Re: Medication not working on symptoms anymore but cortisol levels ok?
Hi and welcome from me as well!
You said -
So you're saying that even though her cortisol levels were high, it may not be Cushing's?
Cushing's is one of, if not THE, most difficult canine disease to correctly diagnose. Not only does this disease share signs with many other diseases like diabetes, Addison's, liver disease to name a few, other diseases and conditions can and do cause false positives on the tests for Cushing's. Cortisol is a fight or flight hormone and rises naturally in response to any stress...even a dog who gets very stressed going to the vet can return with a high ACTH reading even tho they don't have Cushing's. My first cush pup tested positive on the LDDS, HDDS, UTK panel, and ACTH but when we did the abdominal ultrasound a tumor on her spleen was found. Once that tumor was removed her cortisol returned to normal and remained normal for several years. She did eventually become cushionoid but she did not have the disease when those tests were first run...only years later did she develop the disease. My second dog diagnosed with Cushing's had a host of other known conditions so I always questioned her diagnosis. After she passed I had a necropsy done (autopsy for animals) because no one had been able to tell me what caused her to be so sick at the end. The necropsy proved she did not have Cushing's even tho she tested over 50 on the ACTH. I did not run any other tests on her because of all her other issues believing they would return false. She had ultrasounds on a constant basis due to one of her illnesses and never once did they show enlarged adrenal glands which was another reason I doubted her diagnosis from the beginning. So to answer your question...yes, a dog with high cortisol levels may not actually have the disease. This is why it is always best to do as many tests as possible before starting treatment 1) to rule out any other possibility for the signs you are seeing and 2) to prevent giving these drugs to a dog who does not really need them.
Please let us know what you learn after talking to her vet about the possibility of DI.
Hugs to you and belly rubs to Rosebud,
Leslie
"May you know that absence is full of tender presence and that nothing is ever lost or forgotten." John O'Donahue, "Eternal Echoes"
Death is not a changing of worlds as most imagine, as much as the walls of this world infinitely expanding.