Newly Diagnosed

[Katha41]

My 9 year old Boston Terrier is recently diagnosed with Cushing. The back story is Eva was a rescue we had for about 1 year. We only had her for about a month when she was diagnosed with Hemocratic Anemia. She has been on long term Prednisone as a result. She is also on Cyclosporine while trying to ween her off the Prednisone. For a few months prior to being diagnosed with Cushing she began having trouble coming up the three back stairs, low energy, starving all the time, her stomach was more extended than usual. The day I took her into the vet I had noticed an open area near her uretha.

We are not (after speaking with her doctor) putting her on medicine for the Cushing. Her system just couldn't handle it.

What should I expect? How will I know if she is pain? How will I know to take the next step? Is there anything I can do to make her comfortable?

[LauraA]

Hi there. The Predisone is what will be causing the Cushings symptoms in your girl Eva. Once she is weaned off that the the symptoms should clear up. My non Cushings dog went through something similar, she had autoimmune anemia and was on Pred for just over a year. She was on really high doses to start with and literally within a few days was more cushingoid than my actual Cushings girl. It was a very long process of weaning her off the Pred but the symptoms do get much better as the dose gets lower and lower. I would say this is why your vet isn't putting her on any meds. It is called iatrogenic cushing's syndrome. And while it is frustrating (well I was very frustrated seeing her like that) there really isn't much that can be done till Eva is tapered off the predisone.

[Harley PoMMom]

Hi and welcome to you and Eva!

Oh bless you for giving Eva a forever home!! The type of Cushing's Eva has is the steroid induced kind and it's known as Iatrogenic Cushing. The only treatment for Iatrogenic is to slowly taper the steroid use, and in Eva's case that would be the prednisone. And I see that you have already started to reduce the Prednisone dosage, and doing this slowly is critical because long term prednisone use causes the adrenal glands to stop making cortisol, which is a natural steroid. A gradual reduction in the prednisone dosage gives those adrenal glands time to "wake up" and start producing cortisol again.

Sorry this is short but I'm at work, hopefully I'll be able to get here later on. If you have any questions please feel free to ask as many as you want.

Hugs, Lori