Down the Cushings Road Again -- Abbie, 15 year old beagle is now at peace

prayers for sweet Abbie to start eating her regular breakfast but I am happy to hear she ate canned mixed with dry, and took her meds!
HUGS to your precious girl.

I think Miss Abbie and Miss Molly Muffin are co-authoring a book called "How to Confound Cush Parents and DVMs".

I'm so glad she has felt well during the low numbers. I can't remember, is Abbie on the Flagyl permanently, or will you be stopping that medicine at some point in time. A friend of mine had to take it for an infection and she talked about how hard it was on her stomach. I bet that is causing Abbie's nausea and she knows it so that's why she spits it out if she can detect it at all.

I think we can add Kenny's Gracie as a co-author! :D After taking her pepcid and benedryl without any reluctance, Abbie was not enthusiastic about breakfast and wouldn't have anything to do with the flagyl. We went for a good walk followed by chicken after which she gobbled up the flagyl. She definitely is finicky!

I did ask the vet last night if there was any problem with Abbie taking flagyl continuously--he said "no" but agreed we do want to try to wean her off of it at some point. When we have tried that before, the diarrhea returns. Hopefully, if we can get Abbie's cortisol lowered on a consistent basis, her digestive issues will resolve. Abbie has had chronic, intermittent diarrhea ever since I adopted her. I am always glad to see good poops! :D

I am going by the vet's office a little later to pick up ACTH copies--will ask him if he agrees with me giving Abbie the Lysodren after dinner when we start back next week. I will worry less about her refusing it.

Hi Judy,

you have been (and still are) on quite the journey with Abbie, I sure hope you will sort it all out (I'm sure you will down the road) :) But what an exceptionally gentle and sweet face does she have...wow :) Peanut butter monster or not...she's a total darling ;)

All the best to you and her...will keep on checking in,

Saskia and Quincy :)

Saskia--thanks so much for taking the time to read about my Abbie. She is a cuddle bug!

Started back on Lysodren after dinner--she eagerly took her peanut butter "treat". She has been wanting to go out to pee very often today. Not sure if that is related to the 10 day Lysodren break (in spite of her drastically low test numbers) or she has another UTI. Will see how she does the next couple of days.

I used metronidazole (flaygl) with Zoe. I tried to keep her on the lowest possible dose without losing control of her IBD once a day because I was always worried about the neurological toxic side effects although our IMS assured me she was not concerned about it:

Quote:

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Adverse effects in dogs and cats include neurologic disorders, lethargy, weakness, neutropenia, hepatotoxicity, hematuria, anorexia, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Neurotoxic effects include encephalopathy, cerebellovestibular signs and periopheral neuropathy.

Neurotoxicity following prolonged therapy is most often related to cumulative dose and duration of treatment.

Most canines who develop neurologic signs secondary to metronidazole administration have received weeks to months of therapy, but toxicity after short-term therapy at relatively low dosages (<60 mg/kg/day) has been reported.

---

I had to wean Zoe's dose down very slowly. When she had a flare up, I would up the dose and then carefully wean back down. The last two years of her life she took a small dose once a day, every day.

Hugs

Have you tried switching to slippery elm bark? Also, do you add probiotics?

Hi! I do want to wean Abbie off of the flagyl but don't want to introduce anything new, i.e., slippery elm bark, until we can get her on a Lysodren maintenance dose that keeps her in the right range on ACTH. She does get probiotics (Forti-flora) once a day on her dinner.

Renee -- what brand of slippery elm bark do you use? The least expensive one I have seen on line is the "Honest Kitchen Perfect Form Supplement".

Abbie has had a good day today -- no apparent negative effects from yesterday's Lysodren.

I would always advocate The Honest Kitchen products, because I love them! Perfect Form and ProBloom are great products they make for upset bellies.

I actually don't use any SEB, but I do add probiotics to all the meals for my pugs. I use B Natural's ultra probiotic powder. We also have some of the ProBloom which we give as a treat.

I had good luck with Arc Naturals Gentle Digest, and I totaaly agree that you should not change anything until Abbie is stable on the Lysodren.

I'm a huge fan of Honest Kitchen as well. The Zeal really helped Zoe.