Posts Tagged ‘cushing’s disease’

Its Not a Broken Record: “Luther Update”

Friday, December 4th, 2009

So Lu went for blood work yesterday, and it appears that his pituitary gland is functioning far below the level that it should be.

This is a direct result of his lysodren overdose, but the hope was that by medicating him with prednizone that this would counteract that damaging effect of the drug.

He has been on prednizone for the last 3 weeks now, and although he did appear to perk up, the last few days have been more of a digression for him.

He has also begun shaking, ya know the kind of shaking that dogs do when they are scared of something, something I brought to the vet’s attention yesterday.

According to the vet, the shaking, and upset tummy Lu, and I have also been dealing with can be a direct result of a steroid deficiency in the body, meaning that now, his prednizone dose has been significantly bumped up.

He will be on the drug for the month of December, but in a larger dose, as the previous dose he was on did not result in any movement in his steroid levels at all.

He does appear to be a little more lively as of late though as I mentioned in my last post.

He goes up stairs, not willingly but he will do it, and he is a little more interested in what is going on around him, begging on a regular basis, lol.

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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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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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Luther Update

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Well I have not posted an update on Luther for quite some time now, mainly because there is nothing really positive to report.

He is progressively deteriorating, and as he lies at my feet gnawing on his garlic bone, I cant help wondering if he is at the end of his road.

He has undergone a battery of tests, ranging from blood and urin analysis, to an ultrasound and still an affirmative diagnosis is not apparent.

Symptoms that he is exhibiting suggest Cushing’s Disease which he is being tested for, results of which we should get back sometime today.

I have started looking up symptoms that he has begun to exhibit, to try to determine what we’re dealing with, and the majority of his symptoms do indicate that he may actually have Cushing’s.

First symptoms he exhibited began as soon as he got into that damn backpack from an earlier post, and were mainly: excessive thurst and urination, which go hand in hand I guess.

Since then he has developed many more symptoms, including difficulty getting up when lying down, unstable back legs, refusing to go up stairs, increased hunger, increased tiredness, and most recently difficulty swallowing.

His recent bout of blood work also bodes poorly, as his liver enzymes are even worse than they were the last time they were checked, and he is losing even more protein through his urine.

He does not appear to be in pain according to a neurologist who looked at him yesterday, he just appears to have lost all muscle tone which could explain his difficulty getting up and walking.

I remember the days when Lu used to play tug of war with me and chase after treats, he is so far from that now it really breaks my heart to see him in his current state.

Yesterday when I went to pick him up from the vet after his overnight, he did not even wag his tail to see me, something very uncharacteristic for him.

Words that would invoke a tail wag 100% of the time, are not having the same effect on him now, more evidence that suggests he is just going through the motions.

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