Medicine Stopped While Boarding - Help?

[Zach's Mom]

Hi, I'm new here.

I have an 8 yo miniature schnauzer named Zach who was diagnosed with Cushing's Disease right after we adopted him. He has had a few tests and his dosage had been approved each time (30mg Vetoryl once daily).

We left him with a dog sitter over the holiday break with a sheet of 10 pills. When we picked him up 6 days later, only 2 pills were missing. He is showing a lot of his pre-diagnosis symptoms. Panting excessively (his panting is very labored and kind of wheezy), excessive thirst, and restlessness. I have no idea when he was given the 2 pills that are missing from his package. He also feels like he has lost weight since we dropped him off... :( I've filed a complaint with the dog sitting service already.

My question: Should I be worried about starting him back on his Vetoryl dosage in the morning? Are there any dangerous symptoms I need to look out for to make an emergency call to our vet? He's not a 24 hr vet, but he gave us his emergency number which I don't want to abuse since it's late and a holiday - but will call if I get nervous enough.

Thanks for any input (or encouragement) you have! I'm worried about my pup since we've put so much time into getting him feeling well. I hate seeing him so stressed out.

[labblab]

Hello to you and Zach. Wow, that is disgraceful the way the pet sitting service dropped the ball! You might want to see whether they represent themselves as being certified, credentialed, or affiliated with any professional organizations and lodge formal complaints with those associations as well.

However, as far as resuming the Vetoryl, I don't see any problem with picking right back up where you left off. Vetoryl has a short effective life in the body, so it's not at all surprising that Zach would be symptomatic again after tens days without his regular meds. But once he's back on schedule, the symptoms should resolve once again.

Do keep us updated though, OK?
Marianne

[mytil]

Hi and welcome from me too.

I wanted to mention that with the added stress of you being away, combined with not getting the needed Vetoryl, it may have caused the cortisol levels to increase even further than if he was just not getting the medicine.

I do agree with Marianne in this but I would certainly give my vet a call and tell them what happened - even if it is a holiday, a concerned vet would want to know. This is unforgiveable what the pet sitting service did. I would certainly take further action too.

Keep us posted
Terry

[Zach's Mom]

He's still pretty stressed out this morning. I agree that us being away probably added to his stress level in addition to not having the Vetoryl.

I just gave him his first pill this morning and hopefully he'll be feeling better soon! I'll definitely call the vet later this morning just to let him know what happened. I'm beyond furious that one of the most basic needs wasn't taken care of during his stay... I can't imagine how stressed out he must have been while we were away given that it also seems they weren't feeding him properly.

Thanks for the comforting words and advice from experienced Cushing's dog parents!

[Zach's Mom]

Also, my other dog Albert is now having pretty harsh diarrhea with some drops of blood. Knowing that their stay over the break was lacking in care - there's no telling for sure what's causing it. So I'm taking him into the vet to get a checkup this afternoon. He's always been a really healthy dog. Never had to take him in for anything after the initial rescue sicknesses.

I hope he's okay too :( This is not what I wanted to come home to after the holidays.

On a positive note, it looks like they've put a 2 month hold on the sitter's account while they're investigating her. That makes me feel a little better at least. And - Zach seems to be feeling a little calmer after his first dose of Vetoryl! :)

[molly muffin]

Oh my gosh, so how are Zach and Albert doing now?

It does seem suspicious after that boarding for things to be going wrong. Glad they have that sitter on suspension to figure it out.

We too have had some bad boarding experiences. Unfortunately it really seems hard to find good boarding places that are trusty. sigh

[Zach's Mom]

Albert is doing much better after a couple of trips to the vet. It looks like we might get reimbursed for his medical expenses.

We had a scary episode with Zach last night. He was panting really hard after dinner which is normal for him when he's not on his Vetoryl. But then his panting started to get harder and more labored. It got to the point where he was squeaking while he was trying to breathe. It sounded like he wasn't getting any air at all.

Panicked, we brought him in to the emergency vet at 9:30 last night. Apparently he was having a panic attack. He was diagnosed with bronchitis and apparently he was having some trouble breathing because of it. This made him stressed out and caused him to pant hard, and air started filling his stomach which made it harder to breathe which in turn made him pant harder. They took an x-ray to check on him at the emergency vet and his stomach was super large and filled with air from all the panic.

They gave him some GasX and a broncho-dialator injection and sent him home. He still was panicking at home until he could get all the gas out of his stomach.

Thankfully, he was able to calm down and sleep. He was still calm this morning and now he's on some anti-biotics for the bronchitis. Whew... I hope his Vetoryl starts working again soon so that he can calm down. He really worried us last night!

On the sitter story - her profile seems to have been removed now! A minor success out of the whole thing. Hopefully no other dogs will have and experience like mine.

[molly muffin]

Oh my goodness. That sounds so scary.
I'm glad they got him on medication. It certainly makes sense that he would feel panicky under those conditions. Poor baby.

Good. Glad the sitter has been removed. That is just not acceptable.

[mytil]

That is scary about Zach!!! Was he prone to panic attacks prior to the horrible sitter? Poor guy! Glad he is doing better.

I surely am glad Albert is doing better too. What in the world happened with that sitter? What has the agency indicated directly to you as to why this happened and what they are doing to prevent this again?

I would seek reimbursement for all the medical bills (both Albert's and Zach's) and if the agency balks at it I would indicate you will be taking much further action and there is a possibility they may loose any licenses and could be held liable personally. Something pretty bad happened to these guys while you trusted them - and there could be other clients that had experienced similar problems with the sitter or for that matter other sitters from the agency.

Keep us posted
Terry

[Zach's Mom]

Sheesh! So, hopefully our whirlwind new year experience is over now. After Zach's episode on that Wednesday night at the emergency vet, we took him back to our regular vet since his gasping and panicking returned the next night. After taking a look at him during an episode, they gave him some sedatives and oxygen so that he could breathe. Then they sent him in an ambulance over to the ICU.

When he got to the ICU, he was breathing fine. The vets there monitored and did tests for a couple of hours and then told us that we could take him home. They said that his symptoms were probably due to some chronic lung disease. Skeptical, I asked them to keep him overnight. We dropped in to see him around 5PM that night and he started having another breathing episode.

I demanded to see the vet since he was obviously not doing better like they had assured me. When she came in she was shocked to see how scary his breathing was. She said that he hadn't done that while he was at the ICU. (Part of the problem with transferring between vets...).

She immediately took him back for a throat scope and found a big ole' cyst in his airway blocking 70-80%. They drained it and sent it off for pathology and everything came back clean! :)

Unfortunately, during our 1 week re-check, his cyst had started to refill and was invading about 50% of his airway. So they recommended surgery to remove one of his saliva glands. Yesterday morning, we had it removed and he's now recovering at home as spunky as ever.

So very glad that's all over. We don't know what caused the sudden cyst in his throat, but it could be genetic or caused by some kind of trauma. I've asked for any information the sitting service can provide me, but it sounds like they're still talking to the sitter to get her story. I did get reimbursed for Albert's expenses already though!

I'm just ready for Zach's life to settle down! It's hard enough to have Cushing's - he doesn't need all this other stress too!

[Gatorlmc]

Wow! What a nightmare!! I'm so glad it appears that the worst is over.

[mytil]

Thanks so much for the update. Glad to hear they found the cyst and he is doing better.

Terry

[molly muffin]

Wow a cyst! It was very luckily you where there and able to get the vet to see what was going on. So gold they found it and took it out.

Very strange that this happened right after that sitter had him. Grrrrr

[Zach's Mom]

So, we thought the worst was over. Zach seemed really comfortable and relaxed for a few weeks there. But about 4 days ago he started making snorting or snoring sounds while breathing in the evening. When he also coughed a couple of nights ago, we made an appointment with our vet.

He has a 4/6 heart murmur (which we knew about) and the vet thinks that he could be suffering from congestive heart failure (not to mention being also diagnosed with a urinary infection. He seemed worried about Zach's respiratory rate which is pretty high. It's fluctuating between 60-80 / min this evening while I'm sitting here on the computer. He has an appointment for an EKG on the 24th to determine if it's CHF or a lung infection. Our vet said that both looked possible from Zach's x-rays. The technician leaned toward a lung infection, but our vet said that his intuition would lean toward heart.

The vet gave him a shot of Furosemide last night and put him on a low dose Furosemide orally starting today. I'm all tired out from worrying about Zach. I want to be able to at least make him feel better and not worry anymore knowing I've done the best for him.

Has anyone else had experience with the combination of CHF and Cushing's? Do they typically come together? What should I expect to be coming next? I'm not expecting a very good outcome from all of this, but I hope that we can make him happy for now and be able to identify the right time when it comes to let him go.

[Joan2517]

Holy cow! What a nightmare....glad everyone is feeling better, though.

Joan

[molly muffin]

High cortisol can affect the heart, however they don't necessarily go hand in hand, in that every cushing dog will have heart problems or CHF.
Basically you treat the heart and keep the cortisol in control and just go on. Maybe not do as much that could over exert or stress him out.