Hi everyone.

Stumbled onto your forum, honestly cannot recall exactly where. i think I saw it mentioned in one of the countless product reviews I've looked at. But thank you for letting me post. We're kind of in a tough spot.

Cooper is our beloved Pit mix. 10.5 yrs old. 70 lbs. About 8-10 months ago we noticed big water increases, lethargy and some hair loss. He had a couple UTI's and it took me about 5 min of Google searches to key into Cushings. Nevertheless our Vet discouraged the Cushings Test, saying "it will probably just come back negative." She did tell us an ultrasound was our next move. So we went ahead with an Ultrasound. Nothing extraordinary. They did tell us no obvious masses or tumor on the adrenals but they were maybe just on the edge of being too large? Another 1-2 months passed, symptoms worsened and we pushed for the test. Positive for Cushings. I apologize, I don't have much data on the positive test. He was at the Vet for most of the day for the test.

So following the positive test, the Vet immediately started Cooper on Vetoryl. It wasn't good. We honestly thought it was killing him. We actually misread the dosing-thankfully(30mg 2x per day) and were only giving him 30mg once per day. Lethargy was off the charts, hind leg weakness was awful. It DID slow down the water intake but not in a healthy way. The meds just turned him so lethargic. The Vet took Cooper down to 10mg per day and even that didn't help. He just doesn't seem to tolerate Vetoryl. When we took him in for his first round of bloodwork, she took him off the Vetoryl. I'd guess we attempted Vetoryl for close to a month with the different doses.

So following the Vetoryl defeat, we started searching for holistic options. Stumbled onto alot of positive reviews of Lignans and Melatonin. We've been giving Cooper Lignans and Melatonin for about 3 months now without any real improvement. In fact, he's steadily regressed. He's now battling another UTI and on antibiotics for 3 weeks. So some of the regression may be due to the UTI as I know that can really be hard on a Dog.

Anyhow, here we are. We know our options are running out and we love Cooper. Girlfriend and Vet want to try an even smaller dose of Vetoryl (5mg?) and attempt it again. Maybe the side effects he was having were something we just needed to work thru? I've been kind of looking thru more holistic options... I see a number of them online and can't help but read the optimistic outcomes of everyone else, wishing they could be us. I see a number of supplements using Ashwaganda / Astralagus and other herbs but no clue if they work well.

I'll continue to search thru past threads but while I'm doing that, I'd love to hear any thoughts other might have. This is an awful disease and my heart goes out to others facing it. We usually cry ourselves to sleep as we have for about 8 months now.

thanks-Kevin (from MI)