Hi all. I'm Ayla's Mom Ayla my 10 yr old Shih Tzu baby girl that has had problems, starting with food allergies to poultry, beef, corn and wheat, cataract surgery at one year old, a detached retina and seizures that we have been able to control with Taurine.
We started noticing little things but it wasn't until felt lump on stomach that took to vet. He said Xray showed her liver was enlarged due to her age, but no tumor. Week later, brought her back to check liver enzymes when family member mentioned problems with her dog. Once her belly got bigger and muscles atrophied, I found Cushings myself by googling that and saw all the additional symptoms she was showing were listed too.
I read that the way to know that the medication is working is that the excessive drinking, eating and urinating will stop. It stopped almost immediately. She also wasn't breathing as hard.
Our vet said that it will take a couple months for her stomach to go down. He agreed that swimming therapy would be good for her muscles so she gets to swim in the bathtub couple times a day. She is still weak, preferring to lay on her side then to walk, grunting when she wants us to help her move around but is getting slowly stronger.
We have been encouraged that her stomach is getting smaller... she lost two pounds of the three she had gained but she has gone back to being picky about eating making feeding her a chore.
Today, we were worried. She ate only a little yesterday and not at all today, even refusing her favorite treat of bacon. It looked like she tried to poop a couple times yesterday but would fall into sitting so I started to think she was constipated. Gave her a glycerin suppository but nothing happened so made appointment with vet.
I decided to try some ground buffalo with some green beans and she wolfed it down like nothing was wrong.
She has always been a picky eater but totally refusing food she had been eating is new. Nature's Variety lamb or venison frozen, canned, kibble and freeze dried. Have even coated the canned with the freeze dried.
Refusing bacon is really unusual. She did eat it finally later in the day.
I kept the vet appointment to make sure she was okay and was excited about showing him her improvements not realizing my vet was not in and I would be given an associate.
She determined that Ayla was not constipated but was not listening to me about anything else. She stated she believes that Ayla did not have Cushings arguing that she didn't show symptoms, dismissing when said she was getting better, but also saying symptoms were different then everything I've read about Cushings. Also saying that my regular vet was wrong and that Ayla has a tumor in her liver because it was large and hard. I think she made her decision even before coming into the room.
I had a whole rant going on here but it was super long and irreverent so erased it.
Was annoyed she upset us so and I had to pay her besides!
I am going to call my regular vet when he gets back but I am asking all of you your opinions and help.
How you get your dogs back into condition?
How long did it take?
Did the liver stay larger and hard for a while longer once stomach went down?
Any tricks to make it easier?
Thanks for your help