Medication bought our dog with Cushings another year with good quality of life, and then an additional six months where she was really in decline. I want to say her meds were $80 a month, but she was also taking meds for another condition, and I can't remember the exact price of the cushing-related med. She had to go for several monitoring visits at first to make sure the dosage was correct, but after that it was only every 3 or 6 months (but could have been more frequent if her symptoms had changed dramatically).

Ours tested positive a few months ago. so far not too many symptoms but she is starting to drink more water. She needs to go out more often as a result but as long as she goes out there are no accidents. so far we have not treated it. Apparently it is quite expensive and requires frequent testing.

Anonymous wrote:I am a veterinarian. Diagnosing Cushing's Disease can be challenging - taking time and money. Abdominal Ultrasound, Urine cortisol:creatinine ratio, ACTH Stim tests, LDDST, etc....

Make sure your vet is well-versed on all of the options. Sometime doingan ACTH stim and sending it to the Univ of TN is the best way to go about it....

That being said, when I diagnose Cushing's, I do not always treat it unless it is affecting the dog's quality of life. Can you dog hold urine through the night or is he having accidents? Skin infections? Etc....

increased appetite, lethargy, panting, dark spots, pot-bellied abdomen have been the symptoms...also major problems with eyesight

not so much on the increase on water consumption though

is it better not to treat with medication? I just want my dog to feel good.

OP, what color is your dog? We have a black chow mix and dogs with a certain kind of black hair are prone to alopecia x, losing hair for no particular reason. She's got a huge bald spot on her back. Vet tested her for thyroid problems and it was negative. Vet doesn't do the Cushings test but said that if the thyroid test was negative and the dog wasn't showing other signs like drinking a lot of water, not to worry about it. Dog looks funny but she seems fine.

Is there any chance your dog could just have alopecia x like our dog?

I am a veterinarian. Diagnosing Cushing's Disease can be challenging - taking time and money. Abdominal Ultrasound, Urine cortisol:creatinine ratio, ACTH Stim tests, LDDST, etc....

Make sure your vet is well-versed on all of the options. Sometime doingan ACTH stim and sending it to the Univ of TN is the best way to go about it....

That being said, when I diagnose Cushing's, I do not always treat it unless it is affecting the dog's quality of life. Can you dog hold urine through the night or is he having accidents? Skin infections? Etc....

We had a similar situation. If I recall, there are various tests they can do. Ultimately, though, they told us that the medication used to treat cushing's has serious side effects that can be worse than the disease itself. So we keep an eye on him but we haven't treated. He has lost some fur in patches and he drinks a lot of water, so we have to make sure he can get out to pee more often. But other than that we haven't noticed much change, and it's been probably 18 months since we first looked into this. Our dog is a 13-year-old 80-lb hound dog, so at this point we wouldn't do anything invasive or risky on him anyway. He lies around most of the time but he seems to be enjoying his golden years.

My vet suspected Cushings, tested for it, and it came back negative.

The dog is showing more and more symptoms of Cushings. I'm going to follow up with the vet, but anyone's dog have this?