My Pug Scoop (Precious Scoop has passed... )

Sharlene-Thank you too for your love and support and the kind words. It's wonderful knowing so many people care about us. It took me a while to type my last response so I stopped for lunch then came back to it so I didn't see your post till I was done with that. It's funny cause I asked about the little Bissel and here you have one. I saw on Amazon that they sell ones that say about pet instead of green machine. Do you think it's the same one? They were around $150 then you could send for a $20 rebate.

You are so right. I don't remember when I had a "happy" day last. Probably before this past July. That's when everything hit. The holidays were ok but thinking this is probably Scoop's last ones with us made it hard but I was happy he was here with us for these.

We have a daughter, her name is Molly, who lives at home. So she stays with Scoop while I go grocery shopping on Sat. mornings if my husband is working. Then when he comes home if we want to go out for lunch, Molly stays with Scoop again. So there is some extra help. I have to think and talk to my husband about that "safe place". We want to make sure Scoop can't hurt his eye with the ulcer either. During the week I just stay with him all the time.

Thanks for your kind and loving words.
Hugs right back to you and your Molly

Hi again, Vicki.

Here's a link to a summary of the research study you were asking about:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19041802

My own Cushpup (the yellow Lab who is my avatar photo) was treated with trilostane for about seven months before he started exhibiting worrisome neurological problems. He started to stumble and lose his coordination, at times paced endlessly around the house (went off into rooms by himself and just kept walking around, even into closets), he just wasn't "himself" when we'd talk to him or try to engage him, initially got really picky about eating, and finally stopped eating and drinking entirely. It seemed as though he was hungry and thirsty, but when he went over to his bowls, it was as if he couldn't remember how to make his tongue and mouth work anymore. :(

As you can imagine, this was so painful to witness, and things really got very bad very quickly. He was at a stage where he would have needed IV nutrition and hydration to survive, and this in conjunction with being taken to a university veterinary center away from our city had we pursued the radiation. Traditional treatment consisted of radiation three times weekly for at least a month, and each session required a general anesthetic. He had always been terrified at being left at the vet's for even an hour, so the notion of him being hospitalized for a month away from home -- with all those treatments -- was not something that we felt we could subject him to, even had we been able to afford it. So we instead made the decision to release him from any further suffering.

On the flip side, we have had members who have successfully pursued this type of radiation therapy and received some extended quality time for their dogs. And we have also had a genuine pioneer -- one of our members was the first dog to undergo a cutting-edge surgery for tumor removal in Los Angeles. There are also some centers around the country that are experimenting with shorter and innovative courses of treatment, with mixed results so far in terms of our few members who have pursued them.

At this point, though, I think it's hard to know whether or not Scoop's problems are really associated with an enlarging tumor or not. And I'm afraid I'm not knowledgeable enough about the interaction between diabetes and Cushing's to know whether it makes more sense to leave a trilostane increase on the back burner for the time being. My own thought was that perhaps the glucose levels would be more manageable if the cortisol level was lower, although your vet seems to be suggesting the reverse. So is it the chicken or the egg -- I don't know...:confused:

Anyway, wanted to let you know that I'm still thinking about you guys and hoping that things start straightening out before long.

Marianne

Hi Vickie,

Hope you and Scoop are both having a better day today.

Hugs,
Leslie and the gang

Hi Vicki,

If you have any luck finding a good deal on a green machine or similar, let me know:):):)

We bought a regular carpet cleaner and I wish I would have purchased the smaller one Sharlene was talking about. It seems much easier andmore handy!!!

Leslie-Thank you very much.

Addy-Sharlene gave me a link to the Bissell little green machine on Amazon. It was $80.99. I haven't look anywhere else.

Scoop had a BG curve yesterday. His numbers were high, one high 200s, rest 300s. The vet said even though they are high he didn't have any huge spikes like last time. Boy, is this confusing. Now because they are more even she wants to do an ACTH which he is past do for but she wanted to wait to try to get the BG's better. Will the ACTH give a true reading with high BG's? I know this isn't the site for this but this whole BG thing is crazy. Two curves before this one his numbers were lower but she raised his insulin one unit to try to get them a little better. Then his numbers went up and she raised his insulin 2 units. This time she didn't change it. I posted Scoop's numbers on the diabetes site. I'm just so... I don't know what word to use.

Hi,
Thank you for sending me good wishes for my little pug. And please give Scoop and kiss and a hug from me.
I was curious about something: You mentioned that the vet removed Scoop's ear canal. Could that be affecting how he responds when you call him? You said he often faces the wrong direction when called. Also, maybe his unsteadiness is in part to loss of hearing on one side?
My little pug lost sight in one eye first and someone told me that when you have only one eye you lose depth perception, so it becomes difficult to navigate. Close one eye and give it a try. Just a few thoughts, but this may shed some light on a few of his behaviours?

BugsMum-Thanks for the kiss and hug for Scoop. Yes, I talked to Scoop's neurologist about his behavior. He said it could be because of his blindness and not being able to hear on the one side and not too good on the other side that could be the reasons for the way he is or if it is the tumor. He said we will probably never know. Also, he has had problems with his balance since last July when he had Vestibular disease and he never lost the head tilt. He also has weak back legs from muscle wasting. He also has arthritis in his front legs. He is pretty steady in the house but in the yard is a different story.

Marianne-Thank you for the link. I wanted to respond to you before but when I read your post about your lab, it's been hard. It makes me cry. That is so heartbreaking. So sorry you and your pup had to go through that, Scoop's vet said we will probably just have to go by when he stops eating to tell he's had enough.(I don't mean food) She has him eating so much of the W/D food I think he might start getting tired of it. The other night he stopped about 3/4 of the way through. I got scared and my husband said he is probably sick of all that crappy food. I mixed a teaspoon of Raleigh's food in it and then he finished. I just get so scared over everything. You mentioned about centers that are experimenting with shorter courses of treatment. Are there some threads or links to these? I'd be curious to read about them.

Does anyone know of any research that is being done on Cushing's? Since nobody seems to know what causes it, I was wondering if it is being researched. Why do so many dogs get this horrible thing?

Vicki:
Thanks for reading my post on Tipper. I am with you on the research. I have suggested before we all need to band together and get a research project started on this. It is the most heartbreaking of dog diseases because of the lack of research on it to provide good solid answers. I will help do it if anyone else wants to try to get this started. Think of all the dogs going undiagnosed and pet owners think it is old age. Many could be helped by this research development. Think of all the dogs that will get this disease after our dogs. There are so many with this disease I am shocked nothing real gets done about it. After researching the subject I was shocked and the numbers of dogs with this disease.

Tipper's mom-When Scoop's vet went to a conference months ago she printed out some notes for me. It said that between 90,000 to 100,000 dogs are diagnosed each year with Cushing's. That is so unbelieveable.