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

Leslie, this link someone else mentions adequan for collapsing trachea too.

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/yor...blem-news.html

Great numbers Renee!

That is interesting about the DMSO, breaking down the crystals.

YAY! Glad to hear Tobey's stim test results were good!

Sounds like you had an interesting visit with the IMS.

It's interesting about the Adequan. I have to keep that in mind since Raleigh has a collapsing trachea.

Hey Renee, it's been such a long time since we've gotten an update on Tobey. Hope you all are doing well! We'd love to hear from you whenever you may have a chance to write again.

Marianne

I too want to hear how Tobey is doing and esp with the CC as Morgan is just now going through the beginning stages of this horrible skin condition. Wondering if you did any further rounds of minocycline as I was thinking of asking my vet for it next week. Hope Tobey is ok.

Hello friends. Well, looking at my last post, it has been a little over a year since I was here. What can I say, other than that I needed to get away from cushings. I quit the FB page and stopped coming here. It's a painful disease and can be so draining. I needed the mental break while she was doing okay, because frankly we had too many bad experiences there for a while.

On January 20, 2018, my amazing and brave beautiful girl crossed the bridge. In the end, it was almost certainly the cushings that took her life from me. This past few months have had their ups and downs for her, but before October, she had a really good year. No emergency scares; no near death experiences, and although she was declining, I had beat the odds so often in her favor that I had the false sense of her being invincible. In October she got a horrible melting ulcer and took it really hard. It seemed to affect her brain somehow and I was afraid I would lose her at that time. We got through the ulcer, even though her mental capacity never really seemed to get back on track. She was already blind and deaf, but she started getting lost in the house, forgetting where things were, bumping into everything, and seeming to be more 'out of it' that usual. Who knows, it could be her tumor was growing and causing her mental decline. Again, I was probably in denial.

I want to let everyone know that along with suffering from the rare calcinosis cutis, and having calcium deposits in her kidneys, it was pulmonary mineralization that most likely ended her life. I don't know why she was cursed to have these rare cushings symptoms or why her body seemed to not be able to process the excess minerals. In the xrays at the end, her lungs and heart were very diffused. I never once thought to xray her over the past year while she was doing well and I had no idea that pulmonary mineralization was even a symptom of cushings (angry at my vet for not thinking of this either). My mistake for thinking her coughing was unrelated to cushings. Even had I seen the mineralization starting, I don't know that I could have stopped it given how aggressive the minerals were with her. Nor do I know if I could have caught it in time to make any kind of difference in anyway. I'll never know. In the end, her lungs and heart were so mineralized that she was suffocating to death. I tried to save her, but she was ready and we could ask no more of her. We were terrified of her suffocating to death. My daughter and I held her and let her go.

I am so angry at this disease. I just hate it. I hate cushings for taking her life. I hate it for giving her these horrible symptoms and filling her chest with minerals. I hate that she had to suffer from some of the rarer symptoms and only got four years of life. I hate that I could not hold her longer at the end for fear that she would suffocate before they could inject her. We had mere minutes after they took her out of oxygen before we had to let her go.

I don't want to incite panic in those that have dogs suffering from CC, but please, if your pup is prone to CC, watch for other mineralization symptoms.

I want to thank this forum for being my landing place when this journey started. For welcoming me, educating me, holding my hand through so many things, and for paying it forward. I don't think I can do that, but I have the utmost respect to those that do. This is not a nice disease.

Oh Renee.

I am so, so sorry for your loss. It is an absolutely terrible disease. Once you've had a dog with Cushings it's a constant terror that another one will get it. I don't think I could go through it again.

Tobey is at peace and I pray that you can find some as well. The sweet girl put up a good fight with her mom, she knew she was loved and she loved you.

I understand your need for the mental break. I've pulled back a bit myself on occasion. Thank you for returning to let us know about the mineralization.

I am so sorry for your loss.

Run free, sweet Tobey.

Dear Renee,

I have no words to express how much I feel for you. Tobey was such a special girl and a trooper the whole time she had to deal with this disease. She faced so much more than many of our babies are asked to and the two of you handled them all with grace and determination. You are a wonderful mom and the life you gave Tobey is more than proof of that fact. I know she left this life on the wings of your love and will carry that love with her thru all time.

Fly free, sweet Tobey, fly free.

Please know we are here for you always.
Our deepest sympathies,
Leslie, Sophie, Fox, Bud, and all our Angels

I'm Still Here

Friend, please don't mourn for me
I'm still here, though you don't see.
I'm right by your side each night and day
and within your heart I long to stay.

My body is gone but I'm always near.
I'm everything you feel, see or hear.
My spirit is free, but I'll never depart
as long as you keep me alive in your heart.

I'll never wander out of your sight-
I'm the brightest star on a summer night.
I'll never be beyond your reach-
I'm the warm moist sand when you're at the beach.

I'm the colorful leaves when fall comes around
and the pure white snow that blankets the ground.
I'm the beautiful flowers of which you're so fond,
The clear cool water in a quiet pond.

I'm the first bright blossom you'll see in the spring,
The first warm raindrop that April will bring.
I'm the first ray of light when the sun starts to shine,
and you'll see that the face in the moon is mine.

When you start thinking there's no one to love you,
you can talk to me through the Lord above you.
I'll whisper my answer through the leaves on the trees,
and you'll feel my presence in the soft summer breeze.

I'm the hot salty tears that flow when you weep
and the beautiful dreams that come while you sleep.
I'm the smile you see on a baby's face.
Just look for me, friend, I'm everyplace!

Author Unknown

Dear Renee,

Your post was the first one I read this morning, but it’s taken me all day to find the words to write. First off, thank you so much for coming back to let us know about Tobey. I have thought about you guys so often during this past year, and kept hoping that all was well. I’m so sorry to read about your loss. After how hard you both fought, you and Tobey deserved much more time together. But sadly that was not to be, and instead we come here to join you in honoring her courage amidst so many challenges.

We all learned so much through your journey together, and Tobey’s experiences will help us help more doggies to come. The dreaded CC can surely be a scourge. But thanks to you and Tobey, we’re now better armed to support and advise others who are suffering in the same way. You were both pioneers here on our forum, and shall not be forgotten.

I surely understand why it is hard for you to return here, Renee. But please know that you will always be welcomed should you choose to do so. You have been such a friend to us, and such a great help.

Always in loving memory of sweet Tobey, and always with my warmest regards to you.
Marianne

Oh Renee, I am so dang sorry to read about the passing of Tobey and what you and her went through towards the end.

Marianne made an excellent point, in that your journey with Tobey and the cc has helped us to help others so much and we often refer anyone with cc here to Tobeys thread. There is still so much we don't know and that I don't believe vets know, especially when it comes to the more obscure possibilities, like the cough. I don't think I would have thought to check the lungs for calcification/minimeralization as that's the first I've heard of it occurring in the lungs. Yet we should think that, we should think, cc can happen anywhere in the body And again, Tobey has taught us something that I would much rather she never had occasion to know or experience, before she left this earth.

As Marianne said, you will always be welcome here Renee and missed.