Masonsjourney9915
04-19-2016, 09:38 AM
Good Morning All. I can't believe that I am here and I apologize for my ignorance as we were just told our puppy has a confirmed diagnosis of Atypical Cushing's disease and I have little to no knowledge about this disease.
Some background on our little man Mason -- he is 7.5 MONTHS old and has been struggling with health issues almost the entire time we have had him. He is a lab/beagle/?? mix and was 9 weeks old when we adopted him. He was the best puppy when we brought him home. Always slept through the night in his crate and never complained about going in, was easily house broken and training has been going well. When he was about 4.5 months old he refused to go into his crate, stopped sleeping through the night and was coughing/sneezing regularly. We brought him to the vet and he was diagnosed with bronchitis. This was beyond upsetting to us since he was given all of his vaccinations in a timely manner. Luck of the draw I guess! He was prescribed antibiotics and I could tell he was feeling better as he was going back in his crate happily, playing and overall just acting like a puppy. He was also given drops for a yeast infection in both of his ears.
When he turned 6 months he was neutered and that was a longggg 10 days in a cone with a wild puppy! But during this time his appetite diminished but we chalked it up to the surgery and everything. His stitches were removed on a Monday and by Thursday we were back at the vet. Mason was refusing to eat but drinking a significant amount of water and peeing all the time. He was not sleeping through the night and was just overall not himself. Our vet did some blood work and noticed that Mason's Cortisol levels were extremely low. With that being said he decided he wanted to test him for Addison's. We dropped him off on a Saturday for the test and when the results came back we had no answer as he did not test positive for Addison's.
At this point Mason still hadn't eaten a full days worth of meals for almost 3 weeks. He was acting 'cranky' drinking a lot of water still, acting extremely restless and showing signs of distress (excessive panting, whining, etc) Our vet was determined to figure out what was wrong with him. He had an ultrasound done on his abdomen and told us that although extremely rare in such a young dog, he wanted to test for Cushing's.
Low and behold, yesterday we got the phone call that Mason has Atypical Cushings. We are going to sit down with the vet either this afternoon or tomorrow to go over the disease itself as I would really like to understand it more with numbers and see his actual results.
I guess the whole point of my post right now isn't really to ask any questions but more or less just type out my story and get it out there and try to make sense of the fact that our little 7.5 MONTH old puppy was just diagnosed with something he will have to deal with for the rest of his life. Heartbreaking. I don't even know what the prognosis for a dog his age is. Everything I've read has dogs being diagnosed much much much later in life.
Has anyone here heard of a puppy having Atypical Cushings?
Thanks for listening all!
Some background on our little man Mason -- he is 7.5 MONTHS old and has been struggling with health issues almost the entire time we have had him. He is a lab/beagle/?? mix and was 9 weeks old when we adopted him. He was the best puppy when we brought him home. Always slept through the night in his crate and never complained about going in, was easily house broken and training has been going well. When he was about 4.5 months old he refused to go into his crate, stopped sleeping through the night and was coughing/sneezing regularly. We brought him to the vet and he was diagnosed with bronchitis. This was beyond upsetting to us since he was given all of his vaccinations in a timely manner. Luck of the draw I guess! He was prescribed antibiotics and I could tell he was feeling better as he was going back in his crate happily, playing and overall just acting like a puppy. He was also given drops for a yeast infection in both of his ears.
When he turned 6 months he was neutered and that was a longggg 10 days in a cone with a wild puppy! But during this time his appetite diminished but we chalked it up to the surgery and everything. His stitches were removed on a Monday and by Thursday we were back at the vet. Mason was refusing to eat but drinking a significant amount of water and peeing all the time. He was not sleeping through the night and was just overall not himself. Our vet did some blood work and noticed that Mason's Cortisol levels were extremely low. With that being said he decided he wanted to test him for Addison's. We dropped him off on a Saturday for the test and when the results came back we had no answer as he did not test positive for Addison's.
At this point Mason still hadn't eaten a full days worth of meals for almost 3 weeks. He was acting 'cranky' drinking a lot of water still, acting extremely restless and showing signs of distress (excessive panting, whining, etc) Our vet was determined to figure out what was wrong with him. He had an ultrasound done on his abdomen and told us that although extremely rare in such a young dog, he wanted to test for Cushing's.
Low and behold, yesterday we got the phone call that Mason has Atypical Cushings. We are going to sit down with the vet either this afternoon or tomorrow to go over the disease itself as I would really like to understand it more with numbers and see his actual results.
I guess the whole point of my post right now isn't really to ask any questions but more or less just type out my story and get it out there and try to make sense of the fact that our little 7.5 MONTH old puppy was just diagnosed with something he will have to deal with for the rest of his life. Heartbreaking. I don't even know what the prognosis for a dog his age is. Everything I've read has dogs being diagnosed much much much later in life.
Has anyone here heard of a puppy having Atypical Cushings?
Thanks for listening all!