Endings for Untreated Cushings in Dogs

[SpartacusGeorge]

My 14.5 yr old beagle was diagnosed with Cushing's Disease a few months ago. He is nearly blind and deaf already - we decided not to put him through the treatment. My question is how do most older dogs with untreated Cushing's begin to fail? I would really like to minimize any suffering in his final days. Right now, I am red-flagging every little twitch and thinking if I knew what to expect, I could calm down a little and hopefully not send any frightened messages to Spartacus. He is currently on Proin to control his urine accidents and that has worked for a few months now. Would just really prefer to look at him with joy rather than fear these days. Thanks, in advance, for your knowledge & stories.

[Peacefulkimberly]

I have a 16 yr old Doxie that has had Cushing's for the last 4 yrs. She is on a low dose of Vetoryl and is doing well on it. I have a very experienced country vet and he has me bring Tootsie in yearly for testing to see where her levels are. We recently added an additional 10mg of Vetoryl every other day and she is tolerating the medicine and seems happy. She sleeps a lot! But she is very old. She feels the best first thing in the morning and wants to play with her sister who is a 15 yr old Pug. I am pleased with the quality of life Tootsie has and we have had all these years added to our time together. Chubaca has her own health issues some of which are due to her breed and some due to her age. All together I spend $150 a month between the two seniors but it is so worth it. They have been with me through thick and thin and I'm happy to return the favor. I know my girls will let me know when it is their time to go. In the meantime I cherish every moment I have with them. Good luck to those out there dealing with a pets health issues. I wish you all God Speed.

[Mary0816]

We just let our Corgi go this week at 13.  I work full time and had no idea what Cushings was until I brought him in last year due to the panting, I thought he had heart trouble.  Other symptoms I unfortunately chalked up to old age.  My vet wanted him to go into another city for an overnight suppression test and follow up (at a cost of $1200).  My dog had high blood pressure in addition to Cushings and got nosebleeds when he got stressed so I decided to bypass any treatment and kept him for this last year as comfortable as I could.  He was already somewhat blind and deaf, and the incontinence just got worse - all he knew at the end was hunger and thirst, and he would pee while standing at his water bowl drinking.  He was starting to struggle to get up the one flight of stairs in and out of my apartment and I couldn't carry him since he was a very large Corgi, think German Shepard with stumpy legs.  It became time to either diaper him and watch him get worse or let him go while he was still mobile and weak but happy.  I can't think of anything worse than letting it go to the point where he was getting seizures.  It was hard to do, but he walked into the vet's office on his own and went gently to sleep with all of us fawning over him instead of a frenzied round of calls in the middle of the night to find a 24 hour vet to help him, which is where this was all soon heading.  When in doubt, ask an impartial person for advice.  Sometimes you have to remove your heart from the situation and use your common sense instead and you don't see how sick they are when you are with them every day.  I feel at peace knowing he was with people who loved him enough to let him go when the quality of life was still good.

[24Mari24]

You have my heart. My almost 10 yr old boxer is having a rough time but I just don't think she'd handle Big Pharma very well. Man, this is hard. I'll treat her naturally as long as I can...

[caroltalbot]

We have a Doxie with Cushings, we have to get her meds from a compounding pharmacy and a blood test every three months. She is doing fine, she doesn't drink water as much as she did (one of the signs) and not having accidents anymore in the house.

[luvmyshihtzupups]

Hi everyone

We just put down our 14 year old shih-tzu who had Cushing's disease. She was diagnosed with it around 5 years ago and we immediately put her on Vetoryl which helped a lot. I would say it definitely gave her quality of life until the end stages (roughly the last couple of months).
The initial symptoms of the disease in our dog were: eating a lot, overweight, pot belly, thin fur.   She did very well for the past 4 years. Then last year her back legs gradually stopped working so we got a little wheelchair for her so she could still walk. Over the past few months she wasn't able to control her bowels/urinating so there were quite a few accidents in the house. She gradually became weaker and starting having seizures. After a bad seizure this week we took her to the vet as we knew the end was nearing. Blood tests showed her kidneys were basically no longer functioning and we knew it was time to let her go.
I hope this information helps anyone else with a dog with Cushings and knowing potentially what to expect.

[oskakayla]

That's sad. I have a 13 year old Jack Russell Kayla who has had Cushings for the last 3 years and is on 40 mg of Trilostane she started off on  30 mg but I have had to increase it(its now becoming very expensive) but I am afraid it has not stopped the symptoms still very hungry drinks a lot and has thinning hair and weakness in the back legs also pants a lot and she whines a lot.

[Iamconnie2]

One of my Dachshunds has had Cushings for 3 years now. She’s almost 9 yrs old now. She’s started out on 10 mg a day of Vetoryl then it went to 15mg now we are at 20 mg a day. She pants real bad, drinks a lot as well. Her muscle mass is gone really. She staggers, so I carry her to go outside and hold her so she doesn’t topple over. She sleeps with a puppy pad under her as she is loosing control of her bladder and bowels now. She barks to tell me she’s either had an accident or needs to go outside, which is a lot. I’m up and down all night and day with her. She doesn’t see well now. I have to make horrible decision to take her and have her put down as she can’t be a happy tail wagging, dog anymore. This just kills me as her brother and her are a pair. Cushings disease is so very cruel.

[Mcduffsmom]

God bless little Dolce and cudos to a great mommy. I'm so sorry for your loss of Dolce. I too have a little Maltese, male named McDuff (after the children's book), whom the Doc suspects Cushings. The doc wants me to have an $800.00 ultrasound to confirm what type of Cushings my baby may have. My little guy is peeing on himself when sleeping, excessive urination, lethargic, loves his food, drinks a lot of water and is pot bellied. Sometimes he wimpers for no apparent reason. We've had him for 15 years. UTI and diabetes have been ruled out and initial urine test indicating Cushings has been done. I don't want to leave him untreated but the initial diagnosis process seems overly expensive. Our Vet has been around a long time and seems to know what he is doing but I feel bad delaying treatment due to high cost. Somehow I will come up with the money or shop around with other Vets because I want my fur baby to have good quality of life. Thank you for taking such good care of little Dolce in his time of need. You're an angel.