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Thread: New member Sadie - Vetoryl (lethargy)

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Round Rock, Texas
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    7

    Default New member Sadie - Vetoryl (lethargy)

    Dear Donna & everyone:
    I just stumbled upon this website and my dog Sadie girl is approx 15 yrs old and so far is a survivor of bladder cancer (via piroxicam) and now she has cushings disease. She has been on vetoryl for 1-2 months and so far we are deciding to STOP giving it to her now because her back legs are trembling and she can no longer seem to walk (due to lethargy). This is very scary to see. She will be having her hair trimmed tomorrow so that it is extremely short as to not trigger frequent panting and we'll see what happens over the next 2-4 days to see if she gains her leg strength back again. We are deciding to just deal with her excess thirst, hunger, panting (fortunately, cushings has not induced hair loss) so that we AVOID the side effects of these lethal meds. We may change our mind. I'll send an update in a few days to keep you all informed, but we just can't see other problems happen to her due to these pills! Best of luck everyone and talk to you soon... I would post a picture of her, but I don't know where to do so...

    Monica (Sadie's mom)

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Round Rock, Texas
    Posts
    7

    Default Re: New member Sadie - Vetoryl (lethargy)

    I forgot to mention that we have already tried reducing her 30 mg per day to only 15 mg per day (half powder)- 10 mg capsule per day does not help, but 15 mg seems to be enough does, BUT starting to cause the dangerous lethargy side effect. So we've tried adjusting the dose. In a few days, we might try 10-12 mg and see....but we are going to see if shaving most of her hair short and giving her NO vetoryl, if she will be just "ok". We're trying not to add to her list of problems by introducing new side effect problems....

    Monica

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Georgia
    Posts
    15,292

    Default Re: New member Sadie - Vetoryl (lethargy)

    Dear Monica,

    Welcome to you and Sadie. I have taken the liberty of moving your replies from the thread in which you had originally posted them, and instead created this new thread of your very own. This way, our members will be able to respond to you directly.

    I, too, feel very worried about Sadie's lethargy. How much does Sadie weigh? Also, it will help us a great deal if you'll give us some additional information about Sadie's Cushing's tests -- both those that were performed for the diagnosis of the disease, and also any ACTH monitoring tests since beginning the trilostane. Have her blood chemistries ("electrolytes") also been checked along with the monitoring ACTH tests? I totally support your decision to withhold any more trilostane until you have evidence that her cortisol level has not dropped too low and that her blood chemistries are within normal range. Her behavior right now is disturbing, and I don't think you should consider resuming the trilostane until you have these important testing results.

    Do you have any prednisone to give her in the event that she doesn't show some improvement during the next several hours? If not, and if she worsens, I encourage you to consult with an emergency vet to make sure that she is not crashing from an overdose of the medication.

    Marianne

  4. #4

    Default Re: New member Sadie - Vetoryl (lethargy)

    I have a 14 1/2 year old long haired mini dachsund who has had Cushing's for at least 7 years. I was giving her trilostane and then vetoryl (are they not the same thing?) for all these years. A few months ago she seemed to be going downhill.
    Drinking huge quantities of water and completely incontinent and off her food (a combo of ID and WD). the vet suggested doubling up on her med and we tried two different antibiotics. Nothing worked and she was also very agitated waking up and pacing at night.

    At wits end and both of us very depressed i went to a holistic/ homeopathic vet. She observed Vicki and first suggested that i cook for her- and also prescribed a homeopathic remedy called ars album. that did not seem to be working and she doubled the dosage after a couple of weeks. She is a new dog!
    She sleeps peacefully- loves her food (every day is Thanksgiving) with a combo of chicken rice sweet potato and broccoli- and she is not drinking copiously. She still has accidents in the house, but far fewer. i feel like i have my dog back. i am still giving her 10mg of vetoryl a day but i am willing to work with the doctor and see if i can get her off that.

    i know she wont live forever but the quality of both of our lives has been greatly improved. i was very sceptacle but this treatment has really helped.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Round Rock, Texas
    Posts
    7

    Default Re: New member Sadie - Vetoryl (lethargy)

    Thanks Marianne for your feedback regarding the ER. So far so good and of course her legs giving out happen on a wknd when our Vet is closed. It was scary to see, but so far she appears to be improving. As for all of the tests you mention, I'll need to get copies from the Vet to get baseline numbers and I'm not sure if we will take her in for the second evaluation set of numbers mainly for 2 reasons. 1) her age. she is already so old; it stresses her out even more to be going into clinics, traveling in the car, getting poked with needles, etc. We can sort of tell by observation at home whether she appears to be improving regarding cushings in evaluating if the meds/dose is working 2) we don't really want to chase numbers. If she were younger or had less arthritis, or didn't have cancer tumors all over her body (including her bladder- of which years ago they did operate on her bladder in which the cancer tumors returned), etc. then we would probably go back and forth to the Vet in order to steady out the numbers, but unfortunately we are in a tough place now. We'll see what we decide to do in 2-4 days. At this point, we are truely trying to focus on the QUALITY of life - not quantity. It's hard, though cuz we want her to live for another 15 years, of course.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Round Rock, Texas
    Posts
    7

    Default Re: New member Sadie - Vetoryl (lethargy)

    Hi julmersaul@gmail and thanks for the info. Yes, we too are also giving Sadie good human quality food- ground turkey and ground chicken breast w a couple of scoops of SOJOS fruit/veg sprinkles. I am very eager to research ars album. It's another idea. Thanks again for sharing. I'm going to google it right now...

    Monica

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Round Rock, Texas
    Posts
    7

    Default Re: New member Sadie - Vetoryl (lethargy)

    Dear julmersaul@gmail:
    Is Arsenicum Album CUSHEX? If so, we tried this already. Sadie probably has had cushings disease for 2-4 yrs, but we didn't know. We thought it was just old age. So recently we took her in and found out about her disease so over the past 3-4 months we tried Cushex for 1-2 months and there was absolutely no improvement. We gave her the recommended drops that the bottle said for her weight- however, we never doubled it though...something to think about. Anyways, after that we tried Vetoryl and that is what she has been on for these past couple of months...

    Monica

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