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Another disease, or...?


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Today I had put my 3rd cairn, Badger, to sleep, because her health (& mental/emotional health by association) deteriorated within three days of being diagnosed with Cushing’s Disease.

 

Now, I am skeptical it was CD that pushed her body over the edge. She tested positive for CD, but...

 

Badger’s history: she was 9, arthritis & luxating patellas at age 2-3. She’s been on 6monthly pain killer injections since then. Other than that, she was relatively healthy. Extremely active & hyper! She’s always had random bouts of diarrhoea & external tumours, but the vets always dismissed it as benign with needle biopsies (fatty tissue).

 

A week ago she suddenly started drinking like she was dying of thirst; emptying 3 litres of water every 2 days, drinking water every 15-20 minutes. She lost appetite & became very lethargic, depressed, lost 4 kgs, random very rare bouts of her typical energy but never 100%.

 

Tuesday she crashed, & that day the vet diagnosed Cushing’s, adrenal glands, but with no ultrasound or biopsies, no radiation or x rays. She had urinalysis & the all-day baseline blood tests. That following Friday (today) we put her to sleep as she worsened to be sleeping almost 24/7, throwing up food, little urination, hid under the bed, losing her balance, difficulty running, fell down, & looking groggy/delayed/confused or no reaction to her name or noises/cues like snapping fingers, whistling, etc. She was restless when she rarely showed more energy than needed walking to her water bowl & back to bed.

 

But, her tumours had suddenly tripled in size, & was rockhard.

 

She never had any other CD symptoms like toilet problems, ravenous hunger (turned her nose up at food), bloating, hair loss, bruises.

 

Has anyone had similar experiences? Was your cairn misdiagnosed? My second cairn 11 years ago had been diagnosed with brain cancer, so Badger’s final day symptoms were eerily similar.

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So very sorry you've had to make that sad decision for your beloved Cairn.     I have no experience of Cairns, or of Cushings, and I have no veterinary knowledge but your post .. but your post did ring some little bells in my mind …. something I read or heard ages ago about the links between Cushings and Addisons.  Given the symptoms you described of your poor girl's last few days, there were things that from the very little I've heard and read, did sound a little more Addisonian to my very lay mind.

 

In relation to the fatty tumour becoming hard quite suddenly (if I'm understanding that correctly) that did happen to a dog of mine years ago.   She had quite a large lipoma on her thigh, and it became hard and painful quite suddenly .. diagnosed and treated by the E vet as an infection, with a recommendation to have it removed after a couple of days on antibiotics.   In her case, that was an isolated thing, and it was successfully removed.

 

Once again, my sincere condolences.   I have had that experience of losing a dog within a couple of days of symptoms and diagnosis.  In his case, it was immune mediated haemolytic anaemia .. it's very hard. :( 

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