Canine Cushings Disease Causing Addisons Disease in Dog

by lyn
(tobyhanna pa)

My pitbull age 14 was diagnosed with canine cushings disease 6 months ago,and was doing great on his medicine until 2 weeks ago when he started vomiting and suffering from massive diarrhea,

I rushed him to a vet. They said it's now canine Addisons disease. They treated him for 3 days with all kinds of meds and iv fluids then sent him home on steroids.

All was great up until 3 days ago when he could barley walk. I took him back to the vets again yesterday. They gave him a dex injectio. He looks better already. Now he will continue on steroids for the next 10 days.

Also, I was told 2 weeks ago he has cancer in his liver, but the vets are sure it's his Addisons doing this to him.

He went from 85lbs to 70lbs in a month. We love our dog and will do anything for him to live a happy healthy life. I've been doing research on the injection called (docp) administered every 25 days.

have you ever known anyone to use this on their dogs and does it work. Also if he has to much of it can it cause him to go back to Canine Cushings disease again,any info would be greatly appreciated...

Thank You

Comment from our vet regarding Canine Addisions and Cushing Disease Treatment

Wow, you are in a very complicated situation with your dog. Let me see if I can give you a little information to help.

First of all, DOCP is an excellent product. I have used it many times on my patients with Canine Addison’s, but it treats only some of the problems associated with this disease. You will probably also need to give him corticosteroids, at least during times of stress if not every day. And no, using DOCP will not cause your dog to develop Canine Cushing’s disease again.

It is possible that your dog developed Addison’s as a result of his treatment for Cushing’s disease. When this happens, the Addison’s may be temporary, meaning that the Cushing’s disease will come back, or it may be permanent, meaning that you don’t have to deal with Cushing’s disease anymore but that you will have to treat your dog for Addison’s for the rest of his life.

Like I said, this can get pretty complicated. If your vet is not able to handle the situation, ask if he or she can refer you to an veterinary internal medicine specialist who has extra training and experience with these types of problems.

Good luck,

Jennifer Coates, DVM