13.5 year old border collie i suspect has Cushings....anxious owner needs advice

[angel_sully]

hi,
Please bear with this long post.
So my 13.5 year old collie, Angel, had pyometra back in 2014 so had an emergency spay, all went well. after that she had increase in appetite, nothing major but vet said maybe just hormone change nothing to worry about.

Well over the last few months I've noticed increase in drinking and urinating (occasionally in the house in front of me) never over night time though. her hunger is out of control, she's constantly sniffing the floor looking for any crumbs she might find, snatches treats from my hand (never ever did that before) eats her dinner so fast i had to buy her a special bowl thats designed to slow her down.
She pants heavily most the day unless she's asleep. occasionally has the shakes when she's waiting for food.
She's started to get a small bald patch appear on her face just last week. She isn't malting properly all her hair just seems to be tatty and unkempt.

So i booked an appointment at the Vets and took her last week. She has fear aggression quite bad and the vet visit is always traumatic for both of us.
i got a urine sample and he tested it and said that the concentration was completely off, and there was protein and blood in the wee so has told me it looks like kidney failure (no blood test as she's so unstable and aggressive) so he gave her anabolic steroid injection to "boost" the kidneys and another steroid injection for her arthritis that he diagnosed she has (which i also suspected) and started her on a weeks worth of antibiotics (for the blood in the wee) he also changed her diet to a renal vet approved diet

Well i am utterly convinced now that she has Cushings she has 90% of the symptoms. Whilst i write this she is panting away, up and down and restless. we are back at the vets tomorrow with another urine test to see what that looks like after her treatment so far ?!

Just after some advice really, he never even mentioned Cushings.
Is she too old for Cushings treatment IF she has it.
Im so heartbroken by everything i just want to cry! and with her being so difficult at the vets it makes me more anxious!

thanks in advance for any replies

[molly muffin]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

She might actually have a UTI, which is quite common and can account blood in urine and could just have some protein loss in her urine.

If she does have cushings then steroid injections would probably make that worse, as steroid acts like cortisol, which is already too high if a dog has cushings.

There is no real way to tell about kidney or cushings without blood work, but they could test urine for a UTI. They need to culture it and try an antibiotic that will work for that specific type of infection. Maybe that would help her out.

Would she let anyone take blood if they came to your home instead of the vets or even in the parking lot, vs going in inside?

If a dog has cushings and no other health issues, then treatment can be done , but if there is kidney failure then you'd have to evaluate, quality of life. Dechra the manufacturer of vetroyl (for cushings) recommends caution or even not using with kidney failure.

The more you can tell us about your Angels health the better feedback we can give you.

[angel_sully]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply... I don't believe it's just a UTI, her health has been good, no problems until the pyometra at aged 11.
Blood tests then were all fine but no blood tests done since as no need for vet visit.
She's been shaking/shivering all this evening and yesterday she ate her own poop which she's never ever done in 13 years!! I will of course mention all this tomorrow at the vets.
If he agrees with me about testing for Cushings I guess he's going to have to wait a few weeks until these steroid injections are out of her system?
Yes I read about kidney disease being an issue with Cushings treatment, I would never keep Angel alive just for my benefit if she no longer had any quality of life.
It breaks my heart to even think of it though.

[molly muffin]

We definitely understand it is heartbreaking to even contemplate and hopefully it isn't something you will have to face for a long time to come.

I think that a general blood work, maybe a senior panel, showing BUN, Creatinine, an SDMA, (early detection kidney failure), thyroid test would be of immense value and take it from there. If something else is going on, cortisol might be high, and yes you would want to wait a bit of time for any steroids to leave her system before checking for cushings.
Thyroid can cause the same sort of symptoms as cushings, so that is a possibility.
You basically want to eliminate all other possibilities.