Jasper (12 yr old Mini Schnauzer) is now at peace

Jasper has continued to drink (and pee) a ton throughout the weekend. He has been eating the dry low fat i/d food, but is not as enthused about it as the canned. For every meal both Saturday and Sunday he would walk away briefly from the bowl at least once, but then return on his own and finish everything. Now this morning he walked away a couple of times, has eaten about half and now will not finish. I am wondering if his appetite isn't so good because we have tapered the prednisone dose.

He has been getting the decreased dose of 2.5 mg daily since 11/13. Maybe since it has been 7 days, it is catching up and affecting his appetite? He seems a bit less perky since the decrease also. Maybe it is my imagination, but I don't think so. My vet and the IMS feel 5 mg daily is too high of a dose for him to continue on long term. I am wondering if maybe he won't be able to tolerate the lower dose? I will be talking to my vet today, she is supposed to be calling to check in, so of course I will see what she has to say.

Tina and Jasper

Hi Tina,

I hope the vet has some answers for you today. Tasha takes 1.25mg of pred daily and she weighs 13 lbs...and acts just like one would expect with a pup on daily pred - lots of drinking and peeing and always starving. Sounds familiar, huh? ;)

It's not uncommon to see a slight increase in water intake when a pup goes from wet to dry feed because of the higher moisture content in the wet feeds...nor is it uncommon to see a pup prefer wet to dry feed as it tastes so much better. :D Not that I've tried either one, nooooo, not me! :D

Hang in there and let us know what you learn. You're doing a great job, Mom!
Hugs,
Leslie and the gang

Tina,
I hope you find the answers from your vet. Please let us know what he/she has to say.

BTW: Leslie, you made me laugh when you were talking about "NOT" trying the wet/dry dog food. Hmmm, I have to wonder. :confused::confused::p:p
It reminds me of a few months back when I was trying anything to get Bo to drink water by even getting down on all fours near his water bowl and showing him what he needed to do. Not that I really drank any. LOL We do it all. :D:D

Tina, Happy Thanksgiving to you and Jasper. Crossing fingers for answers.
The thing with Jasper is that he seems to react to any and every little change in a big way. That makes it hard to tell what is going on with him. :( Interested to see what your vet has to say.

hugs,
Sharlene and Molly Muffin

Thanks Leslie, Belinda and Sharlene for the support. Jasper ate just a few bites of his dinner tonight and then walked away from the bowl. He almost acts like maybe the food doesn't smell good. I just left the food there and each time he went to get a drink, which is quite often, I could hear him eating a few bites. He managed to finish it over about an hour or so. This is totally unlike him. His whole life before Cushings he would always finish his whole meal, no problem.

I just got done talking to my vet a bit ago. We discussed all that is going on. She was disappointed and concerned to hear about the appetite issue, and the excessive drinking. She agreed that the increased drinking makes no sense since the prednisone has been decreased. This makes her think that maybe it is not a side effect from the prednisone, but really is a manifestation of the Addison's. She also pointed out that we are at the tail end of the Percorten also, so it doubly doesn't make sense. The IMS felt that his symptoms were due to side effects from the meds, but now she isn't too sure since the drinking is so excessive now. His intake has been 72 oz daily for the past 4 days, and he is on track for that today also.

She recommended that I see if Jasper will eat a small amt of the canned food tonight, and if so, start mixing in a small amt with the dry food for tomorrow. Well, he did eat it right down. So that is good, the last time he stopped eating he wouldn't even eat the canned food.

We discussed that maybe his cortisol is going back up on its own. We both don't really think so, but we are going to check a baseline cortisol after work tomorrow just to see where we are at with that. I will hold the prednisone tomorrow until after the test, and then we are going to increase it back to 5 mg daily to see if it will boost his appetite. And I think she is a little concerned about him maybe starting to head toward a crisis again. I did tell her that he seemed to really feel better when he was on the 5 mg dose. She is thinking he might not be able to tolerate the lower dose. We should have the cortisol result back on Wednesday, I will talk to my vet again then.

Sharlene, you hit the nail on the head - it is hard to figure out what is going on with him when he reacts so much to every little thing.

Ok, now for something funny. Well, it's funny now that it is all cleaned up. While I was talking to the vet about Jasper and taking notes on everything, my puppy proceeded to have diarrhea poo right in the middle if the living room. :eek: :eek: Where is the Calgon when you need it?!! My vet said I could give her a couple of half doses of Jasper's emergency metronidazole. We just had to laugh so I didn't cry, literally. I guess it was handy that I had my vet on the phone! :rolleyes:

Hugs,

Tina and Jasper

When it rains it pours -Calgon take me a way or Chocovino works quite well:D:D

Since he ate the wet willingly, could it be you may have to keep mixing wet in to the dry? They cultivate a taste for wet pretty fast;) The dry doesnt smell nearly as good:):) Oh the pups and food.

I hope things get figured out for Jasper, you have been trying so hard with him.

I hope you have a good turkey day!!!!!!!! AND I hope puppy feels better as well.

Hi Tina,

Something else to talk to the vet about today is the possibility of diabetes insipidus. This is a rare form of diabetes in which the body cannot process water normally and has nothing to do with blood sugars like diabetes mellitus, the common form. The testing for DI is risky so many vets simply start treatment to see if it helps. If it does, the diagnosis is confirmed and treatment continues. We have had several cases of DI here so it's certainly worth asking about. ;) Excessive drinking and urination are hallmarks of DI.

Let us know what you learn today and how this sweet boy is doing.
Hugs,
Leslie and the gang

Oh Tina. Poor Jasper. He's had a hard road lately. You are both due for some smooth sailing.
I certainly hope they can get this figured out so that you can find some sort of normalcy again.

hugs,

Sharlene and Molly Muffin

Thanks Everyone. Yes, things have been a bit discouraging, but I am trying to stay positive. Jasper is eating his dry food with about 1/4 can of the canned food mixed in. I am hoping that continues, tonight he hesitated a bit but did finish. I took him in after work and he had a resting cortisol drawn. I am anticipating that it will still be way low, but who knows. I gave him a dose of prednisone 5 mg after we got home per my vets direction, as the pred was held this morning. We did not see the vet tonight, the blood was drawn by a tech.

Leslie, thank you for your comments about diabetes insipidus. Kim had also mentioned this to me a while back as something to look into. I think you may have even mentioned it before also. I remember I started to research it, and then Jasper got sick with colitis, wouldn't eat, etc. If I asked my vet about it then, I don't remember what she said. I did some reading about it while I was at work today, and will definitely be mentioning it to her and asking about it when we talk tomorrow.

A couple of the resources that I read mentioned that the nephrogenic type of DI can be caused by adrenal disorders such as Cushings, due to the effects on the kidneys. I searched and searched but wasn't able to find much information about that specifically. It sounds like this type is the more difficult to treat. The other type is called central DI which is more successfully treated, and is treated by desmopressin drops. It sounds like this treatment is not effective for the nephrogenic type.

So, I will see what I can find out from my vet when we talk tomorrow. She mentioned that she would have the cortisol results by then, it must go out to a lab in town.

I am struggling to stay positive about things and not get really discouraged. I know that being sleep deprived is contributing to this. Getting up every couple of hours during the night to let Jasper out continues to take its toll. I am praying that somehow we can get this under some control. And at the same time I know we have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving season. We are so incredibly grateful for all the dear friends we have made on this forum, I can't thank you all enough.

Love and hugs from me and Jasper

Tina, Hang in there. Couple of thoughts - first off Glynda posted an article written by a well known specialist and it talked about schnauzers and how prone they are to get certain diseases and both types of diabetes were mentioned. I think it's worth checking out.

Also was wondering if the change in food and change in prednisone at sort of the same time didn't make things harder to figure out. Give Jasper a big hug from us and have a great thanksgiving ok? Kim