New to Cushings

[Katy1]

Hi everyone...our Annie, miniature schnauzer was just diagnosed with cushings and she is also diabetic. Anyone out their who has a pup with a dual diagnosis?

[Squirt's Mom]

Hi and welcome to you and your sweet Annie!

First thing I want to do is send you to our sister site, K9Diabetes. They are the experts on canine diabetes. Once you are registered there, come back and talk to us more about the Cushing's...but diabetes will always take precedence since it is immediately life-threatening and Cushing's is not. So go register with them then come back here and talk to us, ok?

https://www.k9cushings.com/forum/sho...ew-to-Cushings

Hugs,
Leslie

[Katy1]

Thanks Leslie, I'll do that and come back.

[Katy1]

Greetings to All,
Now we have a new problem. For the past two days, Annie has not wanted to eat her breakfast. She is on Glycobalance, one can a day divided between her two meals. Yesterday, I ended up sprinkling some ground up freeze dried chicken breast on top, and this morning, I used just a little bit of baby food turkey in broth and she picked around at that for awhile and finally ate everything. I'm scared to death for tomorrow though because it's her Lyso med day. I feel a call to the vet coming on as I type. My double concern is that she has been a diabetic for over a year. I’ve already left a post over on the k9Diabetes site.

My big fear is that she may be getting a bit too much Lyso and it has really suppressed her food drive. Annie has never missed a meal in her life, even after bouts of HGE earlier in her life.

Take care everyone and wish us luck. Karen

[Squirt's Mom]

I'm glad you have posted on the diabetes forum. Sometimes once the cortisol comes back to a more normal range the insulin needs to be decreased but I will leave that to the experts on our sister site. I wouldn't expect the cortisol to have dropped too low in the last few days since she saw the vet but that is always a possibility so keep an eye out for other signs such as loose stools/diarrhea or nausea/vomiting. Let us know how things are going when you can!
Hugs
Leslie

[Katy1]

Hi Leslie,

Well, I cried all the way to the vets office at 3 o’clock this afternoon. I cried the whole time doc was telling me that Annie was doing ok. He ran a bg quick test and an electrolyte panel. He told me he could tell that she was not overdosed on Lysodren and totally understood my concern and tears. Doc knows I’m a crier and mostly a hot mess if I feel my baby is having a crisis or not. He gave me a hug, told me I was doing more for my baby than most of his parents would( still not sure how I feel about that ). Anyway, Sunday is her med day, and doc said if she doesn’ want to eat—don’t stress, just let her plate sit for an hour or so, if she doesn’t eat, no Lysodren or insulin and. she will still be alive at the end of the day and to call him whenever I needed to. I do not abuse that privilege. Thanks for listening, Blessings to you all and your pups. Karen

[Joan2517]

I'm a crier too, Karen. Sometimes when I get there I am totally incoherent and can't even tell them what's wrong! They are used to it....the fear of not knowing what is wrong, even if you KNOW something is wrong is frightening. If only they could let us know so we don't have to guess.

The first night Lena was in the ER, I couldn't speak at all. I just sobbed through the whole evaluation with the doctor. I sobbed when I told her goodnight and left her. I screamed and cried the whole way home. The next day when I picked her up, I didn't have a voice and my eyes were so swollen from crying that I was afraid she wouldn't recognize me. Then when it happened again that night I couldn't even cry. I was totally in shock.

Some people are better at handling these situations. I don't happen to be one of them...

[Katy1]

Marianne,

I copied the following portion over here when I realized I had rambled on in the wrong thread. Sorry, I'm a bit scattered today.

I do have a concern regarding Annie—the past several days, her appetite has increased but so has her energy level. She has turned into this little creature that her dad and I don’t even recognize! I don’t know whether to be excited, scared, prepare for another panic attack or something else.

Do Cush pups return to a better version of their former selves once the meds are working? She’s on Lysodren 250mg twice a week and I can actually see what appears to be her waist. Should I ask to have her ACTH run earlier rather than wait until June? She just seems so “normal” and I’m almost afraid to breath. She even grabbed her favorite toy this morning after her Lysodren-laden breakfast and bounded up on the bed wanting her dad to play with her.

As always, Blessings to all and your pups. Karen

[labblab]

Hey Karen, good girl for copying your questions about Annie over here to her thread!

First off, I think it sounds great that Annie is rebounding with so much energy. Cushing’s can be such an insidious disease. The ill effects can accumulate slowly and incrementally, such that we almost forget what was once “normal,” or how our pups were behaving months and even years beforehand. So hopefully this will be a new, happily energetic normal for your little girl!

As far as the monitoring tests, I have never used Lysodren myself. However, in looking back through your thread, it’s not clear to me exactly when previous ACTH testing was done. One test was done to mark the end of the loading phase and the transition to the weekly maintenance dosing. But has any additional testing ever been done? If not, I think I’d rather test at least once again before June in order to have more peace of mind that this maintenance dose is really optimal. From the sound of things, Annie is doing great now with little worry that she’s dropping too low. But you also don’t want to let the cortisol start creeping steadily higher, either, such that you’d have to reload again.

Again, I am no expert on this. Leslie has had tons of Lysodren experience, so hopefully she’ll soon be stopping back by. But in the meantime, those are my two cents worth ;-),

Marianne

[Katy1]

Hi again... just an update on Annie. The hubby and I had a consult with the vet today and she may have been cushinoid for several years which triggered the diabetes. Her glucose has been very high and was considered insulin dependent. This is day 3 for her on 3/4 of a 500mg tablet of Lysodryn. She had been at their boarding facility because we had to be out of town last week and that's when they did all the testing for Cushings. Anyway, the doc told us he checked her fasting glucose this am before her feeding and it was down to 179--she weighs 18.3lbs, has been diabetic for almost a year and has shown no real physical symptoms of Cushings except for some weight gain and needing to go outside at night. He told us to leave her there another day and will check her glucose again tomorrow. They were not going to give any insulin today. He said once the Cushings is under control, that may keep her glucose down low enough that we might be able to get her off the insulin at some point. I realize this is the Cushings site and not the Diabetes site but they are so entwined it's hard for me to wrap my head around it all. Then to top it off, she had developed cataracts in both eyes several months ago and we were scheduled for surgery to remove those on the 25th. We've been advised to postpone that until she is stabilized. I'm just grasping for straws and reaching for moral support. I've had schnauzers for over 45 years but never have experienced Cushings so I will read all I can and check out the resources available here. Thanks.