Cushings Disease in Dogs and Cats. Natural Treatments

Cushing’s syndrome is a disorder that has a peculiar clinical signs and symptoms. It is also commonly known as hyper-adreno-corticism. Adrenal glands are situated over the both the kidneys and these are main culprit in causing such problem. These glands are responsible for producing cortisones and other hormones. If in certain abnormal condition these start producing the excess of hormones then Cushing’s diseases or hyper-adreno-corticism occurs. All the symptoms of Cushing’s disease occur due to overload of cortisone in the body.

Cortisones relax the abdominal ligaments and causes hepato-megaly. This is the reason dogs with this disorder has a potbelly. Cortisones reduce the growth of hair on the body and make the skin thin and pale. It raises the appetite and thirst that in turn results in increase of weight with conditions in which there is excessive thirst and over urination. Cortisone reduces muscle mass consequential in limb weakness and debility. The assembly of connective tissue that steadies the joints reduces. Cortisones are also involved in regulating the mineral content present in our blood stream.

Symptoms of Cushing’s disease:

Excessive drinking and urination
Susceptible to frequent urinary tract infections.
Increased appetite
Weight gain and obesity.
Muscles wither away especially of the legs
Hepato megaly
Pot bellied
Decrease in the physical activities.
Hair coat becomes sparse – especially on both flanks. Hair on the head and legs remains normal.
Skin thins
More susceptible to scrapes and infections

Diagnosis of Cushing’s disease:

Cushing’s disease is diagnosed in the course of a sequence of blood tests. Routine blood analysis often shows that the pet has higher than normal levels of following:-

Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP)
Alanine aminotransferase (ALT)
Cholesterol
Blood glucose as well as very dilute urine.

If these fallout and the dogs other symptoms make us guess Cushing’s disease, we perform other test known as dexa-methasone suppression test. The other is an ACTH stimulation test. Both of these tests will generally authenticate or rule out the presence of this disease.

Treatment of Cushing's Disease

This is a hormonal imbalanced diseased. We have to make such arrangements that are helpful in treating the cause of the disturbed hormonal secretions. Below are the few methods by which this can be achieved.

Iatrogenic Cushing's disease: Treatment of this form needs a discontinuation of the cortisone hormone. This is to be done in a much prohibited manner so that other problems do not occur. Unluckily, it generally results in a reappearance of the disease that was being cured by the cortisone. As there may have been unfavorable effects on the adrenal glands, treatment is also needed to treat those disorders.

Adrenal Tumor: Treatment of an adrenal tumor needs foremost surgery. Although this surgery is risky to the dog, if it is thriving and the tumor is not cancerous, there is a good possibility that the dog will recover normal health. If surgery is not an option, some of these can be well administered with the medication in next topic.

Pituitary Tumor: Treatment of the pituitary-induced form of Cushing's disease is the most complex. The contemporary drug, Lysodrena, is the chief drug used to raze the abnormal adrenal tissue. Lysodrena is also called as mitotane or o,p'-DDD. If not sufficient amount of drug is used, the unusual tissue endures and the disease continues. If too much is used, most or all of the adrenal cortex will be damaged, which can be fatal. Therefore, careful watch of the dog is essential in order to attain good outcome. As the pituitary is not being affected by the treatment, it keeps on to stimulating the adrenal gland. This means that continued treatment is necessary. Even though a cure is not attained, control is possible for many years if the tumor is tiny. If the tumor is large, local effects of the tumor occupy surrounding tissues in the head can be the restrictive factor in existence.