Kota&HursMom
12-31-2016, 08:54 PM
Hello all!
I found your forum about two months ago, before my dog's diagnosis (but my intuition believed she had Cushings), but waited to join until it was a definite diagnosis. Dakota was diagnosed in December. She just turned 8 on Nov. 11th.
A bit of a back story...
In August I moved back to California from Omaha for a teaching position. Unfortunately the moved happened at an inconvenient time, husband had just moved back to California and we were depleted, so I moved into a RV until I could find a better living situation.
In September, I noticed that she was peeing inside the RV during the day. She had never done this and I was alarmed. At first I chalked it up to the fact that she was living in a new area in a small living situation. Unfortunately she continued so about two weeks later we took her to the vet. The vet was at a loss, because at this point the only symptom was the excessive water intake and urination. I thought it might be a urinary tract infection, so I requested pills.
The vet suggested that we get an ultrasound done to see if it was a a kidney infection or worse. Because I just started my new job, we waited until October to have the ultrasound done. The ultrasound showed nothing. The vet then believed it could be leptospirosis or diabetes, even saying there was a very small chance that it was Cushings because nothing was found on the adrenal glands (course, now I know most Cushings is by a tumor in the pituitary gland). By this time, she was in a crate during the day getting bathed daily because she continued to pee during the day. I started waking up two times a night to let her out. I started doing my own research and really had decided that she might have Cushings. Only having my gut and her excessive urination to go on, I didn't fully trust myself (as a vet should know better).
The vet took her blood shortly after ultrasound, in November sometime, and concluded that she had leptospirosis. We put her on the medication for it. After we started the medication the vet wanted to do another blood test, to see what they leptospirosis was doing. That blood test showed that her liver levels were high and then the vet asked for a urine test, thinking it was diabetes. Then she noticed in that test, a count was high, so the vet suggested a cortisol test. By this time, my mother in law passed from stage four liver cancer and Dakota's vet visits were paused until beginning of December.
We took her in December for the cortisol test and on December 13, we received a phone call that she did in fact have Cushings. Because of the high chance of overdose, I started her on the meds - Vetoryl 60mg - on Saturday when I was home for winter break.
She has had a complete turnaround with water intake and urination. However two days ago I noticed that she was extremely wobbly and her equilibrium seemed off. Took her to the vet today and found out she has an ear infection for probably a while as Cushings dropped her immune system. So now we're combating Cushings and her ear infection.
I have done as much research as I could trying to make sure I know all the possible side effects of Vetoryl and make sure I am advocating as best as I can for Cushings in Dakota.
I'm hoping that I caught it early enough that she still has quite a life to live. My husband and I will be switching vets within the year (as we're moving to a more affordable location and not happy with the one we have) so hoping that she continues to improve and her tests results are easily transferred.
I'm hoping that joining this forum will make me a better advocate for her condition and make me more aware of the disease. I've scared myself with research but I want to be prepared for worst case and live with best case.
I found your forum about two months ago, before my dog's diagnosis (but my intuition believed she had Cushings), but waited to join until it was a definite diagnosis. Dakota was diagnosed in December. She just turned 8 on Nov. 11th.
A bit of a back story...
In August I moved back to California from Omaha for a teaching position. Unfortunately the moved happened at an inconvenient time, husband had just moved back to California and we were depleted, so I moved into a RV until I could find a better living situation.
In September, I noticed that she was peeing inside the RV during the day. She had never done this and I was alarmed. At first I chalked it up to the fact that she was living in a new area in a small living situation. Unfortunately she continued so about two weeks later we took her to the vet. The vet was at a loss, because at this point the only symptom was the excessive water intake and urination. I thought it might be a urinary tract infection, so I requested pills.
The vet suggested that we get an ultrasound done to see if it was a a kidney infection or worse. Because I just started my new job, we waited until October to have the ultrasound done. The ultrasound showed nothing. The vet then believed it could be leptospirosis or diabetes, even saying there was a very small chance that it was Cushings because nothing was found on the adrenal glands (course, now I know most Cushings is by a tumor in the pituitary gland). By this time, she was in a crate during the day getting bathed daily because she continued to pee during the day. I started waking up two times a night to let her out. I started doing my own research and really had decided that she might have Cushings. Only having my gut and her excessive urination to go on, I didn't fully trust myself (as a vet should know better).
The vet took her blood shortly after ultrasound, in November sometime, and concluded that she had leptospirosis. We put her on the medication for it. After we started the medication the vet wanted to do another blood test, to see what they leptospirosis was doing. That blood test showed that her liver levels were high and then the vet asked for a urine test, thinking it was diabetes. Then she noticed in that test, a count was high, so the vet suggested a cortisol test. By this time, my mother in law passed from stage four liver cancer and Dakota's vet visits were paused until beginning of December.
We took her in December for the cortisol test and on December 13, we received a phone call that she did in fact have Cushings. Because of the high chance of overdose, I started her on the meds - Vetoryl 60mg - on Saturday when I was home for winter break.
She has had a complete turnaround with water intake and urination. However two days ago I noticed that she was extremely wobbly and her equilibrium seemed off. Took her to the vet today and found out she has an ear infection for probably a while as Cushings dropped her immune system. So now we're combating Cushings and her ear infection.
I have done as much research as I could trying to make sure I know all the possible side effects of Vetoryl and make sure I am advocating as best as I can for Cushings in Dakota.
I'm hoping that I caught it early enough that she still has quite a life to live. My husband and I will be switching vets within the year (as we're moving to a more affordable location and not happy with the one we have) so hoping that she continues to improve and her tests results are easily transferred.
I'm hoping that joining this forum will make me a better advocate for her condition and make me more aware of the disease. I've scared myself with research but I want to be prepared for worst case and live with best case.