Anyone else have a dog with Cushing’s?

[FloorCandy]

I was wondering if anyone else has a cushings dog, and if anyone who does might want to join a thread discussing our common experiences.

I have a 5 year old French bulldog that they have finally diagnosed with cushings. He got a false negative on the first test, then they found nothing from the ultrasound, and did the second test and he came back positive. He’s been on meds for a few months now and his skin is improved, but his eating and drinking is still off the charts. Also he’s blue brindle merle, and it seems the hair loss and skin lesions mostly affected the blue areas, and in the areas with extreme hair loss, only the bridle (blonde/red) stripes are growing back lol.

My sweet boy is a crazy exception to all the rules, he’s too young, not a breed that’s generally at risk, and he isn’t neutered. Apparently some of the symptoms and effects are usually attributed to age and castration, but my boy is young and intact, but still showing all the usual hormonal stuff so the vet doesn’t know if neutering him will make it worse. She’s been working with some specialists at the University of Tennessee I believe.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I've had 2. Both did not do well with the meds. I hate cushings. I read all kinds of success stories, but that wasn't my experiences and I'm still quite angry, so I'm not sure how helpful I can be. There are a few good support groups on Facebook that I used to follow.

Cushings is a frustrating condition. Do they know where the tumor is? Pituitary or adrenal glands?

 

[FloorCandy]

I've had 2. Both did not do well with the meds. I hate cushings. I read all kinds of success stories, but that wasn't my experiences and I'm still quite angry, so I'm not sure how helpful I can be. There are a few good support groups on Facebook that I used to follow.

Cushings is a frustrating condition. Do they know where the tumor is? Pituitary or adrenal glands?

They could see his adrenals in the ultrasound and didn’t see a tumor, so they feel that it’s pituitary.

 

[FloorCandy]

Although we didn’t realize it at the time, he was showing signs of cushings as early as 1.5-2 years old. His behavioral changes were written off as him being intact and growing more mature, when he was unable to complete mating activities, the vet said it’s because he’s a frenchy. Even though he has long straight legs and no physical struggles, he just couldn’t get it firm enough, it wasn’t a matter of him not being able to mount and move, it was too soft to work.

Anyway, the vet just ignored it all, and then he started with the skin lesions, and I had a fight with the vet because I heard them making fun of me in the back room (they didn’t fully click the door closed) and they were laughing as they shaved his open wounds and they got sprayed with blood. I immediately changed vets and it’s been much better since.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

They could see his adrenals in the ultrasound and didn’t see a tumor, so they feel that it’s pituitary.

Than no attempts at surgery. The meds can help with some symptoms, but not always all of them. It is a difficult med to manage and to find a good dose. I'm assuming your dog is on Vetoryl. It can also change over time as well.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Although we didn’t realize it at the time, he was showing signs of cushings as early as 1.5-2 years old. His behavioral changes were written off as him being intact and growing more mature, when he was unable to complete mating activities, the vet said it’s because he’s a frenchy. Even though he has long straight legs and no physical struggles, he just couldn’t get it firm enough, it wasn’t a matter of him not being able to mount and move, it was too soft to work.

Anyway, the vet just ignored it all, and then he started with the skin lesions, and I had a fight with the vet because I heard them making fun of me in the back room (they didn’t fully click the door closed) and they were laughing as they shaved his open wounds and they got sprayed with blood. I immediately changed vets and it’s been much better since.

That is quite young. Glad you switched vets. Probably good he couldn't mate as cushings is believed to be genetic and passed down in the lines. I don't mean to be controversial, but merle was probably introduced into the frenchie by breeding in merle Chihuahua which are a breed prone to cushings. Otherwise I don't believe it occurs often in French bulldogs. I have French bulldog mixes and adore them.

.

 

[FloorCandy]

That is quite young. Glad you switched vets. Probably good he couldn't mate as cushings is believed to be genetic and passed down in the lines. I don't mean to be controversial, but merle was probably introduced into the frenchie by breeding in merle Chihuahua which are a breed prone to cushings. Otherwise I don't believe it occurs often in French bulldogs. I have French bulldog mixes and adore them.

Once he became ill, I was glad he was never able to mate. There’s no way to know the truth about breeding because people have hung papers since breed groups began, but in his pedigree, I was able to look up many of the breeders and kennels and see photos of the dogs on their sites, and I could see the Merle several generations back, I know people mix in poms and call them fluffy as well, but he has no visible evidence of sharp faced breeds like poms and chis, plus the chis often give that odd head shape that doesn’t pair well with bullies and makes them wall-eyed.

Previously I had an English bulldog from an akc show breeder and he was generally healthy, but there were a lot of things that the breeder glossed over and I had to learn about. So after he passed, I decided a frenchy would be easier to carry in its old age, and I started looking for a puppy with long straight legs, a tail that was not frozen over the exit ramp haha because I didn’t want to be cleaning out tail pockets. I looked for a slighltly longer nose, big nostrils, small rope, straight back. I wasn’t necessarily looking for Merle, he just fit my other check boxes. My female is normal black brindle, and she can lift and rotate her tail above the topline, which is a pretty hard fault in shows, but such a joy in actual life lol, I wanted to do agility with them, I preferred them stronger and more limber instead of stuffy show perfection. Unfortunately covid shut us down 6 weeks into classes.

 

[lomine]

I had a Maltese with cushings. He was not properly diagnosed for several years. The first signs of hair loss were attributed to his thyroid problems. Without making this into a full novel, he had a host of other issues cropping up in the last years of his life. After his sister passed things got worse and I ended up taking him to the vet I took his sister to for acupuncture to help alleviate some symptoms. As part of that I shared his blood work results with her and she's the one that said he has cushings. (When I talked to the regular vet about it, he said "Oh yeah I was thinking that too." Naturally, I found a new regular vet for my current dog.)

I had been seeing the acupuncture vet every two weeks for several years at that point because of my other dog's back issues. So I had gained a lot of trust in her. She had a formal education in veterinary school but also believed that many things could be treated in some nontraditional ways.

For the cushings, she suggested an herb called Four Marvels. I got it off Amazon. I remember she told me it works well on one type of cushings but not the other. This was like 4 years ago at this point so, unfortunately, I don't remember which and I don't remember the dosage. But it won't hurt the dog either way. My dog responded well in that his skin and coat improved. It happened pretty fast too. He didn't grow any hair back, but I don't know if that's because he had the wrong kind or because he had been misdiagnosed for 5 or so years. He was getting the herb for a few months before his liver failure got worse and I had him put down.

Sorry. I still kind of wrote a novel.