Too many old dogs, but I adore them all!

[jcestorrs]

Hi everyone! I am Jennie. I had two litter-mate Shih Tzus and lost one to kidney disease at age 10, which was really sad for us. His sister seemed ok, but was a little more anxious than she used to be. After a while, we were looking to adopt so she would have company, and were lucky to find a bonded-pair rescue of two half-sibling Shih Tzu mixes. They were both about 9 at the time. It took our girl a while to warm up, but they are quite the wonderful little family now! My older lady, Sairy, will be 14 this month, and the youngsters, Jasper and Edie, are 11.

Cushing's caught us by surprise, mostly because we were pretty sure that Edie had it, but Sairy was the one who was diagnosed! She is asymptomatic - a lousy eater, very skinny... She has had bouts of pancreatitis for years, and we finally had to switch her to a 24 hour clinic so that she could do overnight stays for fluids. She seemed to be having another flare this past spring - no appetite, miserable and crabby- and so we took her in for the usual blood test and fluids bolus. Next we brought her back for the ultrasound to check the pancreas. It looked fine, but she had a gall bladder mucocele which was flaring and possibly infected. She also had an enlarged adrenal. The only real treatment for a gall bladder mucocele is gall bladder removal, but at her age and general health that is not a viable option. The vet also recommended testing for Cushing's, so we did and she has a mild case. In researching this combo, there seems to be a clear correlation - if a dog has gall bladder disease they are 29x as likely to have Cushing's as other dogs!

This many days into the diagnosis for Sairy, we had come to grips with her prognosis. She is getting Ursodiol to help keep fluids moving in the gall bladder, and Denamarin supplement to support her liver and digestive tract, but these are temporary fixes, and she has a few years at best. We are not treating the Cushing's given that she is asymptomatic and has other more pressing issues.

What concerned me a lot was that this gall bladder mucocele diagnosis and the connection to Cushing's. If Edie had Cushing's, then was she at risk of getting gall bladder issues? We expected that she had Cushing's because the first year that we had her, she had some recurring bladder infections, she drinks a lot of water, pees in the house a lot, has a pot belly and thinning hair on her back. She also had some blood test level that alerted the vet and led to a suggestion that we test her for Cushing's. We had been putting off the Cushing's test during Covid, but with this new gall bladder twist added, we took her in for testing. They told us that she did not have it. I guess that this is good news, but I don't trust it.

A couple of days ago, I was rubbing her tummy, and I noticed an extra nipple! Well, it wasn't a nipple, it was a lentil-sized blackhead! Eww! I thought maybe it was an isolated thing - perhaps an embedded scab from a tick bite. Then as I looked her tummy over carefully, I found about 4 more enormous, disgusting, deeply submerged blackheads. Obviously I went to Dr. Google, and what I found was - this might be a sign of Cushing's. I really suspect that if we tested again, it might come out positive? I have a friend in the same situation - adopted an older dog, tested negative once, then tested positive a few months later. They are now, like many of you, treating and testing often, trying to get the right dosages.

Anyway, during my Dr. Google research, I found you all! I thought that I would check in to say Hi and then start reading over information here. I just ordered Pet Wellbeing Adrenal Harmony Gold Cushing's Disease Dog Supplement to see if that had any impact on the two old ladies here. I would love to keep them healthy and off any prescription meds as long as I can!

Oh, and don't worry - Jasper has a host of issues too - but no signs of Cushing's

Thanks for being here!

[labblab]

Hello, Jennie, and welcome! I’m sorry that I have only a minute to write, but I wanted you to know that we’re really glad you found us, and that I’ll be heading back later on to add a more substantive reply. So stay tuned...!

Marianne

[Harley PoMMom]

Hi Jennie,

Welcome to you and all your sweet elder pups! We are so glad you found us and we are sorry for the reasons that brought you to us. Could you round up copies of all the tests that were done on Edie and post those results here, we need only see those numbers that are abnormal and please include the reference ranges and units of measurement...as an example: ALP 200 U/L (5-50) We are especially interested in the test results they performed for Cushing's, was this test an ACTH stimulation or low dose dexamethasone suppression (LDDS)?

Please know we will help in any way we can so do not hesitate to ask all the questions you want.

Hugs, Lori