Junior - 6 year old lab mix - Vetoryl twice daily

[Junior's Mom]

Has anyone else noticed their dog visibly age quicker after being diagnosed with cushings? Junior hasn't developed any new health issues, but his muzzle has gone grey over the last month. His dad is almost 11, and still isn't as grey as Junior.

[Renee]

I think some dogs just get grey sooner than others. My Ichiro was very grey by the time he was 6 or 7, but Tobey (who has cushings) is not very grey at all.

I love your success story recap.

[molly muffin]

Maybe it depends on what sort of load their bodies have had to carry for how long. I know one person whose dog had almost white hair, looked sort of grey, has cushings and now controlled on medication (trilostane) the hair has all come in dark black and the dog looks like a young pup. Crazy eh.

hugs
Sharlene and molly muffin

[Junior's Mom]

Merry Christmas to all the wonderful angels on here. I hope the holidays bring you and yours peace.

[Squirt's Mom]

Same to you and yours! I hope Junior is doing well!

[molly muffin]

Merry Christmas to you and Junior!!

[Junior's Mom]

An update on Junior, and perhaps a warning. It seems cortisol can continue to drop even after a month.

ACTH Aug 16 pre 1.96 (54) post 2.07 (57) 40 days on this dose (67mg twice daily)
ACTH Dec 27 pre 1.2 (33) post 1.67 (46) 173 days on this dose (67mg twice daily)

Yes, I was late by a month to recheck him unfortunately.
My vet prefers levels between 2.17-5.07 (60-140), and as he was doing well at a lower dose before, we have switched him back to 57mg twice daily.
His stim on that dose was pre 4.5 post 7.5 after 28 days.

I will be scheduling another stim test sometime in the next couple of months. The vets office is looking into the problem of no synthecyn (sp) available in Canada anymore.
It the tests are going to increase from $120 to $600+ I will not be having them done as often as they should. I will get a baseline done, to ensure he is not going too low, but no way could I afford all the testing I have had done in the past.

[addy]

Hi, sometimes the cortisol continues to drop even after lowering the dose. I went through that with my dog. I cut her dose in half and she went still went lower.

I say that as a warning to watch Junior carefully after lowering the dose if you have to wait to do a stim.

Are you seeing any side effects or new symptoms? How controlled are the symptoms Junior originally had?

[molly muffin]

They are going to start using the same agent that is used in the US, cortyson, and the pricing according my IMS should remain close to the same as before.
They are looking into that further too for me.

We'll see what happens though. My GP vet aid they think they will be getting that via the compounding pharmacy so I hope that the pricing won't go up, or at least not much. Cross fingers as I'm getting ready to increase molly's dose.

[Squirt's Mom]

The cortisol can go too low at any point in treatment, even after a while on the same dose. That is why it is important that we always watch for signs that things are off and do our best to keep the ACTH monitoring schedule - but we and our observations are critical. I'm glad you took him on in and the dose is going to be lowered a bit. Let us know how he is doing!