Canine Cushings Disease

[Xxena]

HI ... my beloved male pitbull, age 8 - was diagonsed last week with
Canine cushings disease... luckily its in the early stages and my daughter who's a degreed Vet tech noticed the signs on her trip here last month and told me to get him to the VET and told me what tests to ask for ASAP which is what diagnosed him.

We started the chemo loading (via pills) 3 days ago and the Vet warned he seemed to be in early stages so the often 5 - 7 day symptom period might be as soon as 2 - 3 to be very alert and call in the first signs not wait until he was really sick which meant mega overdose at that point which can through them into Addison's disease or the opposite of the problem (kinda like diabetes vs hypoglycemia).

Day 1 nothing.. Day 2 really nothing but husband fed him a tasty human food tidbit that was too hot and he barfed his whole dinner up.. I refed him and he was fine.

Gave him is meds this AM after his breakfast and he was fine all morning until early afternoon... he wanted to go out and did the "I REALLY HAVE TO GO NOW PLEASE".... we watched him closely.. sure enough what started out ok was diarrhea within seconds... pits are so hard to deal with when sick due to their
"nothing bothers me state of being"... he came in and was a bit mopey and lethargic... and I noticed once 'n while he walked funny like he was a bit tipsy.. then he started to beg to go out to eat grass....

.. call to the vet... she asked how long its been going on - off and on for 2 hours I told her.. it seems he's starting to exhibit a litte of all the warning signs in
small doses... You're right she replied and you have been great knowing what
to look for and catching it right as its starting before he got too sick from
the drug overdose.. you know what to do next I"ll see both of you in the AM for the blood work and results..

We gave him the other med which works like an antidote and within hour later
he's pretty much back to his old self, but a tad mopey still...

This is as bad as when MY KIDS were little and really really sick and I was worried out of my mind... he's my midlife baby now...

Daugther vet tech and our Vet says he should be fine once they get his weekly dosage right and then he only has to take his chemo drug once a week to
keep the tumor from growing and his levels in check..

I sure hope so.. this is nerve wrecking... anyone else dealing with a long term
Cushings Dog ?????

[BabyRider]

Xxena....nice to see you back, but I'm sorry it's with this sort of news. Cushings, surprisingly is one of the very few diseases I have never some across in my tech days.
They'll tweak the dosage and get him right in no time.
Praying for your puppers. Give him lots of hugs from us!!!

I googled "canine cushings disease" and found a site that's very positive and optimistic about survival rates.

http://www.kateconnick.com/library/cushingsdisease.html

Hope your little guy feels better soon.

[Xxena]

My daugher the vet tech emailed me a bunch of stuff when she thought that's what he had, and i did my own research and he's healthy otherwise so most likely will do well with his meds and proper diet etc. its just hard to see something you care about that always gives that unconditional love suffer and cannot verbalize it to you with hope in his eyes you make it better. he's snoring up a storm in his dog bed, so he's probably feeling better by now. She works in the emergency field/surgery as her specialty and has seen, in her words .. too many cases of this and its ying/yang... guess that's why she was so quick to pick up on it.

She apologized today when I talked to her for yelling at me when she was here that he was still too fat for his own health not thiking until later that it was bloat from the untreated cushings... the bloat went down so fast today when he started to react to the loaded chemo doses he almost looked emaciated at one point. I've put him on such a strict diet no wonder he begs continually.. he really is hungry for his bulk and size. Once we get him straightened out and on right dose I have to up his food for the day to his body mass and size - he' s twice the size of the female and eating the same as her restricted diabetic diet.

Geez... get the youngest human kid out of the house and finally time for US and now I have the female dog i treat daily with shots for her diabetes twice a day along with a strict diet and now my boy max with this cushings.... didn't realize when I retired from the paramedic field years ago it would move into the
animal world ! My field is animal behavoir and canine pack order, not their medical needs ... but it crosses over more than most would realize between human and canine. Human's get Cushings also and its for the same reasons and treated very similar i've learned as I read up on it.

that's for info guys and the well wishes for mad max here !

Baby... I was reading off and on but i had surgery 4 weeks ago so I've not been doing too much of anything lately but sleeping and recupterating.. much less posting on any of the boards. Soon as i was up to it, was back to work for the business...

[abbey]

Xxena, i'm so sorry to here your baby is poorly, big hugs to Max and yourself.
Hope you're both on the mend soon x

[cherandbuster]

Xxena, I understand dog love.

Buster 'n I send our very best wishes your way.

Dogs rule

[Xxena]

Max says thanks to everyone for their wishes... we just got home after spending
2 plus hours in the van in the parking lot of the vet. He's so dog aggressive
they finally agreed that its easier on everyone to come out and draw blood,
give injections etc as needed right to him in the van .. the worst is on me just
sitting there with him the whole time. But his numbers came in good this AM they said..right where they wanted them so the chemo is working and he will most likely go onto the one dose a week when the last test results come back later. That does there is no real side effects so hopefully we're back on line and just have to watch for any odd ball episodes an dthe same symptoms.

thanks all for wishes ... now I have to get back to work and catch up on the last 3 hours. good weekend all

[BabyRider]

Oh, good news for a change!!! That's great Xxena. Keep us updated, please? I'm pulling for Max.

[Xxena]

We're having a good rest of the day... its sunny and it cooled down.. so doors
and windows are open and lots of cool things outside dogs like to smell..
we feel better, and that horrid "huffing/panting" that comes with the Cushings 24/7 is about gone.. he's only done it occassionally vs. continuously. he's just been doing his thing lying by the screen door checking his yard out and smellin stuff.. drinking toilet water, bothering kylee his house mate until she
growls at him (she's a crabby old girl and the house alpha dog) lying on my feet under the table as I'm working AS USUAL... things are pretty much back to normal which I could really use about now

Have a good weekend all...