SallyO
06-23-2018, 02:10 PM
Hello Cushing's Family!
My name is Rachel, thank you for this forum! I have a beagle girl named Sally who is 8 years old, and although she hasn't been officially diagnosed yet, I have suspected that she's had Cushing's for at least a year and half.
Since April 2017 she has had one skin infection (hot spot) after another. Went to the dermatologist, suspected food allergies and put her on cytopoint injections because Apoquel and Prednisone did absolutely nothing (steroids, go figure!).
Last week Sally couldn't move her neck down to eat her food, so I took her to the vet. Got an anti-steroid/anti-inflammatory (Metacam) and her neck immediately felt, better, but I had a full blood work panel done because her symptoms of suspecting Cushing's was getting worse (excessive thirst/urination in house, weight gain, pot belly, aforementioned skin infections, restlessness and and most recently, panting).
The blood work came back last week with these alarming numbers:
ALT (SGPT) 127
Alk Phosphatase 1,825!! (normal is 130 and below)
Cholesterol 338
So I started to try to figure out what the heck to do. Thank goodness for this forum because I found the Cushing's clinical trial at UC Davis Vet Hospital and I was able to make an initial appointment with them on July 10, and I think Sally would be the perfect candidate since she has not started any Cushing's medications yet because she hasn't even been officially diagnosed, so all the tests that diagnose Cushing's will be covered if she qualifies, so a HUGE thank you to the kind soul who posted that a couple years ago!
For now, however, Sally is having hot spots again, and has been scooting her butt everywhere she can for the past 3 months. Anal gland expression does nothing. Anti-itch shampoo does nothing. Poor Sal has been in the cone zone the past few days so she doesn't chew herself up, but she still scoots all the time.
As luck would have it, I scheduled an appointment for this coming Tuesday with a holistic vet because I was unsatisfied with my original vet since all she wants to do is steroids. I scheduled this well over a month ago before all of this came to the surface, but it turned out to be perfect timing so hopefully I can give Sally some relief until she sees the specialist at UC Davis in a couple weeks without compromising her candidacy for the clinical trial.
Has anyone had any luck soothing these skin infections naturally? Or are chances high that I will have to ride this out until Tuesday? She's in misery and I feel horrible watching her suffer like this. :( This has already been a long road and I have a suspicion that she has advanced symptoms of Cushing's and her life might be cut way too short.
Thank you for any insights and I really appreciate the activity on this forum.
xo
Rachel & Sally O' Malley (and Molly Mush McButter, who is also my beagle girl for support)
My name is Rachel, thank you for this forum! I have a beagle girl named Sally who is 8 years old, and although she hasn't been officially diagnosed yet, I have suspected that she's had Cushing's for at least a year and half.
Since April 2017 she has had one skin infection (hot spot) after another. Went to the dermatologist, suspected food allergies and put her on cytopoint injections because Apoquel and Prednisone did absolutely nothing (steroids, go figure!).
Last week Sally couldn't move her neck down to eat her food, so I took her to the vet. Got an anti-steroid/anti-inflammatory (Metacam) and her neck immediately felt, better, but I had a full blood work panel done because her symptoms of suspecting Cushing's was getting worse (excessive thirst/urination in house, weight gain, pot belly, aforementioned skin infections, restlessness and and most recently, panting).
The blood work came back last week with these alarming numbers:
ALT (SGPT) 127
Alk Phosphatase 1,825!! (normal is 130 and below)
Cholesterol 338
So I started to try to figure out what the heck to do. Thank goodness for this forum because I found the Cushing's clinical trial at UC Davis Vet Hospital and I was able to make an initial appointment with them on July 10, and I think Sally would be the perfect candidate since she has not started any Cushing's medications yet because she hasn't even been officially diagnosed, so all the tests that diagnose Cushing's will be covered if she qualifies, so a HUGE thank you to the kind soul who posted that a couple years ago!
For now, however, Sally is having hot spots again, and has been scooting her butt everywhere she can for the past 3 months. Anal gland expression does nothing. Anti-itch shampoo does nothing. Poor Sal has been in the cone zone the past few days so she doesn't chew herself up, but she still scoots all the time.
As luck would have it, I scheduled an appointment for this coming Tuesday with a holistic vet because I was unsatisfied with my original vet since all she wants to do is steroids. I scheduled this well over a month ago before all of this came to the surface, but it turned out to be perfect timing so hopefully I can give Sally some relief until she sees the specialist at UC Davis in a couple weeks without compromising her candidacy for the clinical trial.
Has anyone had any luck soothing these skin infections naturally? Or are chances high that I will have to ride this out until Tuesday? She's in misery and I feel horrible watching her suffer like this. :( This has already been a long road and I have a suspicion that she has advanced symptoms of Cushing's and her life might be cut way too short.
Thank you for any insights and I really appreciate the activity on this forum.
xo
Rachel & Sally O' Malley (and Molly Mush McButter, who is also my beagle girl for support)