Our 13 year old G ypsy was diagnosed with Cushing's Syndrome about nine months ago. Symptoms include excessive weight, panting, drinking of water with frequent pee accidents from the over drinking....sort of a form of dog diabetes. But she could have diabetes also and we could check for that but then what...we buy her insulin?
We have done numerous tests, retests with a maintenance expense of $60 a month on pills to help regulate her cortisol levels.
However, nine months later she is still overweight, drinking tons of water, panting and having pee accidents.
We decided to take her off the meds. We can not afford to keep buying them without seeing ANY improvements.
Most dogs pass away within 3 years of the initial diagnosis of cushing's because most of them are elderly and succomb to other ailments.
Even though this is the right decision for our beloved G ypsy, it's still a hard one to make.
Just wanted to share.

By Bea on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 12:21 am:

I'm so sorry that she's no better. I understand how hard it is, but this may be the best for her too.

By Shellyg on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 01:01 am:

Annie, I have had a few foster dogs (I run a dog and cat rescue group) that have had Cushings. The last doggie, Yoshi was on drugs for several months without improvement. I took him off, and he actually improved. He was a young guy at five, but he did end up loosing his weight the old fashioned way... exercise!

By Annie2 on Saturday, April 30, 2005 - 11:02 pm:

G ypsy has been doing fine. No known differences from taking the meds and now. I did buy the dogs a 3 gallon continuously-filled water bowl. We've had the bowl for 24 hours and it is great. With two dogs (one a heavy drinker LOL) and a cat drinking from the same bowl, we were constantly watching it and refilling the darn bowl.
I highly recommend it for every pet owner. Does anyone else have one of these?

By Annie2 on Saturday, April 30, 2005 - 11:05 pm:

G ypsy has been doing fine. No known differences from taking the meds and now. I did buy the dogs a 3 gallon continuously-filled water bowl. We've had the bowl for 24 hours and it is great. With two dogs (one a heavy drinker LOL) and a cat drinking from the same bowl, we were constantly watching it and refilling the darn bowl.
I highly recommend it for every pet owner. Does anyone else have one of these?

By Livvy on Sunday, May 1, 2005 - 08:48 am:

Annie,
We lost our boy Quigley in October to diabetes insipidus. It sounds very similar to Cushings except the weight issues. We had no idea he had it and the excessive water that he drank never alarmed our vet (unfortunately!! He could have been saved with just eye drops if our vet had tested him!) We had to have the continuously-filled water bowl and later found out that excessive water drinking was how he regulated his diabetes.

He got tangled in trees in the woods one day when our invisible fence broke and he went the whole day without water. We ended up spending thousands of dollars at Cornell University trying to save him but that entire day without water brought on seizures and after a week of trying, he never regained consciousness. It was awful!

Our boy was only 5 years old so it was a huge shock to us!! My fingers are crossed for your Gypsy! I hope it all goes well for her and your family!! I'm thinking of you!!