Hello
SO grateful to have found this site. We just received news today of the results of our Lab's test for Cushings. She has been officially diagnosed with Cushings ( Pituitary dependent). We are so sad but trying to be hopeful for her. Let me give you some basic info and such.
Our Lab is a Silver Lab. Her name is Athena. She's precious, smart, protective, loyal and the happiest dog you will ever meet despite what she's going through. You couldn't ask for a better friend in her except her brothers and sisters ( We have 3 other doggies that she adores).
Athena is 4 1/2 years old
She started to show signs of being thirsty all the time, extremely hungry all the time, her coat was thinking but only in certain areas like along her back and part of her tail. She has little black spots on her belly/skin. In addition to this she has this barrel like belly and when standing she shifts her weight between her two back legs. She's overweight and we have tried everything under the sun to decrease her weight and nothing has worked. That is when we became very concerned and took her to the Vet. All our dog go to the vet for all their yearly appointments/shots, etc. They miss nothing and are well cared for. We thought maybe diabetes but it wasn't that.
We had the Cushings test on Friday. She was there all day. After we picked her up and came home. She couldn't drink enough water. We picked up the bowls so she wouldn't get sick but she did. She vomited everywhere twice. She was pacing back and forth and was so hot you could feel the heat come off her. We thought she was having a reaction to the Low Dex injection. Our vet uses an emergency service after hours. We call. They said to watch her close, to give her only a few ice chips hourly (which we did and we were up all night with her) and not let her drink freely from the water bowls. We had to move those to another part of the house for our other dogs.
She refused food which she never does. We tried a few times to feed her a little something because she's on tramadol but nothing.
The emergency vet said if she wasn't better by morning ( when we called it was around 8pm) to bring her in. The next morning she stopped the wanting of so much water. She started to slow down. She was walking a few steps then would sit down. She then just slept. She went out to potty and it was bright orange ( I'm thinking dehydration or the injection) but eventually she was willing to eat a small bowl of food but all day Saturday she slept and we just let her rest. We put her water bowl back out and she would drink a little then lay down.
Today is Monday. I was able to talk to our regular Vet when she called with the results but I had already called her in the morning to report what happened over the weekend. She said Athena did great at the office when she had her test but that she felt the stress of being there all day long and noise of other dogs could have just stressed her. She's used to just us and our other dogs and it's peaceful and fun here for her.
So the report today was as follows:
Her baseline was 4.8
the 4 hour test draw was 3.5
the 8 hour test draw was 10.0
She's a big lab, big boned lab and her weight is 115
Our vet is real good and explained everything. She wanted to start her on 120mgs of Vetoryl. She explained she felt that was safe. She told us we had to watch for diarrhea, vomiting, gastro upset and if that happens call her asap and bring her in.
She said if no side effects then she wants to see her in two weeks for a blood draw to check ACTH and Electrolytes. We have to be careful with the drug as to not give her an Addisons crisis.
We are very worried. Athena has proven to be sensitive about thing. She has fought 3 bacterial infections with no source known since we had her as a puppy. Not sure if this is a result of her compromised immune system due to this Cushings or what.
She tolerates her other meds well as in Tramadol for her sore hind legs. She always tolerated anitibiotics fairly well.
I asked if we could start her on 90mgs vs 120mg. I know she's the Vet but I'm anxious about this drug and the amount and wondered if it was better to start her at a lower amount initially and if she tolerates it well to up the dose. Any thoughts? I'm a Nurse (RN) and at home I always start with small doses for things and increase as needed vs a big whopping dose of something.
We are beside ourselves tonight because there is a minefield of info on the web and I'm cross eyed from reading and not sure what to believe about this drug. I know just as with humans everyone responds a certain way to a certain drug.
All our dogs are our life. We have no kids. Our dogs are the kiddos. Athena in particular has been a great source of love and healing for my Marine who was injured in combat a few years back in Afghanistan. She has been a wonderful member of our family and we want to do what is best for her.
This has been alot to take in as we have a 14 year old and 9 year old pitbull who are the picture of health even at those ages and our youngest is a 2 year old blue nose pitty. We are meticulous in how we care for them and give them plenty of love, play time, trip to the beach and mountains and where we go...they go..if they can't go..we don't go. They have never been boarded or anything.
Is there any other information I can give you to help? If so, please just ask away. Sorry to be long winded. Just very concerned. Depending on what you read and who you talk to you get a different story and finding this site I saw that it appears to be a rock solid place of good info and great people.
Does anyone have experience with the drug Vetoryl? Side effects? Effectiveness?
Are there any other treatment options out there? Anything else we can do to help her?
Thanks for your time...