Oscar, Chihuahua, 10 y.o., Vetyrol?

[Anastasiia]

Hi everyone!
We are really lucky to find you. My buddy Oscar has been diagnosed with cushings disease a few days ago on Cyprus. Our vet back to Ukraine was suggesting to start the treatment nearly half a year before, but we won't do that until we are completely sure.

We first felt him unwell nearly a year and a half before. After making a few tests, the vet said Oscar had a diabetes, which was really unexpected. Frankly speaking, we would argue the diagnosis for a few weeks, as injecting insulin for the whole life seemed really frightening. After his glucose level reached 20 we started insulin injections. Now his dosage is 3.5 mg twice a day, but glucose level stays between 13 and 20/22 points. It stays the same despite us increasing or decreasing the dosage.

The high amount of glucose in his blood made our vet complete some other tests, that showed that Oscar also has hypothereosis. We started to give him Euthyrox 75 twice a day before a meal. At fist glucose started to decrease slightly, but after a week it came back to the same level.

Ukrainian vet suggested us to make a test to see if Oscar has cushings disease and it showed positive half a year ago, but he was quite stressed in the clinic and also didn't show any specific visible symptoms (except of diabetes ones, like drinking and urinating a lot), so we decided to retake a test. A few days ago we received the results from IDEXX laboratory. This time instead of taking his blood at vets, we collected his urine for three days in a row and sent it frozen to the laboratory by DHL from Cyprus. The test showed positive again (I've attached the scan copy of the investigation results and latest blood test).





So after such a long message (sorry for that) my question is, should we start Vetyrol (the recommended dosage of our vet is 10mg once a day, Oscar is 4 kg)? We are hesitating, cause Oscar still doesn't have a lot of visible symptoms. His fur is mostly OK, the only place, where it won't grow after shaving for ultrasound, is his tummy (but still there is a small amount of undercoat fur). Well, during the recent months his tummy became bigger, especially it can be noticed for a few hours after a meal. And he also have black marks under the fur. Anyway, his fur grows well.

We are really frightened by all the side effects of Vetyrol, and as Oscar is now quite stable, compared to one year ago when we notice diabetes, he has a good (even very good) appetite and quite enjoys his life, we can assume, that the disease is progressing slowly. Won't we do worse by starting Vetyrol? We are really worried.

[Anastasiia]

Hi everyone!
We are so lucky to find you. My buddy Oscar has been diagnosed with Cushing disease a few days ago on Cyprus. Our vet back to Ukraine assumed it was Cushings half a year before, but we didn't want to start treatment until we completely sure.

We first noticed he was unwell a year and a half ago. After doing a few blood tests we discovered a high glucose level and our vet suggested us to start insulin. We argued the diagnosis for a few weeks, but after his glucose level reached 20 point, we started a therapy.

Now his insulin dosage is already 3.5 mg twice a day, considering his weight - 4 kg. Unfortunately, Oscar's glucose stays between 16 and 20 points most of the time, and won't go lower, despite us changing the dosage. This made our vet do a few more tests, that showed us the another Oscar's disease - hypothereosis. We started a treatment for it nearly a year ago ( we use Euthyrox 75 twice a day 30-60 mins before a meal). At first, his glucose seemed to go lower with Euthyrox, but after a week it went back to the same level.

Our Ukrainian vet suggested us to make Cushings diagnosis half a year ago, and then Oscar's blood showed positive Cushing result , but as out little buddy was quite stressed in the clinic and didn't show any specific visible symptoms, we decided to retake the test. A few days ago we received the results, and they are positive again. The second test was made by IDEXX laboratory. We collected his urine for 3 days in a row and then sent it frozen from Cyprus by DHL. I attache the investigation results here in the message as well as the latest blood test taken on Cyprus.





So after such a long message ( sorry for that) my question is: shall we start the Etyrol? Our vet here on Cyprus recommends us to start with 10mg dosage once a day, but we are really frightened by all the side effects listed and discussed on the Internet. We are hesitating, as Oscar looks good, especially comparing to one year ago, when we diagnosed the diabetes, his fur looks also nice, he is quite active and enjoyed his life. From the Cushings symptoms, we've noticed, I can only name big tummy ( especially for a few hours after a meal), some black spots on his skin and that after shaving for ultrasound screening of his stomach, the fur there stopped growing ( but it grows successfully everywhere else). We are really confused, as Oscar is luckily quite stable right now, and we are not sure what should we expect after starting medication for Cushings.

Any suggestions and help would be really appreciated.

Kindest regards,
Anastasiia and Oscar

[Squirt's Mom]

Hi and welcome to you and Oscar!

I have merged these two threads and almost deleted the second as a duplicate but two do not contain the exact same info so I left both posts. I did however delete one that was gibberish letters. Looked like a child had tried to talk with us.

I want to give you the link to our sister site, K9Diabetes. They are the experts on canine diabetes and will be able to give you the best help with that condition. Here is where you can find them (go register asap if you are not already a member. )-

http://www.k9diabetes.com/forum/

The starting dose of Vetoryl (Trilostane) is 1mg per pound/2mg per kilogram. So for a pup weighing 4kg the starting dose would be 8mg. Since Vetoryl doesn't come that way the closest you can get is either 5mg or 10mg unless you get it compounded in which case you can get the exact dose of 8mg. BUT not all countries nor all vets will allow compounded drugs so that is something you need to look in to for your country and talk to his vet about IF you decide to treat.

I have to run now but did want to welcome you and especially give the link to K9diabetes. Run on over there now so you can get both sides of the pic.

Hugs,
Leslie