Flynn 11 y/o Foxie Cross - Right adrenalectomy- Good Bye Flynny We will miss you
Hi – I would like to introduce myself and my beautiful boy Flynn, he is a just turned 11 year old Foxie cross. I rescued him from wandering on a busy road when he was approx 6 mths old. No-one claimed him so he ended up mine and I love him to bits
Our problems started last November when he suddenly collapsed, he has doggie day care with my parents while I am at work so they rushed him to the vet. He perked up with IV fluids but an ultrasound scan showed a large liver mass. Bloods slowed very elevated liver tests with ALT and ALP off the scale. A biopsy was done which was benign and we rushed him to the specialist vets and he went on and had a 650g mass removed, histology showed a masive low grade hepatocellular cancer which we were upset about as the initial biopsy was negative but his surgeon said this tumour has a very low chance of recurrence. YAY. He hated the pet hospital and cried the whole two days he was there. Of note, a preop CT scan showed two nodules on the other side of his liver. They were biopsied, and are benign. The surgeon said if there had not been benign he would most likely not have operated.
Prior to this, Flynn had nondescript symptoms that included weight gain we thought because of his ravenous appetite so put him on a diet, less energy, panting when stressed ie if we were eating, lipomas removed a year prior but mainly all back again, pot belly, shaky like a lot of foxies and he has always done this but it is much more pronounced, not so good at jumping, occasional diarrhea. He seems in discomfort, hangs his head when in back of the car and no, its not my driving! He does have a history of arthritis in his hips (from all those years of pogo jumping I think) plus when he was about six he injured his back, just above shoulder area. I am unsure whether this discomfort is due to that or some other cause. Vet did get a positive pain result when stretching his legs back to test. Apart from the diarrhea which has settled these symptoms have not gone away with the surgery.
He recovered from his operation, but not as good as I thought he would. So we were back to the specialists vet (3 hr drive from us) in January after blood sample showed liver enzymes still elevated, protein in urine, high blood pressure plus all the other symptoms listed above. His vet suspected Cushing’s disease and did the LDDST, which was negative and apparently he suppressed nicely. She asked for cortisol/creatinine urine test to be done once we were home. Which we did but unfortunately the local vet wrote the wrong thing on the form! At this appointment Ultrasound was repeated, the nodules seen previously were rebiopsied and negative again, they mentioned adrenals on the large side of normal.
We went back last week for further review when we found out the wrong test had been done on his urine.. he had protein/creatinine instead! Blood shows liver tests still high but slightly less than January, still protein in urine. Now we have a new specialist vet, so yet another scan shows only very minimal change in liver nodules but enlarged adrenal glands on both sides. They still think he has cushing’s and they whisked him off for a cortisol/creatinine urine test (via stab into his bladder), BP was high but not surprisingly as he so stressed out being there!!
So we are still in limbo here… waiting for vet to call me this week with the cortisol/creatinine result, although I am kinda kicking myself for allowing them to do that to him while he was stressed AND did they have to stick him with a needle to get the urine? I have read that he should be calm when he has this test.
He does have a lot of symptoms of cushings but not the some of the common ones like hair loss and excessive drinking/urination. Sorry I do not have his lab results to type in, I will get copies. But if this cortisol/creat is positive do you think I need to ask for more testing before starting any treatment? Thank you for reading my novel
Trish and Flynn
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