glittergirl1970 Posted October 29, 2004 Report Share Posted October 29, 2004 has anyone with a border collie had to deal with cushing's disease. i am new to the BC world and was wondering if cushing's is common in BCs. for those who don't know, cushing's is a disease where a small tumor grows on the pituitary gland causing huge amounts of cortisol (a steroid adrenal chemical) to flood the body. it's like having a dog on a high dose of prednisone. dixie came to me overweight, with her hind end bald and lots of dark pigmented skin on her belly. now that her treatment's going well (she takes lysodrene, basically chemo treatment) she's at the perfect weight and has grown a beautiful new coat as well as the dark skin changing back to white. pretty amazing. but it's a very confusing disease that most vets don't treat often, and very expensive for testing and treatment. has anyone on the board dealt with this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borderbob Posted October 30, 2004 Report Share Posted October 30, 2004 we've lost 2 dogs to cushings.if you go to general discussion and click the "zeke" thread you can see if gary has info which could be helpfull. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eileen Stein Posted October 30, 2004 Report Share Posted October 30, 2004 I've known of border collies who've had Cushing's disease, but it's not common in the breed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borderbob Posted October 30, 2004 Report Share Posted October 30, 2004 opps forgot these two were great danes not bc's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary M Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 I wish I could be of more help, but in Zeke's case he also had diabetes. We never went through the testing require to determine which type of Cushings he had. One is the pituitary tumor type and the other is an adrenal tumor. Seeing as your vet has prescribed a specific course of treatment and you mentioned it was a pituitary tumor, I assume the vet has done the low dose and high dose Dexamethasone tests to determine which form of Cushings your dog has. There is much information on the net regarding Cushings. I found a good "beginners" site to be http://www.kateconnick.com/library/cushingsdisease.html Wish I could help you more and good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borderbob Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 i wonder if this is related but the two danes we lost also had diabetes.maybe akc doc knows.are these two diseases related or conjoined somehow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary M Posted November 1, 2004 Report Share Posted November 1, 2004 From what I have read and what our vet told us, there is not really a cause and effect relationship between the 2 (diabetes and Cushings) but the two are often found together. I also understand that because symptoms for the 2 share many similarities that without somewhat extensive testing, the 2 can be confused with each other and also that treatment for one may cause some masking (or even improvement)of symptoms of the other. In any case its quite a nasty 1-2 punch for any dog. Another good site I found for dealing with a dog that is both diabetic and cushinoid is http://www.petdiabetes.org/cushings.htm To me, the important thing is that our dogs get full blood panels done every year. We may go to 6 months for a couple of our older dogs. The earlier either condition can be caught, obviously the better and since both seem to strike primarily older dogs, treatment options diminish with age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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