Cairo, 8 year old staffordshire bull terrier just diagnosed

[goldengirl88]

Alison:

I am probably leaving the forum. I care about you and Cairo so please keep in touch with me.
Patti

[flynnandian]

hi patti, this is an open/public forum, so i don't know if you want your personal email adress on this topic where everyone can see it.

[Alison]

Aww Patti, that's a shame. I've put it in my contacts, so if you want to delete it so it's not seen by weird people.............. (apart from me of course).

Temperature went up again today. I wish it would make it's mind up.

[LabDad]

Alison:

I am probably leaving the forum. I care about you and Cairo so please keep in touch with me.
Patti

I hope all is well Patti & with Tipper too. Though I have been busy lately, I have been getting updates. I know the struggles you have had. We did with Lulu, our yellow (adorable lab) lab.

We have our Stanley, a rescue bull, who will be 8 soon. He just came back from the vet. He cracked a molar & it will have to come out on July 31. It would be too expensive to cap & I don't think it would add. We are getting the surgery paid for, but they say it is tricky, because you could break the jaw, so we are praying for the best. He is in good spirits after coming home, but we have to take away the hard chew toys for now.

[Alison]

It's been very hot here and Cairo was really struggling and yet again, we weren't sure if it was the heat or not. He's also got a bit of a frizzy looking tail and is losing the hair off it.

He's been off his meds for months following his crash.

We took him for a stim test yesterday and the results are 120 before stim and 400 after. The vet says he's perfectly fine.

Is that good numbers? I'll be honest, I don't understand how he can be OK now after being diagnosed with Cushings - do we take it that he actually doesn't have Cushing's?

[molly muffin]

Hi Alison, yuk, a heat wave sound ucky

So, making the change from nmol to ug would be as follows:

120 nmol = 4.34ug
400 nmol = 14.49ug

Which if that holds, it sounds like Cairo's cortisol production has kicked back in and he will need a very low dose of trilostane. Lower than where he was before when he crashed for sure.
With symptoms controlled, Dechra likes the post cortisol number to be under 9.0 ug.

Maybe discuss with vet him going onto a low dose. What was he on when he crashed do you remember? I can't go back through the thread right now, but will look later once I'm home.

hugs
Sharlene and molly muffin

[Alison]

Hi Sharlene,

He was on 60mg when he crashed. The vet spoke to Dechra and the vet school and both said he wasn't to go back on the vetoryl unless his post stim levels went above 400 I think it was.

She's not intending putting him on anything. She said that these levels were perfectly fine - if they were around the 500 - 600 mark then she'd want him back on meds.

After he crashed she said that she'd rather have a slightly Cushingoid dog than an Addisonian dog.

[labblab]

Hi Alison, now that you've explained that part, yes, in Cairo's case that does make sense to me to hold off. He does seem to be especially sensitive to the medication and who knows, he may be one of those dogs for whom cortisol production never again rebounds to a problematic level. This doesn't necessarily mean he did not have Cushing's to begin with, but instead it could be that the Vetoryl he took has altered his adrenal function and natural production of cortisol. So before beginning treatment again, Dechra and your vets may be awaiting both diagnostically high numbers re: his cortisol as well as the reappearance of clinical symptoms. Hopefully, he'll still have a long vacation from treatment ahead of him!

Marianne

[molly muffin]

Yes that makes sense. We had one dog off of medication for a year after a crash on vetroyl, so it isn't unheard of. It just depends on how fast his adrenal glands kick in and how much they produce.
I can see the point the vet and Dechra are thinking of with wanting to wait. If it goes up, though, I would go much lower than the 60mg.

Hang in there! You're doing good, heat and all.

Sharlene and molly muffin

[Alison]

Ahh thank you. I've been sitting here wracking my brains as to how he could be diagnosed last year but appear to be fine this year. The only thing I could come up with was that if he had a tumour, it had maybe shrivelled up and stopped causing a problem. Your explanations help me out, so I'll stop panicking.

I've hunted out all my posts with his test results to see a pattern.

His last post stim result in May was 239 (this was after his crash and he'd been off meds) and then 400 on this one so it is climbing but he was really stressed out in the vet on Monday so I'm sure that must have had some effect as well.

Oh, they said that IF he needed to go back on Vetoryl, he'd be on 30mg and no more than that