Aged dog - Cushings??

[Mahoganybay]

Hi all,

Have a 11 year old Golden Retriever bitch who is now seriously showing the signs of her old age, she has been arthritic in her hind legs since she was 8 and is on medication for this, but recently she has been quite bad on her back legs, she is drinking and panting alot, long wee's and her coat has gone quite dull.

Have made an appointment with the vets but have had a little 'google' and i suspect that she is starting with Cushings. If this is confirmed by the vets can anyone give me any of their experiences of this disease, what medication may the vet suggest? i know that she will only get worse but how long do you think we have left.

I won't allow her to get to the point where she is uncomfortable and certainly if she starts having accidents in the house (she would be mortified), is there anything we can do to make her more comfortable??

 

[Kellys Heroes]

Hi, sorry to hear about the trouble you're having

My GSD - now 11 - started with the same problems, she will literally drink two bowl fulls of water in 1 sitting and this is not normal for her.
We took her to the vets and it turned out that her Cushings test came back negative - there is 6 tests (I think) they can perform to check for it and they have done 2 (as she is not a textbook dog) which have been negative. They have done bloods and have diagnosed a start of pancreatitis OR kidney failure. They have left it as feed a low fat diet take her off her allergy medication and see how she goes basically. If it turns out to be kidney failure, we won't allow her to carry on until the point where she is suffering. Nothing has changed yet though fingers crossed.
It might NOT be Cushings - we were all convinced it was, even the vets and it turns out it probably isn't.

I don't know about the meds, but I know my horse has been diagnosed with Cushings and she is on 1mg of Prascend a day - she has improved 100x and is coming right again, slowly but surely. One of the horses on the yard has been on Prascend (it was called Pergolide) for 5 years now and is still going strong - he is 24!

Its a very slow progressing disease caused by a tumour on the pituitary gland in the brain - it affects the hormone levels in the body, hence the coat change and urine/water levels and is not curable - it is however, able to be slowed down.

I know you will do the right thing by your girl but don't think negatively about it now, just find out what is causing it and think about it this way - at least if its found to be Cushings, you know what it is and can treat it! I was devastated when I found out about my mare, but the more I thought about it, the easier it got as the other options weren't as easy to help, meds wise.
K x