosis? Thanks so much in advance!

Marianne

[molly muffin]

I just want to welcome you to the forum. Marianne asks some good questions.

If the dose is working and lowering the cortisol, often you will see something in about 10 days or so, from what I've noticed on the forum, but every dog is unique.