Beware of “free dogs.”

Took our new dog (we are now calling her Brandi) to the vet today because I had a few concerns. Her ear is inflamed and torn a bit- I was told by her previous owner that she got attacked by a pitbull mix. She has yet to breathe correctly- she pants like a steam engine. If you touch her skin, she comes unglued and starts itching like crazy. She eats like there is no tomorrow and she drinks more water than I have ever seen a dog drink. At night, she wakes me 4-5 times to go potty. I was thinking diabetes- the vet says he doesn’t think so, but he took a urine sample to send to the lab. The vet is thinking she has Cushings Disease.

Cushing Disease typically will show up on middle-aged spayed German Shepherds. The stomach becomes distended (almost pot-bellied in appearance). It occurs when there is to much cortisol is produced by the adrenal glands and it can be a sign of cancer. The cortisol regulates the blood sugar, stress, kidney and heart function. The dog will do rapid shedding and the skin will get bumpy like insect bites have occurred. Cushings Disease slowly poisons the dog and surgery needs to be performed in order to remove the tumor and give the dog some relief. After surgery, the dog will need meds for her entire life. If in her past she was put on steriods for an extended period of time, that too can cause Cushing’s Disease.

It doesn’t matter, we are head over heels in love with this beautiful girl and we will wait for the test results to come back and go from there. There is no way I am going to return her from where she came from- she didn’t have a very good life there I don’t think. When we got her, she had one of those nasty prong collars on and it was so tight Mike had to cut it off to remove it!

I walked with her back to the creek tonight after her vet visit and told her she did really great (except when I asked her to pee on command) she sort of flunked that part of the exam! I told her she was beautiful and she is in a safe place and no one will hurt her ever again. She lopped me in the face after we talked.

As soon as the test results are back, I will let you know the verdict- but after reading the brochure I got at the vet, I am reasonably sure my vet is right on the money. Her symptoms all point to Cushing’s-

3 thoughts on “Beware of “free dogs.”

  1. We had an experience something like this with a cat we took home on impulse, from some one we did not know. She wasn’t well either– UTI and in kidney failure. After vet visits, antibiotics in twice daily pills and KD food, she got better and lived 4 or 5 more years with a friend and her husband.

    The other behavior she showed that made me suspicious of her past was a tendency to a kind of bulimia. She would gobble her food down and then vomit. It seemed like she was eating fast so that other cats wouldn’t get all of the food, even though she was fed separately and her food was all her own. She did learn after a while that it was okay to eat slower, that she would be fed twice a day, and the eating disorder got better.

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