Remedies for panting and hair loss?

[Jasmine]

Hello! I’m new to the forum. My 8 year old was diagnosed last year. She is on trilostane and we are still trying to find the right dosage for her. She seems to be on streaks where she’s doing awesome, and then has flare ups. Her biggest symptoms are hair loss, panting, thirst and the pot belly. I give her milk thistle and just started CBD. Anyone have something else they’ve been successful with in addition to trilostane?

[labblab]

Hello Jasmine! Welcome to you and your Cushpup :-). Before trying to offer additional suggestions, it'll be a big help if we can find out a few more specifics about your girl's overall health history. In terms of her Cushing's, can you tell us how much she weighs, what dose of trilostane she's been taking, and results of any monitoring tests that have been done to measure her cortisol level while under treatment. You mention that you've been working on finding the right dose, so I'm assuming there have been changes over time. It'll help us to know how that has gone. When Cushpups continue to exhibit ongoing symptoms, our first thought is that perhaps the cortisol level has not yet been lowered into the optimal therapeutic range. So telling us more about her treatment history will be helpful to us.

Also, aside from Cushing's, has she had any other significant health issues? Any other medications taken in the past? Last but not least, has she had any general blood or urine testing recently that have identified any abnormalities other than those that are typical of Cushing's?

Sorry for so many questions right off the bat, but your answers will help guide us in terms of searching out the best path forward. And once again, we're so glad you've found us!

Marianne

[Jasmine]

Hi Marianne!

My girl Lola just had another test because I told my vet her panting is coming back more often and I was concerned about her belly. It seemed to go down but she has "flare ups" and some days it looks worse. I was also hoping to see her hair grow back, but it hasn't yet. She was diagnosed a little over a year ago and we started trilostane right away.

I do not know what the test results are in numbers, but the vet said that everything was in the normal range, but that we can still increase based on the symptoms. This has actually been the story for a while. Early on she seemed to stabilize and then the symptoms would come back. After the most recent test, we went from 6 mg two times per day and doubled it to 12 mg two times per day. She weighs about 14 pounds.

She has another test next week to check things out.

Lola also has pancreatitis. She didn't really have symptoms, but it was discovered after we did an ultra sound of her adrenals so we could determine if it was adrenal cushings or pituitary (its pituitary). Other than that she does not have health issues. She is in a low fat diet and her pancreatitis seems to be managed well. Sometimes she gets into my sister's dog's food or my parent's dogs food that is higher fat, and she'll bloat right up so now we're extra careful about making sure we pick up food bowls.

Lola sometimes has these panting fits, even with the increase and it breaks my heart. I make sure she gets water right away but she honestly seems defeated sometimes. I'm hoping I can find out ways that I can support her more. She's 8 years old now and the vet said with treatment they get another 5 years, but I'm determined to get her feeling better and being with us longer.

[Jasmine]

I should also mention that I have started her on CBD drops with her food since about a month ago, and I have been giving her adrenal support drops in her food for about 6 months now. It has ingredients such as milk thistle. I am not sure if it is working.

I have been considering cooking her meals instead of the dry food. She has Diamond Care weight management (very low fat and good for her pancreatitis)

[Joan2517]

Hi and welcome to the forum. You really need to get the results of those tests. The vet's office will give them to you. Increases based on symptoms is not a good idea, especially doubling. My big boy was acting the same and I increased his dose from 30 to 40 because the vet said I could, but he didn't seem okay. I had him retested and the results were under 1, I think like .4 or .3.

It would really help if we could see the results of his testing and also any bloodwork done with the highs, lows and reference ranges.

[labblab]

Hello again from me! I’m sorry it’s taken me a while to get back here, but I whole-heartedly agree with Joan’s request. In order to be most helpful, we really do need to know the exact numbers for those monitoring tests. On ACTH monitoring tests, the desired therapeutic levels of cortisol for dogs taking trilostane are different from the published “normal” range for dogs who do not have Cushing’s at all. Some vets may not be aware of this, and lab print-outs don’t always include the monitoring guidelines. So please do ask your vet to give you the exact dates and numbers for all ACTH stimulation tests so that you can pass that info on to us, along with Lola’s dosing history.

As Joan has also said, any abnormally high or low values on general blood tests are of interest to us, too. So really, the best thing would be for you to ask your vet for actual copies of all lab tests that have been run during this past year dealing with Cushing’s. Thanks very much in advance for getting this info!

Marianne