14 year-old Shih Tzu With Recent Cushing's Diagnosis

Hi Hannah

Glad to hear you are spending time with the babies and hubby, hope you are enjoying it and Hannah's poor back and appetite improved. I am interested to read how she is going on the vegetarian hypoallergenic diet as Flynn has been recommended the same and will be starting it soon when I have had a chance to talk to his local vet about introducing it. Is she just having the kibble version or wet food too? Another question, how do you get pills into her as I always wrap Flynny's in a bit of meat and he gobbles it down but I worry it will be much harder if he is only allowed kibble. Thanks for any tips and hoping she settles down again soon
Trish :)

Hi Julie,

I hope it is just the food for Hannah not being crazy to chow down. Maybe she just doesnt like being a vegan:):) I watched the videos of her, she and Izzy are so precious.

Maybe the steriod would help her. I know you want to try and we sure dont know if Hannah has Cushings.

It is so hard to know what is going on when we have so many issues with our pups but you continue to do a wonderful job, Julie, and Hannah is a lucky, happy little girl.

Try to enjoy your summer break. My granddaughter's graduation is in two weeks and then off to Lake Forest she goes in two months. I miss her already but I am very proud of her.

love ya

Hi Sharlene, Trish, and Addy,

Just thought I'd let you know that Hannah's fecal occult blood test was negative! I was very pleasantly surprised. I am a little concerned because from what I've read online it sounds like there can be false negatives if the blood isn't evenly dispersed in the stool, and with Hannah's there is sometimes a darker area, vs. the whole stool being dark. I want to clarify with my vet if the lab checks more than one spot in the sample. It also mentioned that you can do the test more than once to be certain.

The other good news is that her eating has picked up again. I am transitioning her back to the Royal Canin HP (hydrolyzed protein) food to do the food trial and she is eating it again. She is also eating some ID, which she was on before the HP, because I didn't want to shock her tummy by going right from the Natural Balance Veggie to the HP. She was not a fan of the veggie food at all. She wasn't too fond of either of these foods a couple of weeks ago either, so maybe she did just have an upset tummy.

The vet said we can try a steroid whenever I want now that the stool was negative for blood. I'm going to give the Atopica another week or so (so we have 6 full weeks of uninterrupted treatment) and see how she is. I've been taking the cone off more often when I'm home to see if she will eventually stop trying to bite and itch. I sometimes wonder if she just feels she has to go crazy because she figures the cone won't be off for long. I feel like if I find out they don't check more than one spot in the stool, then I may want to repeat this test before putting her on the steroid. The vet said it could be really bad to give her a steroid if there was an ulcer, so I don't want to do that.

Hannah's BUN was still elevated at 32, but it came down from 51. Her Hematocrit looked really good and was back up. She just had a UA about 6 weeks ago, which was perfectly normal, so the vet doesn't think there is a kidney issue. Not sure why the BUN is elevated, but the ALT was back to normal, so aside from the BUN, high ALKP, and high platelets, everything looked pretty good on her blood work a couple of weeks ago. I'll take it!

Julie & Hannah

Hi Julie

So pleased to hear the good results today, no blood in the poop and the BUN improving like that! Way to Go Hannah!!!!!!!!!!!! :D:D

I hope the hydrolysed food helps Hannah's skin and tummy, Flynn has started transitioning tonight to it but I think it might be different version of Royal Canin hydrolysed than your one, it is called Anallergenic my vet said it is new here but we so far behind the times in NZ it has probably been available to you for ages!! I am looking forward to seeing the effect on both Hannah and Flynn so will be keeping a very close eye on your thread! xxxx

Good news Julie and I hope Hannah will continue to like her food That is always such a worry when she does not want to eat her food.

I hope you have a wonderdul weekend, not many days left of school. Maybe you will be able to try taking off the cone for longer and longer periods and she will be fine. Here's hoping to that.:)

Now if it would just stop raining!!!!

We always love a good news day :)

hugs,
Sharlene and Molly Muffin

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to post a quick update. Hannah started on a steroid on Fri. morning. We were unable to control her itching with Hydroxyzine and Atopica, and since the fecal occult test was negative the vet and derm vet thought it was fine to move forward with a steroid. The derm vet chose it, methylprednisolone, and said she chose it because the increased eating/drinking side effect is a little lower with this one. She wanted to start with a very low dose and increase if necessary, rather than start with too much. I appreciate that. I am still nervous about putting her on it (partly still worried there could be something bleeding in there, even though the test was negative, and partly because I don't know what negative effects it could produce), but at this point I really do want her to be comfortable. She has lived her life in a cone since Sept. and despite the fact that she seems happy, I know she is itchy and it must be miserable not to do anything about it.

School is done and I'll be home more often for the next few weeks, so this seemed like the time to do it. I'm really hoping this will relieve Hannah's itching and nothing horrible will happen. I just have to keep reminding myself this is in her best interest. I want her to be comfortable and live the remainder of her life without an e-collar.

I still check in quite a bit, but I haven't posted much. I was in meetings most of last week (the first week school was out) and have just been focusing on enjoying some of my free time with Matt, Hannah, and Izzy. Hopefully I'll be around a little more often this summer.

Julie & Hannah

Lucky you with holidays, sounds like you deserve them with all the time you have been putting in. Hope you are slowly getting into relax mode now you are off! Hoping the low dose steroids do the trick and settle down Hannah and she stops itching poor wee girl. Send lots of good luck your way and lots of hugs to go with it! :)

Julie, I'm glad you are giving it a try. I sure hope it helps. You have tried so hard with Hannah, maybe this will be the right avenue.

Crossing all fingers and paws.:)

Hi Julie, I hope this helps Hannah with the itchiness.
Enjoy your summer holidays. :) Hopefully without a cone in the house this year. :)

hugs,
Sharlene and Molly Muffin