Cooper - diabetes and cushings - sweet Cooper has passed

Might the low dose antibiotic be Tylan powder? If not, ask the vet about it because you don't want Cooper to become resistant to them.

Did they give you any prednisone to have on hand in case he starts to act worse and did they check his electrolytes at the same time?

Sharlene and Molly Muffin

Valerie: the antibiotics will probably be simplicef since that's what his infection is responding too right now.

Sharlene: they did not check his electrolytes. He hasn't been in since his ACTH test on Tuesday. I called today to see what dose of prednisone I should give him if he has any issues over the weekend. The vet said 5mg twice a day.

He's doing well. The panting hasn't increased. If anything I'd say he's even perkier then a few days ago. The vet said he could still crash over the weekend so we're going to stay close to home to keep an eye on him.

The only new thing going on is he's shedding a bit. Granted it's July in Texas, but he's not a shedder. I'm off to research if that's something I need to worry about.

Cooper wound up on prednisone Friday. His back legs collapsed under him a few times. I brought him into our old vet (since it was 430 in the afternoon and they're 5 minutes away). I had prednisone on hand, but just wanted his electrolytes checked. I didn't get a printout, but I believe she said his sodium was 120 and normal range starts at 121 and his potassium was 100 and normal range starts at 101. She said he didn't need fluids but should start the prednisone. He's getting 5mg twice a day (he's 63 pounds now). We're going in this morning to the specialist, she wants to check him out and test his electrolytes again.

I'm going to discuss the possibility of not treating the cushings if it comes back (he started drinking tons of water again so it may be coming back already). The first time he overdosed on vetoryl I thought was completely my old vet's fault but now he's gone addisonian even with close monitoring. I'd rather deal with getting up to let him out multiple times at night than putting him through all this extra testing and risks. I'm sure she'll say that we can't regulate the diabetes without treating it, but it's worth having a discussion about.

I hate to hear this! It sounds like he may be quite sensitive to Trilo... or perhaps something else is going on instead of Cushing's? How is Cooper today? I hope he's feeling much better now. Let us know what you learn at the vet today.

Hugs,
Leslie and the gang

We're back from the vet. His electrolytes were perfect. He has been drinking a lot more the last day so the vet said to cut him back to 5mg once a day of prednisone and keep her up to date on any changes.

She said if the cushings comes back that we have to treat it if there's any hope of getting his diabetes under control. She said if we ever need to put him back on the trilo, we'll start with 10mg twice a day and just hope to lower his cortisol levels but perhaps not get them into the recommended range. Hopefully that will keep him from crashing again.

It could be the prednisone making him thirsty. My Jenny hasn't had any cushings meds for over a year we killed her cortisol production so much.

but the specialist we met with did tell me that if the ravenous appetite started to show up, to get her in and treat the cushings again since she would be miserable.

I feel for you and Cooper, you need a little smooth sailing time. Cushings is way more stressful to me to deal with than the diabetes.

Judi

Oh no, poor Cooper. That might work if the cushings comes back to just try to get it a bit lower and don't worry about range, just whatever works for Cooper.

Some vets say that if they go Addison, then it's a lot easier to get things stablized than it is with cushings. I don't know, I just know in Europe they use to advocate that as a method of treatment. I don't know if they still do though, I haven't heard that for a long time.

Hang in there!
hugs,
Sharlene and Molly Muffin

I've heard about killing off the cortisol production to make life easier. Given how sensitive and unpredictable he is with the trilo, I would never want to try it. I was kind of hoping that's what happened. It would be a whole lot cheaper and easier to regulate. It's still possible it happened, but this is playing out just like when he overdosed on trilo before. I'm expecting him to be off prednisone and back on trilo in a few weeks!

His hair started growing back a bit! We shaved him last summer and his hair never grew back. After a year, his brown hair was sun bleached and golden brown. His legs, belly, and middle of his back are his normal liver and white ticking. His shoulders and hind quarters are still golden brown though! I thought he'd never look like his old self again. I hope it grows back to its old length (his got long hair for a shorthaired pointer!)

The daily drama with Cooper just never ends. Starting on Friday there was a very dramatic increase in his thirst and peeing. I let the vet know and she said to cut him back to 2.5mg of prednisone once a day. It's Sunday and he's still drinking and peeing a lot. I think he's going Cushings again.

I don't know what to do anymore. How much more can I really do for him? I feel like the rest of his life is going to be ACTH tests, glucose curves, and urine cultures. One thing gets under control for a few days then something else flares up. UGH!!

He's up to 40 units of insulin twice a day. His blood glucose numbers came down just a little bit from his last curve, but that was on Wednesday before the drinking and peeing started again. I'm going to curve him again on Tuesday and see if perhaps it's another bladder infection and he's gone insulin resistant again.

Has anyone out there given up on trying to get everything under control? I feel like it's just never going to happen and in the meantime we're just throwing money down the drain. We're 8 months in and the only improvement is that he doesn't pee in the house every night. Granted that a huge improvement!! We're at 40 units of insulin and his numbers are only slightly better than they were at 8 units. Every time we start treating the cushings he goes addisonian. It's so amazingly frustrating!! But, he's doesn't seem to be in pain or uncomfortable, he's just tired and thirsty, so how can I stop trying my hardest to make him better?!