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Hi everyone. My boy Rocky is an 11 year old n/m boston terrier. He's always weighed about 21-22 pounds but is currently at 18.6 as of this morning. He's had quite the medical history starting out with him being born deaf. I'll keep his history to what I what I feel is relevant to his newly diagnosed diabetes.
Cushing's: A couple years ago Rocky started slowing down. It started out as lack of stamina on walks and shakiness in his rear legs. The vet we had at the time (who I did not like, always seemed to dismiss everything) said it was arthritis and wanted to start him on Rimadyl which I refused. I knew it was something else going on. Next vet did bloodwork and found elevated liver enzymes. Did ultrasound and found enlarged adrenal glands. Due to other symptoms tested for Cushing's but it came back negative. About six months later and after a move, continually elevated enzymes and a new vet he was tested again with a positive result. That was in April. He is currently taking 15mg of trilostane split between 10mg in the morning and 5mg at night. I never felt his symptoms were under control even though his labs were good. Liver enzymes went back down, post act cortisol under 6. Electrolytes normal.
Allergies: He's pretty much allergic to everything. He has seasonal, indoor, and food allergies. We did testing when he was about a year old and even the vet was surprised at his numbers. For example they were on a scale of 0-6 and she had made a joke beforehand about never seeing 4-6 and he had some 5s. He takes hydroxyzine and more recently Benadryl as well when they are worse. We've tried many foods over the years mostly sticking to things like raw, homecooked, the honest kitchen, etc. Still have never found the "perfect" food. He doesn't scratch a lot, mostly rubs his face and ears on the floor and paw licking.
Surgery: In October he was put under anesthesia to check out his airway due to sleep apnea. The surgeon called and said it looked like a mild case of laryngeal paralysis and he performed a tie-back procedure. Not sure if the added stress from this contributed to his diagnosis, but the timing seemed too close not to include.
Diabetes: A few weeks ago his water consumption started to increase, even more so than normal since he already drank a lot with his cushing's. He had also become pretty boney. I increased his food with the result being a boney dog with a pot belly. His weight stayed a consistent 20.5ish but he wasn't looking good. One Sunday the water drinking got excessive and I called to make yet another appointment. He was scheduled for Tuesday morning and over the next 36 hours before his appointment he got pretty sick and I debated to him to the e-vet Monday night. Tuesday came and our vet was pretty shocked when she saw him. He was flushed and exhausted. They tested his blood and found his glucose over 300. They did a urine test and found ketones so she sent us to the animal hospital. There they said his blood pH was okay and since he was eating and stable and wasn't dehydrated we could take him home and start him on 4 units of vetsulin with his dinner. Well, to our surprise he wouldn't eat his dinner. We called the vet and as we were talking to him he started licking our other dog's bowl. The vet said it was fine to give him her food as long as he ate. He wasn't concerned with what he eats, as long as he eats. The next morning we tried his food again and again he wouldn't eat so we gave him some of her raw again and bought him his own prey-style rabbit which is just meat, organs, and bone. After reading on here yesterday and today I see this probably isn't the best. He also tends to get reflux symptoms on raw which are starting to show up, but we just wanted to make sure he ate at the time. They also noted his cataracts, especially in his right eye, that I hadn't really noticed coming on because he'd had that bluish tint older dogs get already for a couple years now. Really nervous about him losing any more sight since he's already deaf.
Currently: He had his first blood glucose curve done last Tuesday (11/27) after one week at the 4 units. It was still high and pretty flat with what this noob is seeing as an odd spike: 343, 295, 348, 300, 329, and 349. They increased it to 5 units and he goes back tomorrow for his second curve. Over that first week he lost just under 2 pounds but it was all the potbelly. I think some of it was due to inflammation in his intestines. He's been acting more himself and the water consumption has gone down some. However he's still flushing and has bloodshot eyes. He definitely seems better at certain times of the day such as before his meals. He's also starting licking his lips which I'm not sure if that's from the reflux due to the food or nausea related to the diabetes. I tested his urine today and the strip read "small amount." He also has some skin rash or infection which I made an appointment with our family vet to look at and I assume started due to the uncontrolled diabetes. I know we are early in this so I don't think I have any specific questions at the moment. I'm just kind of at my wit's end between the forever struggle with food, seeing how terrible he looks with the muscle atrophy and skin problems, plus his quality of life. We always took him to restaurants and hikes and he loved treat puzzles and snacks throughout the day. Now he's lost all of that. Sorry for the pity party guys. I appreciate if anyone made it through this book of a post! I keep thinking of more I want to include, but I'll spare you all.
Cushing's: A couple years ago Rocky started slowing down. It started out as lack of stamina on walks and shakiness in his rear legs. The vet we had at the time (who I did not like, always seemed to dismiss everything) said it was arthritis and wanted to start him on Rimadyl which I refused. I knew it was something else going on. Next vet did bloodwork and found elevated liver enzymes. Did ultrasound and found enlarged adrenal glands. Due to other symptoms tested for Cushing's but it came back negative. About six months later and after a move, continually elevated enzymes and a new vet he was tested again with a positive result. That was in April. He is currently taking 15mg of trilostane split between 10mg in the morning and 5mg at night. I never felt his symptoms were under control even though his labs were good. Liver enzymes went back down, post act cortisol under 6. Electrolytes normal.
Allergies: He's pretty much allergic to everything. He has seasonal, indoor, and food allergies. We did testing when he was about a year old and even the vet was surprised at his numbers. For example they were on a scale of 0-6 and she had made a joke beforehand about never seeing 4-6 and he had some 5s. He takes hydroxyzine and more recently Benadryl as well when they are worse. We've tried many foods over the years mostly sticking to things like raw, homecooked, the honest kitchen, etc. Still have never found the "perfect" food. He doesn't scratch a lot, mostly rubs his face and ears on the floor and paw licking.
Surgery: In October he was put under anesthesia to check out his airway due to sleep apnea. The surgeon called and said it looked like a mild case of laryngeal paralysis and he performed a tie-back procedure. Not sure if the added stress from this contributed to his diagnosis, but the timing seemed too close not to include.
Diabetes: A few weeks ago his water consumption started to increase, even more so than normal since he already drank a lot with his cushing's. He had also become pretty boney. I increased his food with the result being a boney dog with a pot belly. His weight stayed a consistent 20.5ish but he wasn't looking good. One Sunday the water drinking got excessive and I called to make yet another appointment. He was scheduled for Tuesday morning and over the next 36 hours before his appointment he got pretty sick and I debated to him to the e-vet Monday night. Tuesday came and our vet was pretty shocked when she saw him. He was flushed and exhausted. They tested his blood and found his glucose over 300. They did a urine test and found ketones so she sent us to the animal hospital. There they said his blood pH was okay and since he was eating and stable and wasn't dehydrated we could take him home and start him on 4 units of vetsulin with his dinner. Well, to our surprise he wouldn't eat his dinner. We called the vet and as we were talking to him he started licking our other dog's bowl. The vet said it was fine to give him her food as long as he ate. He wasn't concerned with what he eats, as long as he eats. The next morning we tried his food again and again he wouldn't eat so we gave him some of her raw again and bought him his own prey-style rabbit which is just meat, organs, and bone. After reading on here yesterday and today I see this probably isn't the best. He also tends to get reflux symptoms on raw which are starting to show up, but we just wanted to make sure he ate at the time. They also noted his cataracts, especially in his right eye, that I hadn't really noticed coming on because he'd had that bluish tint older dogs get already for a couple years now. Really nervous about him losing any more sight since he's already deaf.
Currently: He had his first blood glucose curve done last Tuesday (11/27) after one week at the 4 units. It was still high and pretty flat with what this noob is seeing as an odd spike: 343, 295, 348, 300, 329, and 349. They increased it to 5 units and he goes back tomorrow for his second curve. Over that first week he lost just under 2 pounds but it was all the potbelly. I think some of it was due to inflammation in his intestines. He's been acting more himself and the water consumption has gone down some. However he's still flushing and has bloodshot eyes. He definitely seems better at certain times of the day such as before his meals. He's also starting licking his lips which I'm not sure if that's from the reflux due to the food or nausea related to the diabetes. I tested his urine today and the strip read "small amount." He also has some skin rash or infection which I made an appointment with our family vet to look at and I assume started due to the uncontrolled diabetes. I know we are early in this so I don't think I have any specific questions at the moment. I'm just kind of at my wit's end between the forever struggle with food, seeing how terrible he looks with the muscle atrophy and skin problems, plus his quality of life. We always took him to restaurants and hikes and he loved treat puzzles and snacks throughout the day. Now he's lost all of that. Sorry for the pity party guys. I appreciate if anyone made it through this book of a post! I keep thinking of more I want to include, but I'll spare you all.
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