I am brand new here, our almost 16 year old dachshund Maggie, or Weenie as we call her, was diagnosed on Friday after the LDDS test on Wednesday. Here's the history:
Maggie will be 16 in October. She has always had a huge appetite and for years has had a big belly. Her weight has been about 17 pounds since she was about 4. For the past 2 summers, we haven't walked her because she seemed heat intolerant. This summer, she started panting a bit when she gets overly excited, over exerted or hot. It is 106 where I live today. This is new. She seems to drink a little more than normal, but she and our Golden Retriever together only drink about 5 cups of water per day. She occasionally pees in the house, but she has never been well house broken. She may get up once during the night to pee, sometimes not at all. She has no hair loss, in fact the slight hair loss on the back of her legs that she had some years ago has grown back for at least 2 years. Her skin is good, although she has had a couple of infections that were treated easily with topical antifungals. All of her legs are weaker than they used to be, but I have attributed that to spinal problems from being a Doxy..her back has gone out a few times over the last 3-4 years, and the vet said that she has nerve damage to her limbs from her spine. She can still run, but can't jump up on the couch anymore. She is, after all, almost 80 years old.
Last year in June before her dental cleaning she had routine lab work. Everything was normal except a mildly elevated ALP of 360 and ALT of 260. Repeat liver enzymes in August showed an increase in the ALP to 408, with the ALT down to 171. In November, the ALP was 375 and ALT 175. We had started her on Denamarin prior to the November lab. In March, her ALP went up to 904 (we had stopped the Denamarin) and the ALT 244. In April, again off the Denamarin, her ALT was 947 and ALT 209. She had a brief ultrasound that month as well that showed an enlarged liver but no masses. On July 10, Maggie started limping on her right forearm, so after 2 days, we took her to the vet, who examined her, took xrays, said it was arthritis. He looked at her labs which included the elevated liver enzymes and a urine specimen that showed dilute urine, and said that he thought she may have Cushings. The following week on July 20, she had a non-fasting LDDS. The results were pre-test 13.8. Four hr post injection: 5.0. Eight hour post injection: 4.2. I spoke to the vet on Friday after researching the treatment options and thought it better not to treat Maggie at this time due to her age. He agreed, but is willing to treat her if we decide to go that route. I spoke to a very experienced vet at UC Davis as well who said that "Unless Maggie's quality of life was unacceptable, I wouldn't treat such an elderly dog."
I am here to ask for feedback from all of you. Is Maggie too old to treat? Are her symptoms really significant at this point? She isn't uncomfortable, but I realize that this disease may be doing damage that we cannot see. I want her to have a good quality of life, but if she can be successfully treated, should we start and see how it goes? As a RN, I am used to dealing with humans and some elderly people are strong enough to go through chemo and other difficult treatment, and some do very poorly. I am torn.
Any suggestions and experiences with older dogs like Maggie would be appreciated.
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