First time posting

[Obi]

Obi is my dog's name.
She was diagnosed with cushings in January but I suspect she has had it for a long time.
The cost of the blood tests required every ten days means she is not being treated.
I don't know if the disease is causing her to be aggressive or her age.
She demands attention more and more by snarling and growling. This behaviour starts when she wants me to get out of bed. I stay there until she is quiet.
She is 13 1/2 years old.

Thanks

[Renee]

Hi there -

It would be very helpful to us if you could round up all your vet records for testing and bloodwork and share those results with us. This will help us give you much better feedback.

What breed is your pup and how much does she weigh? What prompted the cushings testing in the first place? What are her symptoms?

Is she currently on any medications or supplements?

The aggression you are describing brings a few things to mind - one is that she may have a thyroid issue, which ise known to cause personality changes. The other is that she may be so hungry that she is literally trying her best to get you out of the bed to feed her. The cushings (if she has it), can make your dog ravenously hungry.

[DoxieMama]

Welcome to you and Obi, though I'm sorry for the reasons you've found us. As Renee said, the more information you can provide about Obi, the better we can help.

I look forward to getting to know her!

[Allison]

Welcome to the forum!

My experience with Cushings is minimal. Our dog that had Cushings came to us as a foster and had a host of other ailments. So, I can't actually offer any advice; just hugs!

But the ones here are very knowledgeable and helpful. If you post vet records, I know you'll get some help and advice.

[Obi]

Obi is not medicated because I can't afford it
There is always food and water available although the other dogs like to guard the dry food.
It cost me 1k to find out she has Cushing's, so I believe she does in fact has it.

[labblab]

If Obi has a pituitary tumor, there is one medication that you could try that does not require the monitoring blood tests. It is called Anipryl (generic form is selegiline), and it successfully treats a small percentage of Cushpups who have tumors located in a specific area of the pituitary gland. However, it is also used to treat canine cognitive disorder, which may also be contributing to Obi's behavioral changes. It might not help things, but it may be worth a try and warrant discussion with your vet. Here's a link with more specifics about the medication:

http://www.1800petmeds.com/Anipryl-prod10335.html

Marianne

[kanga]

Welcome to the forum sorry about what happen to your pup hope you find the best advice here.

[lulusmom]

Hi and welcome to you and Obi.

Deciding to treat or not to treat is a very personal decision and we are here to support and help you no matter what decision you make. However, I would like to share as much information as possible so that your decision is an informed one. You mentioned that you could not treat because you spent $1k to confirm the diagnosis. Having had two cushdogs, I know that diagnostics are very expensive and whew, it was a relief to have that part of the ordeal behind me. Treatment does require monitoring but it absolutely does not have to be done every 10 days so I'm not sure where you received that information. If your vet were to prescribe the recommended dose of Vetoryl of 1 mg/lb (2 mg/kg), I believe it would be fine to do the first acth stimulation test at 30 days unless signs of low cortisol required one sooner. If symptoms have resolved by 30 days and Obi's test results are within the therapeutic range, you could continue with the same dose and retest in three months. I'm sure you will agree that this is much, much better than every 10 days. I'm not sure any of us could afford to treat our dogs if we had to do acth stimulation tests every 10 days. :eek:

If your vet uses cortrosyn as the stimulating agent for the acth stimulation test and s/he is agreeable to learning, you can save quite a bit of money on the tests and I mean hundreds of dollars. Cortrosyn is what makes the stim test so dang expensive and most vets don't know that you don't have to use the entire vile. You only need to use a fraction of it for smaller dogs who can have multiple tests out of one vile. Dr. Mark Peterson, a renown and very well published endocrinologist created a Q & A website to help educate vets and pet owners. One of his Q & A pages is instructions for vets on how to split and store cortrosyn for future use. Many of our members have helped educate their vets who were happy to learn and save their clients money. Please see the url below which you may want to share with your vet, regardless of your decision to treat.

http://www.endocrinevet.info/2011/03/how-to-extend-your-supply-of-cortrosyn.html

If I had a very senior dog who I knew had degenerative disk or joint disease, I would probably not opt to treat; however, if my dog was otherwise healthy and I could afford to treat, there is no question that I would do it again. I've seen amazing transformations with treatment in my two precious cushdogs as well as two rescue dogs. I do know that dogs with cushing's often times have high blood pressure so I recommend that your vet keep an eye on that. Dogs with cushing's often have protein in their urine and this should also be monitored by your vet.

Marianne mentioned Anipryl as a possibility for treatment of pituitary dependent cushing's, as well as canine cognitive dysfunction. It is not an inexpensive drug and if you live in the U.S., you can buy a less expensive alternative, Selegiline, which is the active ingredient in Anipryl. If Obi has cognitive problems, Anipryl is pretty effective. Unfortunately, it is rarely effective for canine cushing's because the tumor must be located in the pars intermedia lobe of the pituitary gland. Only a small percentage of dogs have a tumor in this lobe and even if a dog responds initially, the symptoms usually overcome the effects of the drug at some point. Having said all that, if I had a very senior dog with relatively mild symptoms, I would consider Anipryl in order to avoid subjecting the dog to the poking and prodding of blood tests.

As I said, no matter which decision you make, we are here to help and support you and Obi. It would be very helpful to us if you would please respond to Renee's questions. I have the very same questions so I won't repeat them here.

Glynda

[molly muffin]

I just want to say hello and welcome to the forum.

The others have presented some options for you to think about, all of them are viable and could help the situation with Obi.