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Thread: My “maybe cushing” dog

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2017
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    Default My “maybe cushing” dog

    Hello, I have an 8 year old Alaskan Malamute named Yaco. He has been undergoing tests for about 2 years now, without a firm diagnose. And he is getting worse... . From the start we had a suspicion for cushing because of his symptoms. He had a surgery for his heel and his wounds wouldn’t heal, his hair didn’t grown back after shaving, he stopped shedding and his nice black & white coat became all brown/beige. His blood results showed a low T4 concentriation and although the tsh value was good, at that point our vet told us to start meds for hypothyroid. We did this for 1,5 year and everything kept getting worse even faster. He lost half his coat, he kept getting infection all over his body without a cause, we noticed him drinking and peeing a lot. And he was very tired again all the time. He fastly gains weight when we don’t put him on diet food, etc. ... . We had him castrated because one vet said it was Alopecia x. Didn’t help... . I suspected cushing and the specialist also dat the symptoms But they did a Ldds test and it was negative. So we had to keep looking they said. This was 1 year ago. So I went to do Some research myself and I noticed in his blood samples he also had high Alkalische fosfatasen, without the liver itself being bad. He had an echo done, But they told me due to his size and bad skin they could only see half of what was inside. So we did a CC ratio test which was positive (But the vet said this could have multiple causes). But everything kept pointing to cushing. The infection has now set on his bones already So we are getting scared for the future with no diagnose. So now we started with the vetoryl treatment because everything (except the Ldds test) points towards cushing. so his symptoms in a tot: muscle contractions, he had testikel atrofien(testicle atrophy), drinks lots, lots of peeing, he eats very good and gains lots of weight when we don’t pit him on a diet, hé has a low T4, his AF are Higher, his CC ratio test was high, he gets lots of infections on his skin and now also on his bond, hé doesn’t regrow any hair for 2 years, hé almost has no coat left, hé has black skin, ... I Will post blood results and acth and Ldds test results. who thougts on this and maybe recognizes something. I can’t post a picture from my cellphone, But Will down load from my computer. Thank you for your thoughts.
    Last edited by Squirt's Mom; 12-08-2017 at 09:56 AM. Reason: To clarify some things probably due to auto correct and language difference, such as using Eng for 'testicle atrophy'

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Georgia
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    Default Re: My “maybe cushing” dog

    Welcome to you and Yaco! It sounds as though you both have been through a great deal during these past couple of years. From your description of Yaco’s symptoms, I surely understand why Cushing’s has been considered. The “negative” LDDS result is puzzling, although a small percentage of dogs with Cushing’s do come out with negative results. You mention that an ACTH has also been done, so we will indeed be anxious to see the actual numbers for those two tests as well as any abnormal values on other tests.

    In the meantime, can you tell us how much Yaco weighs and also the size of his Vetoryl dose? For how long has he been taking it, and have you seen any changes in his symptoms thus far?

    Once again, I’m very glad you’ve found us, and I look forward to learning more about your boy.
    Marianne

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2017
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    Default Re: My “maybe cushing” dog

    Yaco weighs now 55kg (122 lbs), when we first started going to the vet he weight 70kg (154 lbs), we gave him little food but he kept gaining weight. So we had to put him on a very very stricted diet because he had to loose weight for his hips, back and hind legs. So now he is at 55kg (122lbs), but only eats soooo little a day of diet food otherwise he would get big again in a blink.
    He first got vetoryl 30mg for 10 days. Then at the 9the day we had the ACTH test with following results: pre-acth 58nmol/L and post-acth 262 nmol/L. After that my vet told us to raise the dose by just a little bit, so now we are giving 40mg/day and have another test scheduled december 27. I will post some pic of the lab results over 2 years (the most important ones)
    This is him now and 2 years before:



    octobre 2015



    november 2015


    october 2016



    februari 2017 (with LDDS negative test results)



    october 2017



    november 2017 (CC ratio urine test)


    I hope you can all read them.

    Thank you
    Last edited by Hanne Kuppens; 12-09-2017 at 07:25 AM.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Washington
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    1,063

    Default Re: My “maybe cushing” dog

    Welcome to you and Yaco - what a beautiful boy! I am not an expert in reading test results, but there are some people here who are very knowledgeable (like Marianne who posted above). I am sure she, or others, will be along to help you interpret the test results you shared. Hopefully they will be able to help you determine what is going on, and offer suggestions to help your beautiful boy feel better again!

    Shana
    Mama to Jackson and Kira, and my darling Cushing's angel, Visuddha

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
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    Georgia
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    Default Re: My “maybe cushing” dog

    Thank you so much for posting all these results. When I have a bit more time, I’ll try to return to them and consider them in more detail. One thing I believe I’m noticing is that he has been consistently anemic, with low red blood cell-related counts? Has your vet made any comment about that, because I believe that may signal an issue separate from Cushing’s.

    Also, I’m just curious as to whether he is still taking the thyroid supplementation. It’s true that some dogs spontaneously recover from low thyroid counts once their underlying Cushing’s comes under better control. But other dogs jointly suffer from true hypothyroidism in addition to Cushing’s, and require ongoing thyroid supplementation throughout.

    I’m surely hoping you’ll soon see some improvement from the Vetoryl! Bear in mind, though, that during the first month of treatment, cortisol levels can continue to drift downward even when a dose is left unchanged. So even though Yaco’s dosing increase at the 10-day mark was small, you’ll want to immediately alert your vet if he seems to worsen rather than improve prior to his retesting at the end of the month. You want the Vetoryl to do its job, but you don’t want cortisol to drop too low.

    Again, thanks for posting this testing info and I’ll be watching for additional updates.
    Marianne

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2017
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    Default Re: My “maybe cushing” dog

    Thank you for your respons. None of the vets I went to has commented on the anemic and the low red blood cells, and I have seen lots of vets with these results. One of the tests was made in our university animal clinic. But with any of the results I always had the feeling that I had to look trough them. This is one of the reasons why I'm so hopeless right now, I'm having the feeling that the vets do nothing, don't even read the tests they take. I have to tell them each time "doesn't that seem to low" or "is it normal that that value is this high?" So that's why I got the feeling that I made the diagnose of cushings but I'm not a vet. I also read that its better to check the blood again after 10 days if you raise the dose, to be carefull, but my vet stood by 30 days. So I'm keeping a close eye on him.

    Not really seeing any progress yet, but he doesn't seem te be getting worse either, so I guess I have to be patient...

    He is no longer on thyroid medicin. We did it for 1,5y, but he got even worse faster while giving this. So we spoke with the vets and decided to stop it. Also because the first diagnose of hypothyroid came from a blood test with a too low T4 BUT normal TSH. Which means, they say, that the hypothyroid is secundary and so caused by something else. They did say that it could be, even if we found the cause (maybe cushing), that it wouldn't turn to normal and we have to start giving it again.

  7. #7
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    Georgia
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    Default Re: My “maybe cushing” dog

    I am definitely not an expert on blood counts, so it may very well be that on those occasions when Yaco has been out of the normal range, the variation is not large enough to worry the vets. So if multiple vets have reviewed his results and are not worried, then you can probably just disregard my concern.

    It does make sense to me that Yaco’s low thyroid result may indeed be secondary to Cushing’s. What the vet is saying about this is consistent with what we’ve been told, too. But it will be interesting to see whether his thyroid level does improve subsequent to treatment with Vetoryl.

    Thanks again for all this additional information!
    Marianne

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