By way of introduction, Hi, I'm pibblesandbits, mom to 3 canine kids and 1 human kid. My sweetest dog Wayne (~10yo, almost 11) has finally gotten a diagnosis of Cushing's Disease, pituitary-dependent. After a bunch of mismanagement by the old vet who didn't read his basic lab results until I had hounded them by phone for 2 months, at which point she said, "Wow, that is really abnormal, we should rerun the labs since it's been so long", we switched providers. She kept saying all his symptoms were because of arthritis. Sigh. So, we are in the care of a new vet now, and he has received his diagnosis. He started his treatment with Trilostane 120mg on Friday, but on Saturday night he had frank blood in his urine and developed tremors. We are so terrified, and the vet doesn't open until Monday, but their emergency line did say to discontinue the medication until we can speak with his primary vet.

I love these dogs so much. They got me through a very tough time when I was taking care of my own sick mom, and I feel I owe him more than he's getting. He is suffering and has been for months because we were unable to get answers for such a long time. He has been symptomatic since the late summer at least. He has lost so much muscle mass that his chest kind of hangs in front of him, and his hind quarters are just saggy. He struggles to get up and down the few stairs to our apartment. His hunger has been off the charts, to the point where he tore the door off the dog food bin while we were out. His thirst is also overwhelming, and we tracked that he would drink 8+ liters/day if left to his own devices. He's even eating snow because of how desperately thirsty he feels. As a result of the Cushing's and the water intake, he has been having so many accidents inside, and I know he feels bad about them, so we are doing all we can to bring him out every hour when we're home. He's also had a couple accidents while lying on the ground and he didn't even get up as he peed all over himself! It made me worry that maybe his mind is going too?

I had such high hopes that with a diagnosis and treatment, he would start to feel better, but the peeing blood and shaking are terrifying and really make me feel like he's dying. And as much as I am freaking out about losing him (I cried so much last night watching him shake), I am also really worried about his sister, who has never been apart from him. I swear she's going to have a nervous breakdown without him. I don't even know what the point of this post is -- I guess I just want to thank everyone for all the information I've gained from reading here -- and also I would love to hear if anyone else tried alternative medications to trilostane, like anipryl, which I read about as another option.

Thanks for reading. I know you all understand what I'm going through. This gentle giant of a dog is the absolute sweetest dog I have ever met, and this is breaking my heart. If the treatment doesn't work, is this the end? I wish I knew the future because this is so heartbreaking for us.