Cushing's Disease Any Info

[yena]

Our friends dog as just been diagnosed with Cushing's Disease . Can you please post with your experiences of this disease or any info will be helpful.

 

 

ps I will be printing this topic out, so I can pass it on to her

[reds]

Do a search Yena, it's come up a few times before. Two things I would say: A) DON'T PANIC! The drugs (chemo) work absolute wonders, expensive but they are worth every last penny.

B) They need to get an ACTH Assay test done to determine which kind of cushings it is, adrenal or pituitary. Contrary to what their vets will probably tell them it DOES make a difference to treatment and treatment options. Regular ACTH tests (about every 3 months, a day in at the vets) will tell them how well the cushings is under control and whether or not the dosage needs adjusting.

 

Do they have insurance? You can also get an ultrasound done.

 

A very good website is: www.marvistavet.com Go to the pet web library and scroll down to Cushings. It will also give you links to an email group for Cushings which is a wealth of info and experience (lolawson).

 

Another website is: www.lbah.com

[reds]

Just to add, presuming they are showing the classic symptom of excessive thirst, always take water on a walk, even for short walks, and keep them in the shade if possible and let them lay down if needs be. Regular toilet breaks will be essential until the drugs take effect and the drinking and hence urinating is under control. Other main symptoms include:

 

Lack of hair regrowth and hairloss

Weak hindlegs

Extended abdomen

Abnormal signs of stress, eg. 'aggression'

Extremely excessive appetite resulting in bin raiding and eating anything and everything off the ground whilst out etc.

If unspayed and female she may stop having seasons as the hormones are so out of kilter

[yena]

Thanks reds for the links, I'll have a look and print some details out. I know that one of the symptons is a swollen stomach, at all that sure about the others

[Kimbas_mum]

My Mum and Dad's last Scottish Terrier was diagnosed with Cushings, her main symptoms at the time were excessive drinking and therefore urinating. She went on the drugs for it after ACTH testing and did really well, and had continued testing as Reds suggested every 3 months or so to check how it was all working. Her drinking was brought under control fairly quickly and so her urinating improved.

 

The one thing that we did really notice was the change in her temperament, she was always a fairly dominant bitch, but she did become slightly unpredictable with other dogs, some days she would be absolutely fine with anyone, other days she would take a dislike to the same dogs and have a go at them for no apparent reason, probably due to what her hormones were doing that day, we dealt with this pretty easily by only letting her loose to play with my dogs who could all stay out of her way if they needed to, if there were other dogs around she would be kept on lead just in case.

 

She lived a further3 1/2 years after diagnosis (I suspect more like 4 - 5 years from when she started sith the actual disease) and we eventually lost her to cancer at the age of 12.

 

Any questions PM me, I can find out the details of meds etc from Mum if you want.

[reds]

Ditto to Katherine Re: the changes in temperament. Cushings is an excess of cortisol which is the stress hormone so you can imagine the impact it can have on them. My girl was already a very nervous sort and the Cushings exagerated this, it did make walks harder when other people let their dogs run up to her but she was very good, just a lot of noise sometimes. You just need to be aware of it so you can attribute the cause of any behaviour alterations in that respect.

Again as with Katherine's parents dog, my girl was diagnosed at age 9 although she had been symptomatic for a good year - the vets initially said she was carrying too much weight (when she first started showing the pot belly) and then went through liver tests and steroids (the worst thing they could have prescribed for her) and eventually decided to test for cushings. Usual age of onset is around 9yrs. She lived exceptionally well for 2 years post diagnosis and only died as a result of metastatic lung cancer. We were extremely unlucky in that the fugures say that 5% of cushings is adrenal and we were not only amongst that 5% but also in the 5% of cases with adrenal cushings in which the tumour is malignant. It was chest x-rays prior to an adrenalectomy (which obviously never happened) that picked up the lung cancer.

 

Ours was very atypical but is why I always stress strongly that the ACTH assay should be done asap so that you know which kind of cushings you are dealing with. I asked for this test for ages but my vet always said it would make no difference, treat the same etc. Eventually after about 18 months her symptoms could not be controlled and she needed higher and higher doses, this was when they finally agreed to do the Assay test and unsurprisingly it came up as adrenal. Had we known before it might not have been too late to go for the adrenalectomy before the cancer spread. I repeat though, it was not typical for it to be malignant or adrenal.

[maxnjazz]

My girl Jazz was diagnosed with Cushings about 4-5 years ago now and is still going strong. SHe was about 9 at diagnosis and was treated with Vetoryl (expensive but very effective). Her symptoms were kept well under control with it for 3 years or so until she started going Addisonian (opposite of Cushings).

 

She is now off her medication all together (which has amazed the vet) and ticking along nicely. I would say she is probably aging quicker than I would have expected her to but apart from that I am pleased to still have her here this many years after diagnosis

 

Hope your friends dog responds as well