Thank you sooooo much! My husband took Reese to my regular vet this morning since she seemed to be irritated on her vaginal and anal areas. Also to check her belly since it seemed overly buddah like and hard. My vet initially called me a pain in the AS*, yes to my husband, who is normally very calm and does not like to get into any conflicts (rightfully so or not) surprisingly came to my defense and said how emotional this has been for us and how it comes at a very bad time in our lives.. my husband has been out of work, and a million other problems.. so he then calmed down and instead of my husband going over all of my questions (that he was armed with on paper) he called me while he was with my husband and reese and answered everything. Although he has only had three atypical cases of cushings in his entire career he did say that he has researched it and will explain all to me from the beginning.. I must admit he made it much clearer and finally explained all of the University of Tenessess results, and all other related questions. At this point he wants to keep her on melatonin for three to four months and hope that works on its own. He was not that familiar with flax seed or hulls and lignans. .spelling is probably off, but said he didn't want to introduce too many things at once. He wanted to see if the melatonin would work on its own first. That sounds reasonable. He told me Reese's levels are not that elevated so he felt he definitely had time to do this. To my surprise he said he does NOT retest or even do an adrenal panel again but just waits to see if the symptoms subside.i.e. swollen belly, enormous appetite, some weight loss (hopefully), and hopefully the return of her regular coat. What was interesting was, although we cannot obviously go back in time, he did say that it is very possible that Reese has been atypical cushings her entire life, as two of the techs at UT told me. Believe it or not they see atypical and possibly even cushings in young dogs, even in puppies. He did not have the feeling that reese has a tumor but wanted to hold off on the ultrasound. He feels at this point it is probably too early to even see a tumor, if even there. At least based on her levels, symptoms, etc. I will wait the four months.
What I wanted to ask you and sorry for my ignorance is what is BID, in melatonin. I did get a brand Nature Made in Duane Reade and am not sure if it is time released or not. It makes no mention of that. I was told NOT TO USE time released by other posters on other sites. I am giving them to her twice a day, 3mg.. and she is NOT out of it, thank gd at all. She is a lazy girl and enjoys her sleep, but it doesn't seem as if she is sleeping any more. Her appetite is still as crazy if not worse (but that could be in my head, I will admit) but again I was told that I would not see any results until three to four months.
I was just concerned that she would be sleeping 24/7 and what kind of quality of life would that be for her. It is way too cold for REESE to even attempt to take her on walks. This girl needs the weather to be at 70 for her to have any desire to even go outside, let alone walk.
I am so appreciative of your message and much happier that my vet did call me and did check Reese too. Her anal glands were expressed and I was given a spray antibiotic for both her vaginal area and anal area. We will take it slower than I have been and hold off with the Westchester specialists.. Dr. Peterson or Dr. Sobel, until we gd forbid do not see any improvement.
Sorry for my typical long messages but as most who have babies with any form of cushings, it is very difficult to diagnose, as well as being a very difficult disease to treat. Hopefully we will find the right treatment quickly and just add this med to her daily eye ointment. Unfortunately a lot of people and dogs/cats are having terrible allergies, already. Reese suffers from those as well, but we never really gave her anything. Thankfully they were never that bad. She is a front paw licker but only for a bit before going to bed and then when she wakes up. Thankfully no sores or hair loss there. He by NO MEANS will put her on steroids, even though atypical cushings is not too much cortisol but too much sex hormones. He does not feel that antihistemines work too well, in dogs either, so prefered to tackle one problem at a time.
Again, thank you for asking people with experience to contact me. That is so sweet of you for taking the time to respond. I will update, in a much shorter version (promise) if anything changes one way or the other.
Best to all,
Randy |