Echo02
06-20-2016, 06:32 PM
Hello. I'm at somewhat of a crossroads with my 14 year old dog. He is a very sweet dog, loving, and he's definitely part of the family, but over the past few weeks, things have gotten worse. He was diagnosed with Cushings at the end of Feb, early March of this year.
Symptoms of all this were mild to begin with, which we just attributed to age. But after numerous peeing on the carpet and wood floor incidents, going outside 20+ times a day, lots of pacing, panting, huge thirst, and hind legs failing we knew something was up.
During the initial exam, he was tested for bladder infection, had a sonogram of his bladder and blood testing. His results came back negative. The blood test and symptoms all pointed to Cushings.
He was given Vetoryl 30 mg once per day (he's about 26/27 pounds). After the first 3 weeks, another blood test was taken and according to our vet, was responding well to the meds. (I'll post results of that second test).
The next test isn't until the end of August. It's every 6 months after that second test for loading.
In the last month, he is having days where he goes outside, comes back in, goes back out, over and over. He won't go downstairs on our deck every time. He'll come back in then just pee or poop, some days this happens up to four times, other days there are no issues.
He sleeps in the morning to afternoon for about 5 hours or more at a stretch.
He paces at night for a couple hours before he finally circles about a dozen times and about falls over settling down.
Some nights he sleeps through until about 5am-6:30am, other nights, he is up pacing and going out throughout the night. Not to be selfish, but this is killing my own ability to get a good night sleep.
The panting goes on and on at night, whether he is in pain, hot, or anxious, I don't know.
We spoke to the dr. and he said we could bump him up with another 10mg in the evening. With the cost of the already expensive 30 day supply, I couldn't justify another 10mg at night for a total of about 140 a month, plus another return to the vet after 3 weeks to have his blood tested again ($250).
Now, to top this off, we go on vacation in July. We need to have him boarded for a week. My worry is that 1) he goes out many times during the day, not like without the meds, but still a lot, and will have multiple accidents a day; 2) possible anxiety while boarded 3) there is some other underlying issue he has and at this point, I'm just keeping him alive for our own benefit. He doesn't seem "happy" like he used to. He doesn't see well, he gets confused, his hearing is shot, falls going up or down the stairs......the list doesn't end. But then some days he just shines and everything seems like it used to be.
I currently have an appointment for him to cross the rainbow bridge on Friday. It's killing me to have to do this. I canceled the first appointment at the beginning of June because it didn't feel like the right time, and I don't expect it will ever feel like that.
Below is his last lab work from the end of March. Oh yeah, I started giving him about 2.5mg of melatonin at night to stop the pacing and going out. He has slept great the past 3 nights without any issues.
Any suggestions?
http://i1178.photobucket.com/albums/x376/EchoDog02/part1_zpstdqy0way.jpg (http://s1178.photobucket.com/user/EchoDog02/media/part1_zpstdqy0way.jpg.html)
http://i1178.photobucket.com/albums/x376/EchoDog02/part2_zpsjmflsech.jpg (http://s1178.photobucket.com/user/EchoDog02/media/part2_zpsjmflsech.jpg.html)
Symptoms of all this were mild to begin with, which we just attributed to age. But after numerous peeing on the carpet and wood floor incidents, going outside 20+ times a day, lots of pacing, panting, huge thirst, and hind legs failing we knew something was up.
During the initial exam, he was tested for bladder infection, had a sonogram of his bladder and blood testing. His results came back negative. The blood test and symptoms all pointed to Cushings.
He was given Vetoryl 30 mg once per day (he's about 26/27 pounds). After the first 3 weeks, another blood test was taken and according to our vet, was responding well to the meds. (I'll post results of that second test).
The next test isn't until the end of August. It's every 6 months after that second test for loading.
In the last month, he is having days where he goes outside, comes back in, goes back out, over and over. He won't go downstairs on our deck every time. He'll come back in then just pee or poop, some days this happens up to four times, other days there are no issues.
He sleeps in the morning to afternoon for about 5 hours or more at a stretch.
He paces at night for a couple hours before he finally circles about a dozen times and about falls over settling down.
Some nights he sleeps through until about 5am-6:30am, other nights, he is up pacing and going out throughout the night. Not to be selfish, but this is killing my own ability to get a good night sleep.
The panting goes on and on at night, whether he is in pain, hot, or anxious, I don't know.
We spoke to the dr. and he said we could bump him up with another 10mg in the evening. With the cost of the already expensive 30 day supply, I couldn't justify another 10mg at night for a total of about 140 a month, plus another return to the vet after 3 weeks to have his blood tested again ($250).
Now, to top this off, we go on vacation in July. We need to have him boarded for a week. My worry is that 1) he goes out many times during the day, not like without the meds, but still a lot, and will have multiple accidents a day; 2) possible anxiety while boarded 3) there is some other underlying issue he has and at this point, I'm just keeping him alive for our own benefit. He doesn't seem "happy" like he used to. He doesn't see well, he gets confused, his hearing is shot, falls going up or down the stairs......the list doesn't end. But then some days he just shines and everything seems like it used to be.
I currently have an appointment for him to cross the rainbow bridge on Friday. It's killing me to have to do this. I canceled the first appointment at the beginning of June because it didn't feel like the right time, and I don't expect it will ever feel like that.
Below is his last lab work from the end of March. Oh yeah, I started giving him about 2.5mg of melatonin at night to stop the pacing and going out. He has slept great the past 3 nights without any issues.
Any suggestions?
http://i1178.photobucket.com/albums/x376/EchoDog02/part1_zpstdqy0way.jpg (http://s1178.photobucket.com/user/EchoDog02/media/part1_zpstdqy0way.jpg.html)
http://i1178.photobucket.com/albums/x376/EchoDog02/part2_zpsjmflsech.jpg (http://s1178.photobucket.com/user/EchoDog02/media/part2_zpsjmflsech.jpg.html)