My girl pug (confirmed Cushings & confirmed calcinosis cutis) / Tobey has passed

Updating on my girl. She's doing good. Symptom control is great and CC is in 'remission', as I like to say. Her weight is up. Steadily been increasing over the last year, sadly. She's just under 20lbs. Ideal weight should be 17. I've been cutting back food, but with our horrible weather, she's not going outside, except to potty.

So... next question is: has anyone purposely tried weaning down the vetoryl, after getting good control, just to see how far they can push it?

Right now Tobey is on 20mg am / 20mg pm. Her last stim result was 2.3, 4.0.

I have cortosyn to waste (yay me), so I kind of thought about dropping 10mg off her nightly dose and seeing what impact it has on her cortisol levels.

Am I being too scientific at Tobey's expense?

Renee, my big worry would be allowing the CC to start back up again. You may be more of a gambler than I am, but after all you've gone through to get that under control, I'd sure hate to see it start flaring again. Right now, Tobey's stim results seem just about perfect. It's too bad that the Vetoryl is so dang expensive, because really, I'm not thinking of any other good reason to alter the dose right now other than the cost. Is there some other reason why you want to cut back?

Marianne

Hi Renee, unless you are seeing some odd new side effects that worry you, I would not rock the boat because you don't want to upset the apple cart.

Keep in mind that at some point you may have to adjust the dose up.
Dechra warned me that Zoe might need her dose lowered at some point.

If I remember, the stim before this last one showed pretty tight control. These numbers look good.

I agree totally with Marianne.

Yes, what you all say is true.

I'm not seeing any symptoms of concern (either too low or too high), but I am thinking that if she can have good control on a lower dose, then it's a win.

The truth is, I have cortrosyn to waste. I purchased an entire bottle and have four doses remaining that need to be used up in the next 5 months. With her numbers as good as they are, I'm not looking to need another stim test for 3 more months. Why not drop her dose by 1/4 and see how much her cortisol rebounds? The cost of her medication is not the motivating factor. Yes, it's expensive, but it doesn't hurt to buy it. Her numbers are very good right now, but I wonder (based on her previous stim test before this one), how much they will continue to drop? Keep in mind, her most recent stim test was after being back on her full dose for only 3 weeks. The CC is probably the only true issue that is giving me a reason not to try a lesser dose.

I'm just pondering at this point. Wish I could send or donate some of the cortrosyn to someone else. It makes me a little crazy to think of wasting it!

I can see you thought process, that she may go lower as before or even lower and then you wind up adjusting the dose anyway and then your cortrosyn will be expired.

If Tobey was only on that dose for three weeks before testing, then I would leave the dose alone and retest in another month. If her cortisol is lower, then you would have actual justification to make a dose adjustment at that point. But I honestly do not think it makes any sense to alter the dose now, when the numbers are perfect and the symptoms are well-controlled. Most people here would give anything to be in your position right now. :o

Wasting the cortrosyn is nothing compared to the pain Tobey will experience if the CC rears its ugly head again. ;)

Bumping up my thread so new people can find it, just in case anyone is dealing with CC.

I've decided to follow Marianne's recommendation and run another stim test in a few weeks to see if the cortisol comes down any more, then decide about lowering the dose or not.

Symptom wise, doing pretty dang good. I've had her into the vet to check for UTI, which has come back negative (culture done), but yet, something with her lady parts is persisting. She had some bloody type discharge for a day or so, and the hair around her lady parts got gunky... but, no UTI and it kind of cleared up. I have not seen any blood since. She is spayed, FYI, so I have no idea what's going on. At this point, the vet said the only next step would be to scope her, which we are both not inclined to do. So, I'm just waiting and watching. I'll probably retest for a UTI when she goes in for her next stim.

My other pug, Ichiro, is going in tomorrow. He's been having a lot of mobility issues. :( He's had a weak back end for years now, but this week just seems much worse. It's like he can hardly control those back legs anymore. He walks, but something is worse. I think the time is coming to order him a cart, but I'll see what the vet thinks.

Renee -- just one thought re the discharge/possible UTI. Did the vet use a free flow for the UTI culture? Abbie had a similar sounding discharge. Because of the possibility of contamination from the discharge, our vet did a cystocentesis to get a sample. She did have a UTI which we then treated.

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Originally Posted by judymaggie

Renee -- just one thought re the discharge/possible UTI. Did the vet use a free flow for the UTI culture? Abbie had a similar sounding discharge. Because of the possibility of contamination from the discharge, our vet did a cystocentesis to get a sample. She did have a UTI which we then treated.

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We always do cysto when running a culture, which is why I am confused. This girl. I swear, something weird is gonna happen, and it will be her!

My two boys, who are fixed as well, sure like sniffing around her parts too. It's like she has some infection or blood, but it is not from the urine. This is why the scope was mentioned. To see if anything else could be causing / leading to the blood or irritation.