Maggie May

[Vally]

Jen, I also think contacting Dr Dodds is a great idea. She told me Bingo’s liver enzymes were going up again because he was using an arthritis drug, cartrophen. Having stopped this now, and with no other changes, his enzymes have dropped back down again. Everyone else said it had no effect on the liver.

Vally & Bingo
xxx

[Sheena]

Me again!

Right – here’s some info on Cushing’s Disease & tests etc.

https://www.secondchanceaihadogs.com/AIHA_Terms/cushings-disease/

http://www.2ndchance.info/cushings.htm

As you can see, the causes are either a growth on the adrenal gland (they would see this on ultrasound) or a pituitary gland growth.

Prednisone (or other drug) induced Cushings would be called Iatrogenic – which simply means “accidental” – it accidentally occurs (as a side effect) because of the drug.

https://www.secondchanceaihadogs.com/AIHA_Terms/iatrogenic-cushings-disease/

Lyme Disease – the way to test for Lyme’s Disease for Maggie is the Idexx Quantative C6 test. Doing a Snap test only shows “exposure” & we already know Maggie has been exposed, so not worth it unless you want to check for other tick-borne diseases as well:

http://www.idexx.de/pdf/de_de/smallanimal/reference-laboratories/lyme-quant-c6-white-paper.pdf

Regarding the itching, it would be safer to try some probiotics (I use FortiFlora) as this has been reported to help dogs with allergies. Also diet – I know it’s not easy to do sometimes with work & time commitments, but dropping commercial dog food & using home made organic helps too as you’ve cut out the additives. I think Dr Dodds Liver & Kidney Diet would actually be ideal for that.

We’ll get Maggie sorted out & feeling better between all of us!

Sheena x