Archive for November, 2009

Luther Update

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

So Luther has been on prednizone for nearly 3 weeks and has noticably improved.

He is not shying away from going up stairs anymore, and although it takes him a while to climb a flight, he is doing so willingly.

He is also more active in general, seeking attention, and reverting back to his hoovering ways of old.

I never thought I’d ever miss having to keep an eye on him to make sure he stays out of trouble, but over the last little while, seeing him just lying down doing nothing, I’ve come to miss the lusifer side of Lu.

He goes back for a blood test at the end of the month, at which time I hope he can begin his maintinence phase of lysodren.

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Luther Update

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

So Lu is on his second medication since his Cushing’s diagnosis, the latter of which is to counteract the effect of the first one.

The most popular drug to treat Cushing’s in dogs is one called lysodren, a powerful drug used as a chemotherapy agent.

One of the side effects of this drug is that it can be overadministered, which is what happened in Luther’s case.

During induction phase, the dog is given a large dose of the drug, with that dose being reduced once it appears to be working and reducing symptoms of Cushing’s.

In Luther’s case, the drug began to work but it took a while for his symptoms to exhibit this change, thus he received too much of it.

Now he is on prednisone to counteract the lysodren, and appears to be doing a little better.

He goes into the vet for blood work tomorrow, and hopefully by then they can prescribe him a maintinence phase of lysodren, which he will be on for life.

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Lars Scores an A for First Year of Guide Work

Friday, November 6th, 2009

So lost in the last few months which have been marred by Luther’s deteriorating health crisis, is the fact that Lars, AKA Bar Bar has been, and continues to be a little fire cracker.

Monday was actually Lars and my 1-year anniversary, man its hard to believe that time has flown by as fast as it has.

Lars has matured in many ways since I brought him home, but one thing that has not changed is his incessant need to play and be the center of attention.

If Bar had his own way, he’d play 24 hours a day 7 days a week, skipping breakfast and dinner, in exchange for a game of tug of war or going for a good run.

Speaking of running, I have begun referring to Bar as my little Kenyan because of his love to run.

He is not the fastest dog, but has endurance superior to mine, a fact that makes it easy for him to come running with us no matter how far we go.

Lars’ guide work is, as it was when I got him, steller.

He has a tremendous pull in harness, and has, with some coaxing begun to show a better ability to slow down in “delicate” areas where the bull in the China shop mentality is bad for business.

Happy anniversary little man, the first of many, knock on wood.

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Luther has Cushing’s Disease

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

So Luther was diagnosed with Cushing’s disease and has been put on a very powerful medication named Lysodren.

It is a chemotherapy drug designed to slow down the ability of the pituitary gland to produce ACTH, a hormone that stimulates the adrenal gland’s production of cortisones which when allowed to flow free in the dog’s body results in all the symptoms Luther has been exhibiting.

He began the medication last Thursday and is currently in the midst of an 8 day induction phase in which he receives a large amount of the drug to “kickstart” the process of killing off tissue of the pituitary to slow things down.

So far, not much has changed with him, and he is on the 6th day of the medication.

The only way he would be taken off the induction phase before 8 days, is if he started losing his apetite, a sign that the drug is working.

I had hoped to see something positive out of him by day 6, but he does have a rather severe form of the disease so maybe it just takes a bit longer.

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