Cushings Disease

[griffons]

Our brussels griffon is seven years old.  Recently he displayed symptoms of Cushings.  Aggressive appetite, excessive drinking and panting, bulging belly, lethargic, fatty deposits on his back, white calcium deposits under his tongue, etc.  Three vets would not diagnose the dog with Cushings until my husband and I pointed out the findings on the internet.  After six weeks of debate, the dog was prescribed Trilostane (8mg/day). The first week showed improvement.  The second week he was back to excessive drinking.  The vet administered a shot of cortisol. Within 24 hours the dog developed pancreatitis and was in critical condition.  The vet was callous enough to tell us that we should consider putting the dog to sleep and insisted that the condition was not caused by the Cushings.  The dog is a fighter and miraculously pulled through.  He is still sick with Cushings and the vet is not addressing treatment.  I live in NYC and looking for a vet that specializes in this disease and respects a dog owners need to be informed.  Please advise.  We love our dog and know what he has we just need to find a doctor who cares enough to specialize the treatment.  

[Jaybay]

I agree 100% with Ghilly.  Your dog needs specialized care right now if for nothing else than to get her stabilized.  

I can somewhat forgive your vet for recommending euthanasia once pancreatitis reared its ugly head.  That disease can so often be fatal even with the best of care.  Some dogs will have problems and flareups the rest of their lives after one bout of acute panc, and the same thing happens in humans.  My aunt had mini schnauzer who had pancreas flares for the last half of her 18 (yes, that's 18 - not a typo!) years.

Thanks for taking such good care of your pup.  :-)

[Ghilly]

Being in New York City you have several excellent options available to you.  Right in Manhattan you have the Animal Medical Center, which is a world class animal hospital with cutting edge, state-of-the-art technology, and not too far into the Upstate in Ithaca you have Cornell University, which has one of the best veterinary colleges in the country and offers excellent veterinary care as a teaching hospital.  Either one of those would be a great choice.  The Animal Medical Center might be a bit pricey, but for what you get from them it's worth it.  Cornell is probably an even better bet for cutting edge technology and state-of-the-art equipment, because they are training the veterinarians of the future on techniques and equipment that many veterinary hospitals can only dream of.  The best part about them is that you won't have to pay an arm and a leg because of the fact that it IS a teaching hospital, and your pet's case is helping to train the new doctors, so it doesn't cost nearly as much as it would at a regular veterinary hospital because they are as interested in getting the experience as you are in finding help for your dog.  Unfortunately it has been many years since I lived on the East Coast in the New York area, but these two institutions remain the best choices for those cases that most other places would just turn away as being too challenging.  It would defnitely be worth a phone call to one or both of them to see what help they can offer your dog.  

Ghilly

[arachnaphob]

Hi,  I had a terrier X ?, that I got from the dog pound. When she was 12 and a half she developed laboratory confirmed Cushings.  Due to her age we decided not to treat the disease.

She lived a happy healthy life until she was 16 and had her euthanased due to general frailty, weakness and age.  The bonus of the disease was that due to the extra steroid production, her arthritis improved significantly and her old age was improved because of the Cushings.

By the way I don't understand why the vet gave her cortisol.

I understand that my story might be a one off and I hope someone else has some more information for you.

Arach