zlypy
08-19-2022, 06:33 PM
I'm so grateful for the community the members and admins have created here. My life has been a whirlwind for the past few weeks and it would be great to share my story.
Pepper is a 9 year old shih-tzu/maltese. His story starts in March 2022, when he tore his ACL chasing a squirrel. Since I used to work as a vet tech, we elected to just rest him and let the ACL heal on its own. He was also his heaviest at this time (17lbs) so he started a strict diet. Even without exercise, he started losing 0.5 lbs a week, but also at this time his appetite went CRAZY, which we attributed to the lower calories and no more snacks and treats. End of March he eats 30 chocolate covered raisins my sister left out but with great vet support his kidneys didn't feel a thing. In May he starts waking up at 7am to pee (usually could sleep in until noon) but we assume he adopted my sister's school schedule. End of May he gets a dew claw infections that takes 3 weeks to heal. He's almost completely better on his ACL leg, but I start to notice his hind legs start bending a bunch when he walks and he started limping. He's had arthritis in the past so we were told not to really worry about it. Beginning of June he has two incidents of urinary incontinence overnight and we take him to the vet, and he's treated for a UTI. The vet also notices that his submandibular lymph nodes are very swollen and we perform a cytology that comes back negative. Two weeks later the urine is re-checked, the UTI is resolved, but he still occasionally urinates in his sleep. The vet recommended xrays and ultrasound but we decided to wait a week to see if it would resolve (because $$$$), and it did. Beginning of July his arthritis is still bad so I make an appointment at a holistic vet to try acupuncture and chiro. By the time the visit comes around 2 weeks later his hair is thinning, his belly has black dots, he has an abscess on the underside of his tongue, his belly is bloated, and he has noticeable muscle loss. The holistic vet immediately is suspicious of Cushings and performs a full blood panel, acupuncture, laser therapy, and gives us herbal medicine. The next week I follow up with my regular vet, who performs a LDDS test and ultrasound. Very high cortisol, mass on right adrenal gland. He goes on 15mg of Vetoryl, which we re-checked 3 days ago. His cortisol levels are under control but now his BG is super high (around 450) with sugar in his urine, so he started 2units Novalin-N yesterday. Past 3 weeks I've been taking him out around 3, 4am to pee, and now he's able to hold it until 7:30 again. We're rechecking BG on Saturday because on Monday I have a surgery consultation with a surgical oncologist. Crazy 3 weeks!!
I'm constantly back and forth between being sure he's going to die this month and being sure we'll get him to age 15. His activity levels have increased on Vetoryl (he did have 2 sluggish days), his appetite is back to normal (eating well but now refusing foods he normally would have before, like lettuce), he's peeing less, and today he even went up the stairs which he hasn't in months. So many symptoms were masked by other things; hind leg weakness = arthritis and ACL tear, big appetite = on a diet, bloated belly = used to be overweight and always had a big belly, peeing a lot = new wake up schedule, dew claw infection = couldn't keep his sock on and kept licking it, uti = he's had one last year.
We are definitely leaning surgery, but I'm afraid that Monday will give us news that he's a poor candidate, especially with this new diabetes thrown in (i suspect he's been pre-diabetic for a while and the Cushing's pushed him over). His ultrasound report said the tumor is 1cm and "resting" on the caudal vena cava, and the vet said she's unsure whether it's invaded it. I'm ready to do CT scans to see. I am so, so grateful that we got insurance right before everything started, but now I'm nervous that they'll kick us off (can they do that?). To top it all off, I have a trip scheduled for the 29 for a week and a half, which if that's when we need to do surgery so be it, Sweden can wait (crying).
My lingering questions that I hope to get advice on:
Can successful removal of the tumor reverse his diabetes?
If he has a successful surgery, will everything really go back to normal? His energy levels, his drinking, his hair loss?
When do you think his Cushing's really kicked off? I'm guessing it was around end of May when his hind legs started weakening. I'm worried that his body has had to deal with it for too long and he has irreversible damage.
Any recommended supplements? He's on a CBD chew, immunity boosting chew, fish oils, and various herbal medicines from the holistic vet.
Recommended diet? He's been on a home-cooked recipe for years now, and I just adjusted it to be 65% protein, 20% carbs, 15% fat. It's chicken breast, peas, carrots, zucchini, oats, safflower oil, and a vitamin blend specialized for this recipe. This week I introduced a nugget of raw venison in the mornings which he's been doing well on.
Also, side note: the holistic vet put him on turmeric and it is GOLDEN. His hind legs look way better, and since his ACL tear he used to pop his left shoulder out constantly to compensate for the injury and because of arthritis in his shoulder. About a week on the turmeric and his shoulder is nice and straight all the time. Definitely recommend if anyone's dogs are having arthritis issues.
I really didn't mean for this to be crazy long and yet.
Pepper is a 9 year old shih-tzu/maltese. His story starts in March 2022, when he tore his ACL chasing a squirrel. Since I used to work as a vet tech, we elected to just rest him and let the ACL heal on its own. He was also his heaviest at this time (17lbs) so he started a strict diet. Even without exercise, he started losing 0.5 lbs a week, but also at this time his appetite went CRAZY, which we attributed to the lower calories and no more snacks and treats. End of March he eats 30 chocolate covered raisins my sister left out but with great vet support his kidneys didn't feel a thing. In May he starts waking up at 7am to pee (usually could sleep in until noon) but we assume he adopted my sister's school schedule. End of May he gets a dew claw infections that takes 3 weeks to heal. He's almost completely better on his ACL leg, but I start to notice his hind legs start bending a bunch when he walks and he started limping. He's had arthritis in the past so we were told not to really worry about it. Beginning of June he has two incidents of urinary incontinence overnight and we take him to the vet, and he's treated for a UTI. The vet also notices that his submandibular lymph nodes are very swollen and we perform a cytology that comes back negative. Two weeks later the urine is re-checked, the UTI is resolved, but he still occasionally urinates in his sleep. The vet recommended xrays and ultrasound but we decided to wait a week to see if it would resolve (because $$$$), and it did. Beginning of July his arthritis is still bad so I make an appointment at a holistic vet to try acupuncture and chiro. By the time the visit comes around 2 weeks later his hair is thinning, his belly has black dots, he has an abscess on the underside of his tongue, his belly is bloated, and he has noticeable muscle loss. The holistic vet immediately is suspicious of Cushings and performs a full blood panel, acupuncture, laser therapy, and gives us herbal medicine. The next week I follow up with my regular vet, who performs a LDDS test and ultrasound. Very high cortisol, mass on right adrenal gland. He goes on 15mg of Vetoryl, which we re-checked 3 days ago. His cortisol levels are under control but now his BG is super high (around 450) with sugar in his urine, so he started 2units Novalin-N yesterday. Past 3 weeks I've been taking him out around 3, 4am to pee, and now he's able to hold it until 7:30 again. We're rechecking BG on Saturday because on Monday I have a surgery consultation with a surgical oncologist. Crazy 3 weeks!!
I'm constantly back and forth between being sure he's going to die this month and being sure we'll get him to age 15. His activity levels have increased on Vetoryl (he did have 2 sluggish days), his appetite is back to normal (eating well but now refusing foods he normally would have before, like lettuce), he's peeing less, and today he even went up the stairs which he hasn't in months. So many symptoms were masked by other things; hind leg weakness = arthritis and ACL tear, big appetite = on a diet, bloated belly = used to be overweight and always had a big belly, peeing a lot = new wake up schedule, dew claw infection = couldn't keep his sock on and kept licking it, uti = he's had one last year.
We are definitely leaning surgery, but I'm afraid that Monday will give us news that he's a poor candidate, especially with this new diabetes thrown in (i suspect he's been pre-diabetic for a while and the Cushing's pushed him over). His ultrasound report said the tumor is 1cm and "resting" on the caudal vena cava, and the vet said she's unsure whether it's invaded it. I'm ready to do CT scans to see. I am so, so grateful that we got insurance right before everything started, but now I'm nervous that they'll kick us off (can they do that?). To top it all off, I have a trip scheduled for the 29 for a week and a half, which if that's when we need to do surgery so be it, Sweden can wait (crying).
My lingering questions that I hope to get advice on:
Can successful removal of the tumor reverse his diabetes?
If he has a successful surgery, will everything really go back to normal? His energy levels, his drinking, his hair loss?
When do you think his Cushing's really kicked off? I'm guessing it was around end of May when his hind legs started weakening. I'm worried that his body has had to deal with it for too long and he has irreversible damage.
Any recommended supplements? He's on a CBD chew, immunity boosting chew, fish oils, and various herbal medicines from the holistic vet.
Recommended diet? He's been on a home-cooked recipe for years now, and I just adjusted it to be 65% protein, 20% carbs, 15% fat. It's chicken breast, peas, carrots, zucchini, oats, safflower oil, and a vitamin blend specialized for this recipe. This week I introduced a nugget of raw venison in the mornings which he's been doing well on.
Also, side note: the holistic vet put him on turmeric and it is GOLDEN. His hind legs look way better, and since his ACL tear he used to pop his left shoulder out constantly to compensate for the injury and because of arthritis in his shoulder. About a week on the turmeric and his shoulder is nice and straight all the time. Definitely recommend if anyone's dogs are having arthritis issues.
I really didn't mean for this to be crazy long and yet.