PLease help me. I am desperate for information that will help to find out what is wrong with my darling dog.

Bellini is 12, a dalmation x golden retriever. He is my entire life. He has been in good health. He has always had a delecate stomach and has been on Nutro sensitive stomach and probiotics for years and years.

A while ago his back legs got weak suddendly so i put him on cortaflex.

Lately he has got very unhappy and started losing weight. We took him to the vet who reffered us to a specialist vet for ultrasound as our vet thought there was a problem with his spleen. We had previously had a full blood test done which show a slight high level of cholestral but everything else was pretty normal.

The ultrasound cleared the spleen of having a problem but the specialist vet thought there was a slight problem with the prostate, the adrenal glands and that there was a small tumour in one of his testicles to recomended castration.

We had to wait a week for our vet to tell us all this. We went back to see him and he recommended testing for cushings. Having read on the internet about cushings i thought All symptoms pointed to this, drinking alot, vomiting, weeing a lot, losing weight. HOwever the test didnt show up cushings.

Bellini now refuses to eat his own food or any of the treats we normall cook him. He will eat his favourite dried sausage treat and was eating fish and chicken but even that is difficult to get him to eat now.

He seems uncomfortable and wants to go out lots to wee. He has very bad diarohea but i dont know if that because we have been trying all differant foods with him which might have upset his delicate tummy. He is hapyy to go for walks

9 weeks ago i had a baby and i am worried if this might have had an affect with him. He and i were inseperable and did everything together. He is still my best friend but of course i have to look after the baby as well.

please help me, i dont know what to do

I'm sorry to hear about your boy, is the vet doing any further tests to try and get to the bottom of the problem?

It's difficult when they're older and won't eat, I used to boil up chicken and rice together for my oldies, so that it flavoured everything, one of their favourites.

Is there something other than cortaflex you can put him on to help his back end? I give glucosamine/chondroitin to one of my girls to help her joints. The only reason I ask is that Cushings is linked to exposure to cortisol.

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Hello
I do not know if you are able to receive private messages being a new member, but I have tried to send one to you.

Sorry, I need to reword the above post, what I should have said is I do not know if you are allowed to send pm's being a new member, but I have sent you a message, if you have any problems understanding my pm please post again

Thank you. I have joined the group.

I did not know cortisol was a factor in cushings. I will look into it. The vet wanted to castrate Bellini on Monday but when I spoke to him today to say that when Bellini had vomited some bile this morning it was pink from blood. He seems to be giving up on us, I think maybe I am pestering him too much, so he just wants us to go to the referal clinic.

Do you think urine and faeces tests would be useful.

I have tried rice with Knor chicken pot cooked in it with fresh chicken. Tried scrambled eggs, everything he usually likes. My mother got some naturediet today and he has eaten that. I gave him only a little as his poor tummy is so messed up but hopefully he will keep it down and I can give him some more.

im really sorry boy i dont know much about the condition but i found this...Pet Owner's Crash Course in Canine Cushing's Disease

be careful when giving those stock pots because theyre high in salt, i really hope once he gets treatment he'll start to pick up

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Have they checked him for Addisons Disease - which is the opposite of Cushings but mimics so many illnesses. My little westie was diagnosed with this when she was only 9 months old. She had the sickness, diahorrea, couldn't stand on her hind legs and was shaking. Her white blood cells were low and her potassium level was very high. She is now on tablets for life and is doing very well.

Good idea about Addisons, although it's incredibly difficult to correctly diagnose from what little I understand.

I didn't mean to worry you about the cortiflex, I hope I didn't, I just knew that Cushings was linked to Cortisol, and thought it worth mentioning in case you were worried about it.

I hope you get some where with further testing and referrals, it's all down to judgement with oldies, if he's well in himself I don't see any reason not to test for other possible causes and get him treated. I know from experience there comes a time when you need to just let them enjoy what they have left, but it sounds as though your boy has a bit more feist about him.

Good luck, would love to know how you get on.

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Countryside Alliance



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When Toby had cushings he drank lots like 7 litres of water a day and he was a llasha x poodle, he ate everything in site and his piddle looked like water no concentration in it. Cushings is over producing adrenal glands which is like cortisol. That is a very basic concept of it. I hope its nothing serious for your ole boy and they find something to help him soon. Sometimes I think vets think we are crazy but we know what is normal for our pets better then they do.Good luck...Jill

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My westie was diagnosed really quickly by the specialists at Glasgow Vet School. When we were referred to them by our vet they said they thought from what the vet was saying and what we were saying that it was Addisons and they would do the tests straight away. Her potassium level was 11.2 which should have been between 2.5 and 5 so was really high and they put her on a drip. They phoned us every 3 hours to let us know how she was - found out later that is because they thought they may lose her. When I mentioned it to my GP he said that must be a good vet to diagnose Addisons so quickly as it is way down the list of things that could be wrong. I would ask them to check him for this when they take blood tests. If it is Addisons it needs to be treated quickly. My vet also says that we know our pets better than anyone else so if we are not happy we should say.