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| - My girl, Crissy, a 10-yr. old Samoyed, was diagnosed with 'atypical' Cushings' in July of 2004. I had suspected Cushings' for about two years and she was tested multiple times, but failed the tests! She was diagnosed with hypothyroidism at the age of 4 and ballooned up to almost 90 pounds in weight. In 2002, she over-dosed on the T-4 supplementation and it scared me to death. From that point onward, she went down hill. She became very stiff and panted like she was burning up. She began to develop 'growths' on her skin and lost patches of hair. In the summer of 2002, my local vet recommended we clip off most of her hair because she seemed so hot and was drinking so much water. I took her to another vet for an ultrasound and she determined that both adrenals were enlarged and mis-shapened.
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| - My girl, Crissy, a 10-yr. old Samoyed, was diagnosed with 'atypical' Cushings' in July of 2004. I had suspected Cushings' for about two years and she was tested multiple times, but failed the tests! She was diagnosed with hypothyroidism at the age of 4 and ballooned up to almost 90 pounds in weight. In 2002, she over-dosed on the T-4 supplementation and it scared me to death. From that point onward, she went down hill. She became very stiff and panted like she was burning up. She began to develop 'growths' on her skin and lost patches of hair. In the summer of 2002, my local vet recommended we clip off most of her hair because she seemed so hot and was drinking so much water. I took her to another vet for an ultrasound and she determined that both adrenals were enlarged and mis-shapened. We did ACTH stim and LDDS and a water deprivation tests. All negative. We were stumped and struggled on for another year. Then she started losing weight and sleeping almost constantly. In May 2004, she started wetting on the floor during her sleep and she was diagnosed with diabetes. And she was wasting away...down to 57 pounds and had lost so much muscle, she was on three legs and yelped if you turned her head or opened her mouth. I knew I had to try something else, so my vet referred us to the University of Missouri in Columbia. I took off 3 days from work and Criss and I drove the 370 miles up there to see the internists. They re-ran the Cushings' tests and did a curve on her blood sugar and stuff. They also took several skin biopsies. It was on our second visit that they called in the University of Tennessee to run the full adrenal panel. Criss has something called congenital adrenal hyperplasia-like syndrome. She started on Lysodren the end of August 2004. By November, we were seeing vast improvement. She could walk, go upstairs, was gaining back weight and muscle, and her hair started to come back in...after 2 years! Her before and after pictures are in our gallery. Now Crissy has a lot of problems, but even with her diabetes and Cushings', she hasn't had any problems with pancreatitis or UTI's. She does take daily doses of pancrenzyme and a NSAID. Her case was transferred to Oklahoma State University (it's only half the distance) and we see them about every 4 to 6 months. She also goes there to an ophthalmologist (she had diabetic cataract surgery in Nov. '04, developed complication and lost her right eye and has glaucoma in the other). Criss is my wonder dog! There is the possibility that once a dog's Cushings' is under control, he might not remain diabetic! Crissy takes less insulin than most dogs her size and on the days that she takes her Lysodren her bg's are much less. I believe that if I could have gotten a diagnosis faster, she would not have developed the diabetes.
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