Reese, 8 y/o Chihuahua — starting trilostane (Reese has passed)

[bspeters3]

I'll use this post to introduce myself and see if I can get used to this format. My 8 year old Chihuahua, Reese, was just diagnosed last Friday. He is on day three on his medicine, Trilostane .25ml per morning. I first would like to know if anyone has had success with this medicine. I started him off with .125ml in the morning and a dose at night. I read that this helps to keep down any possible side effects. So far, no side effects from the med.. However, this morning he had a Neurological event that the vet couldn't determine the cause of exactly what it was. He said it seemed similar to Bell's Palsy in humans. Has this happened to anyone else's dog? Thank you for the forum and to be able to discuss this terrible disease. I pray that I can keep my baby with me a few more years.

[labblab]

Hello and welcome to you and little Reese — we’re so glad you’ve joined us! You’ll see I’ve taken the liberty of moving your post so as to create a thread that is your very own. This way, it’ll be much easier for our members to reply to you directly.

I will apologize for first asking you a bunch of questions before being able to answer your own. But the additional info you give us will be a big help in resolving the path forward. Can you tell us more about Reese’s overall health history, as well as the symptoms and testing that led to the Cushing’s diagnosis?

Also, how much does Reese weigh, and can you please look at the label on your bottle of trilostane and tell us how many mgs. of trilostane are in each ml.? That will allow us to figure out his exact dosage.

Last but not least, can you describe exactly what you observed happening during this neurological event?

Thanks in advance for all this additional info, and once again, welcome!
Marianne

[Squirt's Mom]

Hi!

I'm glad you and Reese made it here! Marianne has gotten you off to a good start so I just wanted to pop in and say "Howdy!"

Hugs
Leslie

[bspeters3]

Howdy back. :) Still trying to figure out the page.

[bspeters3]

Has anyone else had a dog have a Neurological event. The Vet couldn't determine what exactly is going on, but it seems that the nerve endings in Reese left side are preventing his eye from closing, but he can trigger a blinking motion. His left ear is motionless, and there is a plaque growing right outside both ears. Now his whiskers have been quivering, without him moving them. He also has some of the plaques on the bottom side of his tongue. Has this happened to anyone else's dog?

[Harley PoMMom]

Those plaques you are seeing could be calcinosis cutis which are calcium deposits, some cushdogs do get these but they are normally seen on the skin but can also be formed inside their mouths. The only true way to diagnose calcinosis cutis is with a biopsy.

Also, could you answer these questions that Marianne asked:
Can you tell us more about Reese’s overall health history, as well as the symptoms and testing that led to the Cushing’s diagnosis?

Also, how much does Reese weigh, and can you please look at the label on your bottle of trilostane and tell us how many mgs. of trilostane are in each ml.?

Thanks, Lori

[bspeters3]

Trilostane 48mg/ml; .25ml liquid each morning with food. Reese was 12lbs, and now he's around 11.8lbs. He has had a history of "Allergies", but was never officially tested. I started to see postings by Dr. Karen Becker about diet changes, on YouTube. Then I found her on Facebook, via Rodney Habib's Facebook page. I started to change Reese's diet, again, from Fromm Gold to canned Zignature. Reese's vet recommended Science Hill canned food single protein. I don't like Science Hill's bad reputation, so I asked the vet if Zignature was okay. She agreed, and he gets Zignature Turkey canned food. I have started to slowly introduce foods, Elimination Diet, and kept tolerated foods on his menu. I had gone through the Elimination Diet with my son (20 years ago) because of food allergies, so I was familiar with how to approach this. He gets scrambled eggs, with 2 tbsp of canned food, one veggie, one starch, and unsweetened applesauce for breakfast. He also gets a choice of one additional protein when available. His favorite starch is Sweet Potato. He gets something similar for dinner, minus eggs. Overall, besides allergies, he has been a healthy dog. He started getting eye ulcers a year and a half ago, and this started us on a downhill spiral of health. I hope this answers any questions, but feel free to ask more. Thank you, Reese, and his mom. :)

[Squirt's Mom]

What signs did you see that led you, or the vet, to start testing for Cushing's? Can you get the test results and post them here from the LDDS, ACTH, CBC, and/or wellness screening that shows things like BUN and CHOL? We need to see all the normal ranges for each value plus the little letters that follow, lik mnol/L or ug/dl, etc. We only need to see the abnormal values, too high or too low, on the CBC and wellness screen. Thanks!

EDITED TO ADD - did you show your vet any of the links I posted on the FB page? Did any of them seem to fit Reese's situation?

[bspeters3]

Reese has been seeing a vet for eye ulcers, and when he kept getting new symptoms I would check online to see what possibilities it could be. I suggested the Cushing's diagnosis to the vet months ago, but she just recently decided to test him. But, because another vet (ER)overreacted to what I thought was a bee sting, he had to wait for the Cushing's test until all of the Allergy Shot and Anti-Inflammatory shot were out of his system. Now, I searched the partial paralysis and had him tested for worms. Sure enough, before I even got back from the vet, I got a call that he is positive for worms. Now I have to call and find out if he needs to stop the Trilostane or take both meds. He had been eating poop, and I told the primary vet. She said not to worry, dog's with Cushing's might do this because they are hungry 24/7. Well, by the this past weekend, he had a Neurological event. The vet couldn't figure out why. So away to google I went. The second search came up with Roundworms, from eating poop. Bingo. Now, I have some answers.

[labblab]

Reese has been seeing a vet for eye ulcers, and when he kept getting new symptoms I would check online to see what possibilities it could be. I suggested the Cushing's diagnosis to the vet months ago, but she just recently decided to test him.
It will help us so much if you can tell us specifically what these new symptoms have been. The thing is, nothing you’ve mentioned thus far is really consistent with Cushing’s aside from perhaps a vulnerability to infection. But many different health issues aside from Cushing’s can affect the immune system. What are the exact symptoms that made you consider Cushing’s to even be a possibility? This information is very important, because both of the two “diagnostic” blood tests for Cushing’s can return “false positives” in dogs that don’t have the disease at all. That’s why consideration of actual symptoms is such an important part of the diagnostic process.

Marianne

[bspeters3]

The vet initially saw Reese for eye ulcers, from the inside of the eye, over a year and half ago. She gave him a series of several steroid eye drops for a year, then he started to exhibit other symptoms. He had x-rays of his liver and intestines, that showed an enlarged liver, and thickening of the intestinal wall lining. Then about the end of August, he looked like he had a reaction to a bee sting. I had given him Benadryl, but the swelling continued until a chunk of hair came out. I took him into an emergency vet hospital and they gave him a long lasting allergy shot, and steroid shot. Then the hair started coming out in clumps and leaving behind unusual scar tissue. I had suspected Cushing's before this event, and I had to wait until the long lasting steroid was out of his system to get him tested for Cushing's. The test came back positive and he was put on Trilostane. His symptoms were extreme thirst, aggressive eating, pot belly, hard time breathing, lethargy, depression, increased urine, darkening of the skin, liver spots, thin skin almost scale like, black spots that looked like ingrown hair, behavior changes turned from super friendly to snappy, on top of allergy symptoms. Each new symptom made me start to search for suspected problems. Some of the symptoms mimicked side effects of the steroids, but others were more obvious that something else was going on. His pads smelled of Fritos (yeast), and I found out it was from the Kibble, so I took him off Kibble completely. I have tried to deal with the symptoms as they occurred but he kept getting worse. He couldn't hold his urine for even 5 minutes and was having accidents in the house. I'm sure I probably have missed stuff, but this has been going on for a while.

[labblab]

Hello and welcome back to you. I’m so deeply sorry, though, to learn that you lost little Reese back in November. I saw that you had posted your memorial in lieu of a photo in your album, and I want you to know that sweet Reese has now joined our other angels on our special memorial thread:

https://www.k9cushings.com/forum/showthread.php?9294-Remembering-All-Who-Have-Left-Us-(2020)

I know it’s been a while since you were here with us, and we so appreciate you allowing us the opportunity to join you now in honoring your dear little boy. If you’d ever care to tell us more about your experiences during these past couple of years, it would be our privilege to read about them. But either way, we so appreciate the fact that you took the time to stop back by again now to tell us about Reese.

Best wishes to you from all of us at K9C, always in loving memory of your angel boy.
Marianne