The Log Dog Blog: Cushing's Disease

A little update on Ginny...she was recently diagnosed with Cushing's Disease, which is when an excess of cortisol is produced. A few of the signs we'd noticed over the past four or five months included unexplained labored breathing, excessive drinking, ravenous eating, and a bloated abdomen.

The ravenous eating was probably the most obvious, because over the course of her entire life, Ginny has always been the pickiest eater. As in, it was a nightly ordeal to coax her into eating. The only things she would eat without making a scene? Cheeseburgers and Pupperoni. We'd been careful with overtreating when our other dogs were still with us because they were elderly and we had to watch their weight so as to not put undue stress on their already fragile spines. However, Ginny has historically been a fairly healthy weight and her picky eating habits were a plus in this regard, so we'd gotten a little lazy because we just wanted her to eat SOMETHING without a Broadway production from us!

When we first noticed that her belly was getting big, we attributed it to too many treats. But as the days and weeks went on, we noticed she was always hungry. She would eat whatever we put in front of her and always wanted some of whatever we were eating, including foods she'd never, ever shown the slightest interest in before. Green peppers, for example, which she'd always turned her nose up at!

And then the drinking starting. She was drinking absolutely ridiculous amounts of water every day. She seemed like she could never get comfortable and sat in awkward positions or always wanted to be on her back as though any pressure on her abdomen was painful. We started to worry that her spine was acting up, and if so, we knew any excess weight would just make everything worse. We were also puzzled by the weight gain because she had walked more in the three month period leading up to that point than she had in her whole life!

We took her to our vet in October to get everything checked out. We'd seen a lot of the same behaviors in Maddy, particularly the bloated abdomen, and that turned out to be tumors that led to her spleen being removed. Of course the similarities made us fear the worst, and some initial bloodwork raised questions which didn't help matters. We took her for an ultrasound, and the good news was that everything looked pretty great and there were no signs of any tumors anywhere. I can't even describe the relief I felt and I only partially heard the rest of the conversation with the vet about elevated levels of who-knows-what, so thank goodness C was listening. We took her home with some meds and instructions to keep an eye on her until the bloodwork could be repeated in two weeks.

That bloodwork produced the same results, so we were just going to watch her closely as the holidays approached. Some days she was absolutely fine, while other days she was lethargic and almost seemed depressed. It continues to be such a gift that C is working from home because he can watch her and she doesn't have to be alone. She's always been a bit of a strange bird - as I've said before, she sometimes seems like a cat trapped in a dog's body - but she's also always been very sensitive. I know she doesn't like being an only dog. I know she doesn't like that my mom is not currently living with us. Those things coupled with the fact that she wasn't feeling good wasn't the best combination.

By the time Christmas rolled around, she was still eating and drinking excessively, but her mood and demeanor had improved. I selfishly chalked this up to the fact that I worked from home for the last week-and-a-half before winter break, so she had both of us at home with her around the clock. On December 22, we took her to D.C. in the evening and she was perfectly fine. Not a single indication that she was feeling awful. But once we got home and overnight, she was up and down and up and down and couldn't get comfortable and was really struggling to breathe - so much so that we almost took her to the emergency vet around 4 am. Thankfully, she finally settled down, and slept until about 9 am. I called our vet to see if they had any available appointments that day, but they were booked. I called our former vet clinic, and they were booked. I called a local vet some friends recommended, and they were booked. I called a fourth vet practice and yep, you guessed it, they were booked.

I was starting to panic because it didn't seem like anyone would be able to see her, so I called the emergency vet Ginny had been to previously that is almost an hour from our house, and they were willing to see her that day. We put her in the car and ended up spending the whole day sitting in our car in the parking lot (COVID restrictions meant we couldn't go in with her). She was finally discharged at about 7:30 that night. They ruled out any lung issues and we set up an appointment with internal medicine for the first week of January. We were also given stern orders to restrict her food to help take some of the weight off. This has been awful because we know she's hungry and she looks at us with those sad little eyes and it's heartbreaking!

I had to be back at work after winter break, so C took her to the internal medicine appointment, and they ran some tests because all signs were pointing to Cushing's. They needed to see her again to do four-hour and eight-hour fasting bloodwork, so C took her back last week for that and then the internist called to share what all of the testing had revealed - that she does indeed have Cushing's. He prescribed medication to manage it, which she started last Friday. So far, she seems to be doing just fine with it, and C will take her back for bloodwork next week to check her levels and see if everything is going the way it should.

It's been a bit of a roller coaster, but we're so happy to finally have some answers. Of all the things it could have turned out to be - spine issues, lung problems, cancer - we can live with this diagnosis!