posted on August 17, 2007 02:51:08 PM
Last month I posted a thread after my dog was diagnosed with Cusing's disease. I was looking for feedback from anyone with experience in treating the disease. The response was very kind and I was asked to give an update. The last few weeks have been a roller coaster (if there are roller coasters that go down much more often than they go up) but now I can report that things seem better than we could have hoped.
We were told that Cushing's could not be cured but could be controlled with medication. This is true in 85% of cases. Not for my Lacy. Weeks of medication left her with no appetite and did not lower the cortisol level to anything like normal. We then got some good news AND some bad news. The bad news was that an MRI showed one enlarged adrenal gland which indicated a tumor and when it was removed and biopsied it was a carcinoma. The good news is that the cancer was contained in the gland and had not spread AND with the gland removed the remaining gland should begin to produce the hormone. She came through the operation with flying colors and got the staples out today. The surgeon says she should make a full recovery.
I know those of you will furry family members will understand that we are over the moon.
-----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
“The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.”
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
posted on August 18, 2007 05:11:55 AM
Thank you all! The problem now is to convince her that she is still recovering and not able to climb the stairs or go for long walks since she is feeling better than she has in months. Some of this is the result of the drugs which we a starting to withdraw.
It is a week since we brought her home and the change in her has been steady and very heartening. The most trouble has been the fact that she must not climb stairs. Our house is on three levels and her regular routine involves going up and down several times a day. This was getting to be a problem already because one of the things we had noticed was that she was having trouble on the stairs along with the thinning hair and pot belly. Thank goodness they checked her liver function before refilling her arthritis medication or we night not have found the Cushing's until it was too late. We were just thinking it was natural aging. We even joked that we were having some of the same problems.
We have been sleeping on a sofa bed on the lower level for the last week and taking her out the front door and around the house to the ground level door to the lower level so we could be with her at night in case she had a problem. Last night we let her sleep in the front room while we went back to our second floor bedroom. We blocked the stairs and she was fine this morning. -----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
“The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.”
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
posted on August 24, 2007 07:47:39 AM
Ladyjewels, Indeed some people (Not the eBay Outlook bunch who post on OT pet threads) may think we love them too much. I am so happy with her progress. We were so worried when she did not respond to the medication and stopped eating. Her staples are out, she no longer has to wear the "lamp shade" collar, and she eats everything you put in front of her. She is still not allowed to go up and down stairs or go for walks until next Monday.
Was it foolish to have an MRI and surgery on a dog? I know some people would say so but if we can have her longer and make her life better it is not to us. We don't spend money on gambling, smoking, expensive jewelry, or designer clothes (We will conveniently forget about our eBay addictions in a couple of collecting categories) so spending the money on a family member who gives us more than she will every take, seems fine to me.
(edited for typo)
-----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
“The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.”
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
[ edited by photosensitive on Aug 24, 2007 07:48 AM ]
