Posts Tagged ‘lysodren’

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.

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.

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.