fearful of another dog with cushings

[lulusmom]

A good number of dogs with cushing's have a urinary tract infection at the time of diagnosis and yes, white blood cells are found in the urine. Cushdogs usually have dilute urine which reduces the number of bacteria in a specimen so a routine urinalysis doesn't pick up the true number of white blood cells. For this reason, a urine culture should be done to identify the bacteria so an appropriate antibiotic can be prescribed.

A blood chemistry often includes T4 which is a thyroid hormone. Can you check your copy of the blood tests to see if T4 is listed? If so, can you please post the result as well as the normal reference range?

Most specialist and experienced gp vets prefer the LDDS test over the acth stim test for two reasons. The acth stim tests is more likely to yield a false negative result so a fair number of dogs with cushing's, especially a dog with an adrenal tumor, will have a normal result. The LDDS can often tell you that a dog has pituitary dependent cushing's, whereas the acth stim test doesn't, which requires additional differentiation test like an abdominal ultrasound or an endogenous acth test.

[maureenb]

Hello, Buster had his ACTH stim test and it came back completely normal. The vet tells me that he has no pituitary or adrenal gland issues then. So why does he have an Alkaline phosphotase of 2011? She suggested doing a bile salt test or ultrasound of the liver. She also suggested i take him to the U of Mn veterinary clinic for further testing. Can anyone give some direction or advice? Thank you.

Another thought - i happened to see warnings about jerky treats for dogs. I give Buster one of those every day. Could that be the cause of his increased Alk. Phos. ?

Thanks for listening.

[Harley PoMMom]

If the jerky treats were made in China than there's a big chance that they could be the culprit.

Could you post those ACTH stim test results?

A bile acid test is a good way to check how the liver is functioning.

Hugs, Lori

[molly muffin]

Another reason for high ALKP can be gall bladder sludge, which I think only shows up on an ultrasound, but is something the specialist can look into and as Lori mentioned, the bile acid test.

Sharlene and Molly Muffin