life expectancy for dogs with cushings disease

have you checked the cortisol level a month after to see if the dosage was ok.... my dog was on 30mg of vetoryl but it was too much, my vet tested her levls and decided to give her 10mg. now she's been on it for 5 month's and is doing great . her coat is groing and softer as before and she is not patting anymore.

My vet told me there is no cure for the disease. Best you can do is manage the symptoms. Also most of the medications need increased dosage because the dog develops a tolerance to the treatment to the point where it doesn't do any good. Also some medications can cause Addison's which is fatal very fast. The only drawback to a pet is all things being equal you outlive them. You also have to know when it is time to say"Good Bye".

My 9 and 1/2 year old golden retriever b***h was diagnosed with pituitary cushings very late and only lived one month. Her first symptoms were not recognised by the vet. With early diagnosis she would still be here im sure. In late October 2015 she suddenly developed a limp in her left rear leg, the vet was convinced after an x-ray that this was due to knee inflamation. I knew something else was wrong but you trust the vet or why bother going to one! Anyway one day around 3 weeks later she just suddenly stopped eating and drinking gallons of water and urinating very often. We went back to the vet, she had ultrasound scans there and then along with blood tests. Spleen was found to be massively oversized and high anemia. Still the vet did not know what it was and suspected pancreas cancer. Finally all the test results came back negative for cancer but very high cortisol levels in blood. Further scans showed both adrenal glands oversized so with cancer / tumour ruled out pituitary cushings was finally diagnosed. And treatment started but with now not eating for nearly 2 weeks the treatment made her worse and she was put on a drip. On december 10th 2015 her poor body could take no more and all her organs started to fail suddenly and she died peacefully in my arms. I write this to help others identify this killer desease before it is too late. i wish i had trusted my own instincts and gone to another vet for a 2nd opinion on the limp. We now know that a limp in the hind leg(s) is a common symptom of early cushings. Within 6 weeks she went from being a beautiful healthy dog to an untimely and unneccesary death. R.I.P. Nena 10.06.2006 - 10.12.2015 The best dog ever!

My beautiful 10 year old Border Collie succumbed to Cushings in November of 2015 after 6 months of treatment with Trilostane. The vet who came to our home when it was time to let her go told us that she was in beautiful shape for a Cushing's patient, but that he was almost certain she had a metastatic pituitary or adrenal tumor. So, longevity depends on many factors, including the type of Cushings, its source, and whether there are complicating factors. It is a hard disease.

.. hes on veteryl my jrt is 11 and diagnosed with cusnings in 3-3-2014 hair loss and some bumpy scabs now all healed wm wallet is still suffering but what the heck

We have a 12 year old Border Terrier that was diagnosed with Cushings over 2 years ago and put on Lysodren. He did well on this with a remission in symptoms until about five months ago when he suddenly became incontinent and lethargic again. He's now taking a 10 mg. dose of Vetoryl daily and once again there's been a complete remission in his symptoms. He's playful, alert, goes on long walks and can control his bladder.

My dog has just been diagnosed with possible Cushing disease but because of her age (17) and the cost we are debating about treatment we just want to do best by her so she not suffering and want to be able to see an improvement in her if we do put her on the meds does anyone know if you do see improvements if so what exactly

Hope this helps. I am not a Vet but am the mommy of a pure bred white schnauzer. My baby will be 11 in May. In 2010 I was told that she had cushings and they wanted to do a test to confirm. The test would have run me $250. I am on a fixed income also and told them I would have to wait on the test. They told me she would only live around 2 years without proper medication. I contacted a friend of mine that is a Vet and asked what she would do. As I soon found out she also had previously had a pet with the same disease and she did not test or treat because of the cost. She then preced to tell me that the Vet I was going to left out a lot of information on the cost of treating. First you have the test to confirm yes or no ($250). If yes you have to have another test that determines A or B ( another $250). Then you have follow up tests because the medication (which will run approximately $100 a month) can cause other problems that then need to be treated with other drugs. si in upwards of $1000 until the medication is regulated. She then told me that I just needed to change things in her diet to make her more comfortable because quality of life is better than quantity of life. So being the mommy that I am I googled it. I learned that there are certain foods to avoid. Absolutely NO organs (liver, gizzard etc...). Yes I do spend what I feel is quite a bit on her food and every so often I have to change a few things but in the long run my baby has lived almost 4 years longer than expected leaving untreated. And she is still going strong. She has lost her pot belly, she does not pant as much, the drinking and urinating is not as frequent and the liver enzyme level has dropped. Overall I am extremely happy with her "quality of life". I feed her a low fat high protein diet from the Honest Kitchen (this a dehydrated all natural human grade) and a dry from FROMM. I read labels on treats to make sure there are no organs in them. She loves green beans and carrots as a healthy treat. The shopp where I get her dog food (Cafe du Bone) also makes treats and I get spinach and peanut butter treats from there. If you have the test me and can make your dogs food using human food that would work also. There are recipes on the Internet for healthy foods for your dog. Just remember low fat high protein.

My dogs has never ingested any process food..i limit to what I buy especially from China i would not buy liquid or powder and for that matter my pooches food and ecessories...read on the label and do investigate on things I use Chinese eat dogs so there don't care if there'll be killing yours too no difference. My dogs are fresh meats fishes and greens..

It depends on so many things, what type of cushings, adrenal or pituitary. Dogs age and previous health. How well it responds to the medication if at all. Other organs already been adversley affected. Diet from now on. Along with many other things. Generally if it responds to the medication they can live anything between 1 day to 5 years and need constant monitoring of blood by your vet to adjust medication accordingly.

My 20 lb spaniel/terrier, 10+ year old rescue dog texted positive for Cushing's one year ago. She had been diagnosed a mostly blind several years before that. Two things have made *MAJOR* improvements in her health. 1) I switched to a fresh food diet. and 2) I started giving her Adrenal Harmony Gold for Dog's with Cushing's. Switching her food alone eliminated her excessive drinking and pottying and caused her ALP to drop from 628 to 255 (almost back to a normal range). The Adrenal Harmony Gold gave me back my normal, happy dog. I swear by it. It is expensive - $44 a bottle, but a drop in the bucket compared to thousands in testing that I spent to diagnose her. There were no Cushing's dog food recipes so I created my own based on my own research. I now cook her a low fat, high protein diet every 2-3 weeks, freeze most of it. It consists of 9 items, turkey, spinach, eggs, sweet potatoes, plain yogurt, peas, oatmeal, a chopped apple and olive oil. She gets about 3/4 cup twice a day and I drop the Adrenal Harmony Gold on it. She's always had a strong appetite and she loves it. All of her symptoms are gone - she likes to take walks again, has regained her leg strength that she lost, is at a normal weight - she is happy and healthy again and I'm convinced has many years to go. I have no affiliation with the company that makes the Adrenal Harmony but I urge you to try it if your pet has Cushing's - it has hundreds of excellent reviews which is what persuaded me. None of the vets recommended this protocol to me. They had recommended Melatonin and then Vetoryl, both of which I tried and they made her feel notably worse.

My dog had an operation a year ago to remove his adrenal glands and spleen after been diagnosed with cushins disease he is now comming up 13 but just lately is sleeping lots and his behaviour is a bit odd as though he is going senile, how much more life as my dog given he had the operation we were told between 18 month and 3 years, he still goes on a small walk eating and drinking,

That is a massive over simplification.
Humans are omnivores we have evolved to be capable of eating a variety of foods.
As for animals being meant to eat animal products that was the primary cause of the outbreak of BSE in English cattle. Feed manufacturers were incorporating animal protein from dead cattle back into cattle feed.
Some animals are evolved to be carnivorous (meat eaters) others are herbivores (plant eaters) Dogs have evolved to be omnivores just like humans.
It is true however that quality of feed is very important.

How did you treat your dog for the cushings? Medication? My dog is going through testing right now because vet thinks she has cushings.

Is your dog undergoing treatment or untreated?