Trying to help a friend (possible calcinosis cutis)

Hi there,
I can appreciate vicki would now be reluctant to try anything new so perhaps something to bank for future reference would be neem oil. I've used it on dogs and horses, it's very effective on skin conditions and its also a good insect repellant. It does have a curious smell, a nutty garlicky pong like a bad cook had experimented with a dip recipe, but the pong soon subsides. For a period of time I was using it regularly on one of the horses sweetitch lesions and as well as sorting that out it also helped my own contact dermatitis considerably.
Best of luck, hope Vicki starts seeing some good progress soon xxx

I wanted to bump this up rather than starting a whole new thread. I just talked to Janice & she asked me to thank all of you for your help during a very stressful time for her. I haven't talked to her in ages so I had no updates for you until today.

Vicki is doing great. She's still on the same meds but she said she just stopped the DMSO (or whatever that stuff is). Her hair is growing back & she has no new outbreaks, hasn't for quite a while. Said she has some hard areas on her skin (maybe where the bad outbreaks were, don't know for sure) but she looks better. She's also acting like her old self so it looks like she's stable, at least for now.

My thanks to all of you for being so kind & so helpful. I hope all of you & all your sweet furkids are doing well.:D

What a fabulous update on Vicki .... Janice must be so happy. It is great that the calcinosis cutis has basically halted. Sabre also had hard areas as well ... in fact most of his calcinosis cutis never erupted to heal with new skin .... they just remained there.

Thanks so much for popping back and giving us this wonderful news.

Angela and Flynn

I thought I'd tack another post onto this thread so you can check back on Vicki's history if you need to.........this time it isn't very good news.

Janice called me..........sometime during the night Vicki was attempting to stand up & couldn't seem to get her legs under her. She was craning her neck to look up at the ceiling & would sometimes flop down on her back. She went to emergency & they ran some tests (thought she might have a blood clot in her lung, negative) but they couldn't find a reason to cause her to have seizures or a stroke perhaps? She said something about them finding protein in her urine.

Janice took her home after spending hrs at emergency & today she's walking albeit very shaky, she's panting like crazy & her tongue is sticking out (like she can't pull it back in). She is just acting really bizarre. She is seeing a specialist in the morn but I've been all over the internet to see if I can find what this might be to try to calm Janice down tonight. I know all of you can relate. She loves that dog & it's just killing her to watch this.

I decided if anyone would know what's going on it would be you. You were such a blessing to Janice before. So far I have found nothing so I'm turning to all of you once again......

Nothing has changed in her meds & she did stop the DMSO a while ago. It seems somewhere on here I remember seeing something about Cushings & seizures.

Janice is a wreck & now she has me all upset.........anyone know what this might be & if there is anything she can do tonight for that poor dog?

Thanking you in advance (again).........

This doesn't really sound like a low cortisol episode, but did the ER clinic check Vicki's cortisol level? It's usually the first thing to look at when a Cushbaby becomes ill. If they didn't do an ACTH, my guess would be that the specialist will probably want to do one tomorrow.

Debbie

I honestly don't know.........she did mention the blood clot & the protein. I do know that they wanted her to leave Vicki so they could do more tests but she didn't want to leave her. She wanted to see her regular vet but he called & told her that she needs to see a specialist. So that's where she's going in the morn.

I was just wondering if there was any info I could share to make her feel a little better until she sees the vet in the morn. I don't know a thing about Cushings so I really can't help her.

Just when it looked like she was doing great........:(

I couldn't really tell from your description if its cortisol or not either.. normally cush dogs whose cortisol is too low cannot get up (like you mentioned) but they have zero energy - literally like they are dead or dying - no energy to even raise their head.

Since your friend isn't going in until the morning - does she have prednisone on hand? It is given in emergency situations to dogs on trilostane. She should have it as well as emergency instructions. It would not hurt to try giving it to see if it provides relief. She would know within an hour or two if it worked at raising the cortisol.

Kim

I definitely understand where Kim is coming from, but one problem with giving prednisone tonight is that it would mess up an ACTH test in the morning if that's what the specialist wants to have done. So unless there is a definite reason to give prednisone tonight, I don't believe I would do so. I would think (hope) the ER vets already would have made a decision about giving prednisone if they thought it would be helpful.

I'm so sorry Vicki is having such trouble. And I'm afraid I don't have any ideas as to what is going on, so the visit to the specialist will be really important.

Marianne

Marianne, I thought about that too... I guess I'd have to see the dog to determine if I thought it was the cortisol or not and whether or not I was concerned it was an emergency.

Sorry we can't be more help to your friend. Kim

My thanks to all of you. Don't want to suggest pred if it's going to screw up any of her testing tom'w. She's seeing the spec at 9:30. I remember she did mention that they gave Vicki a shot before she left emergency to make her more comfortable so that could have been pred. I'm not sure Janice knew what they gave her but I'm sure it's on her receipt.

I thought maybe there was something about the way she's acting that means something.........because it means nothing to me. My searches around the internet didn't give me anything either.

I just called & talked to Janice's husband..........he said Janice was at the vet & I freaked: he said it wasn't anything, that she left one of Vicki's meds there when they were there earlier & she had to go get it. I asked if Vicki was better & he said no.

As soon as I know any more about what's going on, will let you know. Not sure if she'll know anything tom'w if there's testing that needs to be done but I'll be back when I know something.

Again, my thanks to all of you. You are that beacon of light out there on a dark, dreary night!