New to this forum

[toots'mom]

Hello everyone,

My sweet 10 year old chocolate lab toots has just been diagnosed with Cushing's disease. I am looking for alternative holistic approaches to treating this disorder. I have read through tons of forums and people's personal experiences with cushing's, and have found that lots of different things work for different dogs. I am not looking to try and extend my dog's life as long as I can. I am looking to give her the best quality of life with the time she has left. Does anyone have any experience with:
1) Diet change. Raw, homemade, commercial, etc?
2) Herb usage, such as dandelion, burdock, astragulus, milk thistle?
3) Homeopathic treatments, Cushex?
4) Acupuncture?

I appreciate any information you might have. Thank you!

[labblab]

Hello and welcome to you and Toots!! As you can see, I am a Lab-Lover, as well. :) :)

Before saying anything else, I want you to know that I truly understand that it is a dilemma to decide whether to launch into involved or invasive treatment of any sort for a 10 y/o Lab. I am facing similar decisions with my own 10 y/o nonCushpup Lab girl. I know that the bulk of her lifespan is now behind her :o, so I am less concerned about prolonging her life and much more concerned about maximizing her immediate quality of life. So I would never judge nor criticize you if you decide you do not want to pursue formal Cushing's treatment.

However, now, having said that...I also need to tell you that after my decade of experience on this forum, I am afraid I have seen no truly effective alternatives to Rx medication if your goal is to lower cortisol levels significantly enough to eliminate/control the internal and external symptoms and damage caused by the disease. The whole range of possible diets is represented among our members: raw, homemade, commercial -- and no single choice has shown any particular protective or healing properties. We do advise people to choose foods with good quality, moderate protein levels (Cushpups can be vulnerable to protein-losing kidney disease, so very high levels of dietary protein/phosphorous may not be a great choice) and also lower dietary fat (Cushpups are also vulnerable to pancreatitis attacks which themselves may be more likely triggered by high-fat meals).

Even though I have seen reports re: the possible benefit of acupuncture in terms of lowering stress-related cortisol elevations, I am unaware of evidence that it can have a therapeutic effect significant enough to consistently lower the cortisol overproduction associated with Cushing's. And unfortunately, the internet offerings of products such as Cushex and Adrenal Harmony Gold have no controlled clinical testing whatsoever to back up their claims (we know this because we have contacted the manufacturers and we have been told that no testing has been done). So you are left with a bunch of posted happy reports by owners, and absolutely no validated evidence that the supplements do anything at all. Now in reality, they MAY do something -- but what it is, who knows? Over the years, we have had some folks tell us that their dogs did seem to respond positively to some of these products for a while. But as you might guess, since the owners ended up coming to our forum, it means that the Cushing's problems were not truly solved longterm. As for individual herbs, I cannot comment because I am not familiar with their use in Cushing's treatment. We do have a few members who have reported some symptom improvement using traditional Chinese herbal preparations, however. You may be able to use our forum "Search" function to try to identify the posts that talk about them (maybe plug in "Chinese" or "herbs" and see what comes up...).

In summary, though, I am afraid you will be disappointed if you are looking for a magic bullet that is a genuinely therapeutic alternative to Rx medication. However, leaving the Cushing's largely untreated may be a reasonable alternative for your girl at her age if the disease is not making her visibly uncomfortable nor functionally impaired. In making that decision, though, we would be happy to help you sort through any remaining questions that you might have about conventional treatment. Since Cushing's is more commonly diagnosed in middle-aged dogs or older, we do have many members with senior dogs who have done very well with the Rx meds. So if you would like to tell us more about Toots' medical history, diagnostics, and current symptoms, we'd be very glad to brainstorm with you further.

Marianne

[molly muffin]

Hello and welcome from me too. Marianne covered the basics for you very well. It does depend on symtpoms and if she is okay, then you might not want to treat but if she has some symptoms then perhaps a low dose of medication for cushings would not be unreasonable to try and help her out? This is something you could talk to your vet about.

Welcome again :)

[lalosmom]

While Cushings is not inexpensive to treat and maintain, the use of herbals and alternative therapies can add up as well. Practitioners of those treatments will usually have a number of compounds for you to buy, or a very regular schedule for acupuncture, etc. It can add up, and may or may not help your dog. I seriously pursued alternative treatments in a non-Cushings dog who was stricken with an incurable illness and he survived for exactly as long as my vet had predicted that he would if I had not treated him at all.

[Jed's Mom]

Hello from me and Jed

I was right where you are when Jed was diagnosed and I spent hundreds of thousands on acupuncture, laser and herbs.

I don't want to try and sway you one direction or another because every dog is different but I have to wonder if I started to treat with western medicine sooner maybe Jed would not have had so many issues. The big one was Calcinosis Cutis.

I think there is a balance you can reach. If I had to do it all over again, from the beginning, I would have started on a low dose of vetoryl and a raw liver diet and add in some acupuncture..I do believe that makes a huge difference. Darwin's makes a raw liver diet but you do need a script. Two other herbs I think are beneficial are the Milk Thistle and one called Adrenal.

You can read Jed's thread and see all of the different things I tried with him and let me know if you have any other questions.