Thursday, January 15, 2009

Chrissy may have Cushings Disease


Since last Sunday her appetite was depressed and she started to drink an unusual amount of water. Thankfully - she was also passing all of that water...but we needed to find out why. My sweet husband spent his day off at the vets office with her last Tuesday and thankfully all of her blood tests came up fine....all major organs doing well...but they did find she had some blood and mucus in her stool. Sent her home with antibiotics and I was relieved...

Fast forward to last night... Both Don and I were up with Chrissy. She had drunk a gallon of water yesterday and we finally pulled the waterer away. ..since she still wanted for more! She cried 'as' she was having an accident because it would come on so fast, she did not have time to come and ask to go out.. :0( We started to just get up every 90 minutes to take her outside.

I called off of work and took her back to the vets office. We were there at 10am. After another visit, the vet wants us to take her back tomorrow for a full day test. They believe that she may have an adrenal tumor causing her adrenal glands to go haywire, with the symptoms being thirst and constant urination. He said it was a form of Cushings Disease.

That was the first time I had ever heard of Cushings in dogs. I am used to it with horses since 1 of my really old horses (32) had it in the later years of his life. The vet said the symptoms are different in horses and dogs although - the cause is basically the same.

It is treatable and in almost all of the cases without removing the tumor.

Tomorrow - they are going to inject her with a drug to see how she reacts to it after 8 hours. They will again draw blood and check her levels. If they are at a certain level, apparently that means she is positive for Cushings and we will start her meds...which is another story all on its own...

Today - my girl has spent a relaxing day with me ...well except for the many trips up and down the stairs for potty trips. She did have 1 accident. Doc told me to let her have all the water she wanted. She does not have an appetite though - even refusing the scrambled eggs I made for her.. :0(

Anyone else ever been through this?

5 comments:

Michelle said...

Oh poor Chrissy. I will be praying that she feels better soon. :)

vivian said...

thats too bad. At least if it is cushings there is something they can do to treat her. these darn pets when they get older just break our hearts.. I dont know if I will have anymore cats or dogs when these two kitties are gone. they are 16 and 15. Im thinking a parrot might be nice... !
hugs
vivian

Justabeachkat said...

When I saw the photo and your blog title, I hestitated to even read your post. Why, because it didn't sound good. But...I'm happy to learn that there is something they can do. Praise God.

Hugs!
Kat

Sometimes It's Good said...

I feel for sweet Chrissy. I hope that the vets will be able to treat her and she is better soon.
Hugs, Susan

Nina Diane said...

my old dog Wiley had Cushings disease but due to his age, he was 15 years old, they did not treat him. But his appetite never went away...he wanted to eat all of the time and the vet said just let him! So we did and he seemed happy.