Cushing’s disease (or hyperadrenocorticism) attacks older dogs, and is also usually mistaken for the process of aging itself. The victim will lose hair, gains weight, loses bladder control and urinates inside your home. Sometimes the dog owners think of euthanizing the dogs afflicted on this Cushing’s disease. But the disease is purely curable.
Cushing’s disease, really not like pancreatitis in dogs, is described as a chronic excessive cortisol hormone inside the system of the dog. Cortisol (cortisone-like) hormones are produced by the adrenal glands of the dog in an action to the chemical signals from the pituitary gland. It is an essential bodily regulator, managing reaction into stress, fat metabolism, kidney function, and critical nerve and muscle functions, and it has absolutely nothing to do with your dog’s temperature. An oversupply of the hormone brings all of these things out of whack, resulting in the symptoms of Cushing’s disease.
You can find several causes of Cushing’s disease in dogs, which the most typical is a tiny (normally less than 3 millimeters in diameter) benign pituitary tumor, and the second most usual is a tumor on the adrenal glands.
There are three various tests for Cushing’s disease frequently used by veterinarians. The most reliable test is the low dose dexamethasone suppression test, where the dog is given a dose of dexamethasone (a cortisone-type drug) which, in a healthy animal, will signal the pituitary to stop the adrenals from secreting cortisol hormone. If the dog suffers from the pituitary-tumor type of Cushing’s disease, the dexamethasone will not cause this response. Around 90% of dogs with Cushing’s disease will test positive using this method.
The 2nd type of test is termed the ACTH stim test. On this test, the dog will be given a dose of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), the hormone secreted by the pituitary gland that triggers the response of the adrenal. A high cortisol output two hours later signifies Cushing’s disease. Even though this test is much less precise compared to the dexamethasone test, it can be used for non-pituitary-tumor types of the disease.
The third frequent test is a type of a simple urine screening to test for the concentration of cortisol. A positive result of this test isn’t enough to have the Cushing’s diagnosed, but a negative result is sufficient to rule it out.
The removal of the reason for this condition (the tumor in the pituitary or adrenal glands) may also be showed in the case of an adrenal tumor and, given the current surgical techniques, not an option for a pituitary tumor. For that reason, Cushing’s disease is commonly treated with medication. You’ll find four often prescribed medications: Lysodren, Ketoconazole, Trilostane, and L-Deprenyl. Lysodren is the oldest of those four and is effective equally for both the pituitary and adrenal forms of the disease. Nevertheless, Lysodren also has relatively serious negative effects. Trilostane is an alternative medication whose negative effects are less severe than Lysodren, but the same in nature. The L-Deprenyl is much safer to prescribe, but it works only on the pituitary type of the disease.
Veterinarians do not usually suggest treatment of Cushing’s disease. It all depends on the age of the dog as well as on some other medical conditions that might either make the drug treatments more risky or show a probable death from other causes. Furthermore, the symptoms of the Cushing’s disease differ on the degree of seriousness, and milder forms of the disease might be evaluated not worthy to take the risk of treating them. The side effects of the drugs are really dangerous on animals with a heart problem, hypothyroidism, as well as diabetes, and at least these conditions must be stabilized before begin the drug treatment for Cushing’s disease.
A few rare forms of Cushing’s disease might be a result for using the cortisone-type medications instead of from the tumors either in the adrenal or pituitary glands. On this cases, in which it is medically possible, cessation of the medication or lowering the dosage must stop the Cushing’s symptoms within a month. Nevertheless, this isn’t always possible, as the medication might be a treatment for a severe condition. Because of this, even in instances when medication is at fault, veterinarians sometimes carry on the cortisone treatment and prescribe medications for the Cushing’s symptoms as well.