Kira, 14 y/o Husky - Successful adrenal surgery (Kira has passed)

[Altira]

Administrative Note: Janis also has a companion thread about her dog, Mira, who is suffering from liver cancer (link to Mira's thread). After beginning that thread, Janis has discovered that her other husky, Kira, appears to have an adrenal tumor. We are today beginning a new thread for Kira that leads off with copies of some replies earlier posted on Mira's thread. This first post by Janis was in response to another member's request to see Kira's diagnostic Cushing's test results as soon as they are available.
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Of course I will pass along all the test results. But I can tell you right now Kira fits all the symptoms to the letter. She has for years. The desperation for food, drinking enormous amounts of water and peeing huge puddles. Lakes! The distended belly. She also said it explained the failure oh her knee legaments. And why the fur on her back never grew back after the last surgery. It's been seven months and still it looks like they shaved her yesterday. The other side done two years ago was slow to come in was back to normal in six months. I have so many questions for you all.

[Altira]

KIRA
Siberian Husky
10.5 yrs
10/29/10

ALK - 354 (10-150) high
ALT - 117 (5-107) high

LIP - 1474 (100-750) high

CHOL - 378 (112-328) high

MCV - 59 (60-77) low

That is the initial blood work.
We have an ultrasound behind us too. I cant recall the specifics right now but there is a tumor. Not giant like Miras.
Now we wait a week for her urine track infection to clear up. Then on to the next test.

[Altira]

Because of the ultrasound is why ACC doctor is heading us that way.

Hi Janis,

Can you tell us why you think Kira may have cushing's? Cushing's is not a death sentence and with effective treatment, dogs can live out their natural life expectancy with a really good quality of life. My first cushdog is a rarity and was diagnosed at 3 years old. She is now 9 years old and still going strong. We think she had cushing's for at least before being diagnosed. My 2nd cushdog was a foster dog who we adopted because we knew he had cushing's. He had had the disease for a very, very long time and was a walking infection from head to tail, had very little fur and could hardly stand up due to severe muscle wasting. I've gotten estimates on his age of anywhere from 8 to 15 years old. He's been on treatment for three years and you'd never know he was the same pathetic dog that walked through our door in August, 2007. Whether a dog is diagnosed early or later in the disease, treatment can work miracles. I saw it happen twice. FYI, the object of treatment is to improve/resolve the symptoms so it is not recommended to treat a dog until the dog has overt symptoms.

Now that Kira may be cushingoid, please remember to get her records as well and post test results here.

Glynda

[missbeagle]

Janis -

You can put Kira on milk thistle if you want to. The milk thistle is the cheap and that will help with the elevated liver enzymes. If you Google it a bit you will find information on milk thistle to help you get the right one. You can get some at the health food store. I'm not a vet tech, but although her liver enzynes are elevated, they are not super duper elevated.

Remember to give the antibiotics for the urinary tract infection with some food. Antibiotics are always absorbed better with food. I would assume they gave you Clavamox, which is an excellent broad spectrum antiobiotic. Also urinary tract infections are common in spayed females. My lab always gets Clavamox for her urinary tract infections.

Gretchen and Rusty in NC

[Altira]

"It seems you have found a great new vet clinic that can handle Kira's health. Overt cushing's symptoms would be extreme water drinking and urinating in the house, losing& hair/skin irritations, back leg weakness to name a few."

She drinks tons of water always has. Every now and then she pees in the house. More often she is wanting to go out every half hour and always seems real desperate! She had to have knee surgery on both back legs. ACC doctor said cushings can effect knee ligamants which is what happened to kira. She has never lost fur in an unnatural way. BUT she had knee surgery just 7 months ago and the fur on her back has not grown back at all!

[Altira]

Gretchen -

Kira:
is taking Baytril 60s for her infection. The regular vet gave those to her. $$$$ expensive!!! ACC doctor was ok with that I guess. There hasn't been any giant water drinking since taking those.

[Altira]

New blood test for Cushing's:

Kira
Siberian Husky
10.5 yrs
11/11/10

ALK - 386 (10-150) high
ALT - 178 (5-107) high

CK - 209 (10-200) high

CHOL - 402 (112-328) high

Not sure why they did this one. But everything is a bit higher then it was two weeks ago. And "CK" is in there now. Any comments?

[Squirt's Mom]

Hi Janis,

Those values are often elevated in cush pups but Kira's are not near as high as many we have seen. It isn't unusual to see ALKP values in the 1000's. CK is creatine kinase. Why is has elevated since the last test, I can't say. Hopefully someone has more info on this for you and I will be happy to do some research into it with you.

Has the vet mentioned doing any cushing's specific testing on Kira such as the UC:CR, LDDS, HDDS, abdominal ultrasound, or ACTH? While the CBC can give some indicators that there may be a problem like Cushing's, this test (the CBC) cannot diagnose it.

How is our Mira doing today?

Hugs,
Leslie and the girls - always

[Altira]

Kiras ultra sound and spot on symptoms has made them pretty certain. They will do more tests four days after we finish Kiras meds for the infection. They have me set for a Cushings consultation at the same time.

[Altira]

A CUSHING'S REPORT:

I listened to the recording of the ACC doctor telling me about Kiras ultrasound. Here is some of what I'm hearing this time:

She has a very small mass in one of her adrenal glands. Some dogs aren't effected by this. There is a mass off the back side of it. It can be cancer. It usually is cancer but it doesn't appear to be evading anything right now. They usually grow very slowly and could take a year to get twice this size. If it's producing ???? then you get the symptoms of Cushings. (Kira has all the symptoms) It can be removed but she needs to be tested. If it were her dog she would not remove it knowing it may never be a problem. It should be watched via ultrasound. If it changes then you remove it. It's not real bad but she would need treatment for it. And we could see the symptoms of cushings reversed including her fur growing back.

Other concerns:
(1)There is a heart murmur that on a scale of 1 to 6 in loudness its about a 2. One side maybe slightly enlarged. (she said a little more on that but I'll move on)

(2) The liver looks ok. There are no masses there. But it appears to be braking down. We may need to find out what is going on with that too.

My thoughts:
I'm just glad that I don't have another terminally ill dog that's going to die soon and there is nothing we can do. Kira has a chance. Hopefully she will respond well. But I am very concerned that her most resent blood test shows even more elevated numbers. It looks like a big increase to me in the span of just two weeks.

My other concern:
How is she going to handle the loss of Mira. She will be effected in some way. They always are. She lost Kodi when she was three. And carefree Kira left with him. A sadness that never left her. When I took both dogs for a walk. Kira was very good about walking slow bless het heart. She looked over at Mira a bunch of times with great interest seeming concerned. What's wrong Mira?