Introducing Snoopy (10 y/o Beagle) Hypophysectomy

[Snoopy]

Hi all
Its great to found this Forum about Cushing. We've got a Beagle,almost 10 years old, who's been diagnosed with Cushing last year.
In September lst year she had a big operation to remove the abnormal pituitary. This kind of surgery is common in Holland and they do have a specialist who's an expert in this kind of operations.
After such an operation Snoopy recoverd really well and beside her daily medication to make up for the loss of the hypophysis she's doning fine.:)
At the moment I don't have any real questions but love to read all your stories and do hope there will be more people who had their dog operated so we can share information.
Bye Mienke

[mytil]

Hi Mienke,

I just wanted to say hi and welcome to our site. Thanks for posting this wonderful succes story of a Hypophysectomy (the removal of the pituitary gland).

There have been to my understanding some advances here in the States on this kind of surgery, but nowhere near what is routinely done in Holland.

Please continue to keep us updated.
Terry

[BestBuddy]

Hi Mienke,

Welcome to you and Snoopy.
Tell us more about the surgery. I am so glad Snoopy is doing well.

Jenny

[ChristyA]

Mienke & Snoopy,
Welcome! Wow it is really great to hear of such a successful surgery. I'm looking forward to the day when they do hypophysectomy sugery here in the US. Please tell us more about the surgery and recovery time.
Christy

[Harley PoMMom]

Hi Mienke and Snoopy,

Welcome from me too :) There is one member on the forum, Gina, whose pup had surgery done, I believe it was endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery. Gina's Lucy was the first pup to have this done, I'm not sure of all the details, but I know it had to do with the removal of a huge tumor around the pituitary gland, maybe even the gland itself, not sure. Hopefully Gina will be along and share her story with you.

Like the others, I would love to hear more about Snoopy and her surgery.

Take care.
Lori

[Roxee's Dad]

Hi Mienke,

I also wanted to welcome you and Snoopy. I am very glad you told us about your and Snoopy's success story :) I am looking forward to hearing more details.

Your picture album is very nice and Snoopy certainly is a handsome boy. Who is the other beautiful pup in your pictures?

[SasAndYunah]

Hoi Mienke :)

Welcome to you and Snoopy. Glad to hear the surgical removal of the pituitary gland was such a succes for Snoopy. I assume the surgery was performed at the Universiteitskliniek at Utrecht?

Like you, I am from The Netherlands :) I came here several years ago when my dog, at that time, was diagnosed with Cushings. He passed away a little over 3 years ago, but I still hang out here every now and then :)

Again, welcome...

Saskia and Yunah,
The Netherlands :)

[Snoopy]

Dear All
Thank you so much for al your kind words. :)
I'll try to respond to all the questions ....
Snoopy has been on and off diagnosed with Cushing for the past 4 years. Everytime the diagnose was the beginning of Cushing but at an early stage etc etc. Last year she was sick again and thanks to the persistancy of my Vet ,we got her to Utrecht the biggest Vet Uni hospital of Holland. After her examination (Ultrasound and scan with bloodtest) the diagnose was clear Cushing ! Unfortunally the tumor was a big one into the Hypophysis so the only option we had was an operation. Luckily there wasn't a enormous waitinglist so within a couple of weeks we had her back in Utrecht for the operation.
She had to stay there for 5 days and they operated on her for a couple of hours. To remove the Hypophysis and the tumor they went straight through the throat . After the operation Snoopy stayed at the IC for 2 days before moving back to the normal unit . We picked her up on the Friday and after 2 days of sleeping and sleeping she started to act a bit normal.. A sleeping Beagle is normal but the way she slept was a bit scary. Anyway after a week of medication and little walks and no Border Collie (Sam her best mate always full of energy) around Snoopy started to recover and within a month she was back to her normal self. After the first urine test we knew for certain that the operation succeeded because her urine ratio dropped from 35 to 0.3 !
Snoopy will need medication every day to make up for the loss of the Hypophysis and we do have regular visists to our Vet to keep an eye on her health. We also went 3 times back to Utrecht and after a year we only need to be back once a year
After almost a year Snoopy is still doing fine although she has a bit of trouble with some old age things . Her spirit is great and having the Border Collie as a mate she's getting enough exercise. She's still has selective hearing especially when she's off the leash with a rabbit around...better call the rabit back because no change of the beagle to come back !!
Please feel free to ask any questions and it's great to read all your stories as well
Bye Mienke:)

[Snoopy]

Hi Saskia
Thank you and yes Snoopy got operated in Utrecht. BTW I do like your video with your lovely dog ! Must be great to have a dog like yours.
Hope you're doing okay as well
Bye Mienke

[gpgscott]

Welcome to you both.

Good news about the successful procedure. We have only one member that I can think of who has had the procedure done here in the US, I think as a participant in clinical trials. I am not clear if it is the same exact procedure if it differs from the one done in Holland. Her pup has been doing well but she is not near as far out of sugery as Snoopy.

I am sure we will hear from her soon.

Welcome again.

Scott

[lucygoo]

Hello Meinke..
I'm the one whose dog had the pituitary removal here in the states in a clinical trial. Lucy's 11 1/2, and was diagnosed with cushings two years ago. She started having neurological symptoms, stopped eating completely, so after many tests I was a referred to a specialist, Dr. David Bruyette, who was just starting a study here in Los Angeles. Turns out Lucy had a HUGE tumor, 2.5 something centimeters, so they operated right away, May 13 of this year, went in through the roof of her mouth, made an incision and took out everything, including the pituitary.
I wish you had been here during that time. I was a mess! Had no idea what to expect, as Lucy was the first dog here to have that done. I was desparate to find out any info from the trials they had in Holland, so I read the study, but there was no info on how the dogs did post-op, really. Lucy was in the hospital for almost two weeks, was temporarily blind, couldn't walk..neurologically she was a mess for almost a month. Now she's almost back to normal, but still has some issues going down steps and when we're outside walking. She seems sort of unsure and unsteady.
She is however 100 percent better than she was. She's due for another check this week, and the doctor wants to lower her cortisone again. Currently she's on 12.5 milligrams of cortisone a day, and levothyroxine. It's great to hear that your dog is doing so well, and I look forward to talking with you:)

Gina and Lucy

[SasAndYunah]

Hi Gina and Lucy,

this might be an interesting link to you. Unfortunately it is only an abstract and the review is from 2002 but done by THE Dutch specialist in this area.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T3G-46YJ4G3-C&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=942114145&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=288ccca4aeea30580a221207f0e3cee0

If you click on the tab that says "Figures/Tables" you can see those as well and they are pretty interesting.

Saskia and Yunah :)

[lucygoo]

Sas and Yunah..
Thanks for the link. That looks like the same article I read, but somewhat easier to understand. The only reason I don't like to read the results part is that they say the dogs that didn't do well are the ones that had large tumors, like Lucy. Unless I mis-read something. My understanding is that in the Netherlands they take it out right away, right after diagnosis. Hopefully they'll do that here soon...as it would save a lot of pain and aggravation.

The other thing I wanted to ask Meinke about was diabetes insipidus. Did Snoopy get that after surgery, and did it ever go away? That's the other thing we're dealing with.

Gina and Lucy

[Snoopy]

Hi Gina
Wow I thought we had a rough time with Snoopy but reading your story ours is nothing!
for a start if you google Pathobiology and oncogenesis of pituitary corticotroph adenomas in dogs you will get straight to Jeanette M Hanson who wrote her thesis with some hopefully helpful articles for you.
My Vet , who's very involved into the whole matter went to her graduation and lent me the booklet . Some articles are too many figures but most of them are reaonable to read. She wrote her thesis about the following up after the surgery and side effects etc. I'm not sure if the whole booklet is on the internet but maybe it's a bit helpful.
Snoopy doesn't have diabetes insipidus. In the beginning it looked like it because of the amount of water she still was drinking but the blood and urine tests figured out that this wasn't going on. She's on Forthyron200mg twice 1 1/4 a day and cortison 5mg 1 in the morning and 1/2 at night. She also gets 1 drop of Minrin a human medicin to keep her urine concentrated and stops her from drinking too much .
Snoopy 's weight is 15kg and they told me in Utrecht that she really needs the cortison so if she's sick and doesn't wanna eat anything (yes even Beagles do have that sometimes ) she needs an injection with cortison.
I do hope you'll find the information helpful and hopefully it'll give you some answers . We'll keep in touch
Bye Mienke