17 y/o doxie with possible Cushings disease

Our SIL has a maltese that had the same symptoms of drinking and urinating and she was diagnosed with Cushings. Unfortunately, I do not know what the labs were to help, just the symptoms. I know that she is on medication for it. Sorry your little one is so sick, it's awful when they can't tell you what's hurting. Hope all is better soon!

I feel very badly for you and your sweet little doxie, but in my heart of hearts I can only direct you back to your vet.

I worked in vet medicine for 25 years and while Dachshunds (and Boxers) can suffer from Cushings most folks in here are not vets (nor am I). We can guess until we are blue in the face, and offer you major emotional support, but you'd be far better off returning to your veterinarian and discussing your concerns and options.

I've had Boxers since 1970, and they are also be prone to this disease.

Good luck... they sure rip at your heart strings when they get sick.
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Yes...we will be calling our vet in the morning. I am curious as to the meds your dogs are on for the disease. Thanks.

I have no personal experience with addison's but I am sure there are internet groups around where you can do some reading up.

Hopefully though, you're in bed asleep by now and can get some rest and see the vet tomorrow.

Dogs can be PU/PD with liver issues, too. The ALKP of 665 does not scream Cushing's to me (usually a much higher value). The first thing I'd do is recheck the liver values and run a resting cortisol to check progress of the liver issues and if the cortisol values are abnormal, then run the additional tests to rule out Cushing's.

Doug, DVM

Well, we took Molly back to the vet yesterday and her liver enzymes have gone up...ALP now 1789 and ALT 819. She ruled out Cushing's. She suspects liver failure or cancer. Molly is still eating her dog food but her appetite does seem to be waning. At her age, she will not be having a biopsy. I guess it all boils down to keeping her comfortable and, ultimately, her quality of life. Thanks, everyone.

Sorry, here's hoping for hepatitis (can be successfully treated).

Terrible thing to have to deal with at any age.

doxieparents wrote:
Hello...I haven't been on here in years but I now have a question. Our 17 y/o doxie became ill with diarrhea and vomiting. We got her nursed back to health with pedialyte, yogurt, rice and hamburger mix and pepto bismal, [re]After she recuperated, she began drinking copious amounts of water and having frequent urination.

After 2 or 3 days of this, my husband took her to the vet. I was sure it was diabetes but her glucose was normal. However, her liver enzymes were elevated...ALT was 301 and ALP 665. The vet prescribed 100 mg of Adenosyl 1 x per day and 3 ml of Lactulose 2x per day...She has not gotten any better as far as the drinking and urinating. We were doing some reading on the internet tonite and we believe it could be Cushings disease. Her BUN and creatine levels were within normal limits. Any thoughts on this?? Thanks

**Send a urine sample out to the lab for culture.

Confusing diagnosis with my senior dog also. Treat for one thing, recuperate and then the excessive water drinking and urination.
Tests and diagnosis was all over the place from to kidney failure, and high liver counts. etc.

I got the ~Old Dog = Kidney failure, enjoy the time you have left syndrome, sadly that's were some vets seems to always want to go first when your dog is really old.

I requested to send a

"urine sample out to the lab for culture"

. which netted the answer. This test IMHO is not offered to pet owners enough.

Long story short he had an underlying kidney 'infection' that was the root cause that was skewing all the other results and affecting the other organs. One big vicious circle confusing the issues and blood tests. AND the urine culture showed the correct antibiotic to use which is why his condition never improved with the ones he was put on.

Put him on 'slow' iv drip for 6 days and sent home with antibiotics shown to be sensitive from the lab culture and he's a new old pup that was originally diagnosed with only a few months to live.

Also many things can assault the liver and produce high ALTs. And really not have the liver be 'the' cause of it. Rather the liver was assaulted by it. Chemicals, other organs not working correctly like in my dogs case.

I always wait 2 weeks and REDO the ALT testing before accepting a final diagnosis.

I have had 3 dogs so far with ALT numbers off the chart that were caused by other problems. I don't take an ALT number as a final doomsday answer I keep testing in other areas. Many other things can 'assult' the liver which produces these numbers but it does not have to be a permanent situation. The liver is capable of healing itself if you get to the bottom of WHAT is affecting it.

I will also add that 35 years with Danes I never encountered this. Now that I have toys it's been a real learning experience. They have a small body mass and small organs. One bump in the road health wise and every organ seems to be affected sending tests results all over.

And boy what I have found is have one organ have a bad day or get a little tired or assaulted and it's haywire city blood tests with these little ones often sending you down wrong paths unless you keep on the vet to keep testing for other scenarios. :R

Thank you for the info, Rockhillmanor...we will be taking Molly back to the vet early next week and will talk about a urine culture. So far, there does seem to be somewhat of an improvement. Doug, what do you think about the urine culture?? Thanks everyone.

Have they done a urinalysis? If that shows the possibility of infection it's a good plan. If not, probably not the best way to spend your money. I'd worry about the possibility of Lepto if there was a possibility of exposure. Money would be better spent doing a lepto titer, but all this is without every seeing and examining your dog, best to discuss with your vet.

There are so many things that can cause a hepatopathy that working through diagnosis is a step by step procedure, ruling out the most probable while trying to treat the liver problem.