Cushing’s Disease in Dogs (Hyperadrenocorticism) – What You Should Know
November 14, 2009 by admin
Filed under Dog Health
This disease is known in the medical world hypercortisolism, which means an excessive production of cortisol in the body. Cortisol is a stress hormone and the disease usually occurs in dogs at the age of 6 years or more. There are certain breeds of dogs predisposed to the disease. These breeds are German shepherds, poodles, Daschund, Terrier and Golden Retriever. The types of Cushing’s disease Cushing’s disease is known in 3 types: pituitary tumor, adrenal tumor, and iatrogenic. Pituitary tumor – a tumor of the pituitary gland is and what stimulates the production of more cortisol by the adrenal glands. This type of Cushing’s disease is more common in patients canine. Adrenal tumor, adrenal gland develops a tumor, which breaks the balance and causes large amounts of cortisol to appear. This is not a very common type of Cushing’s in dogs.
Iatrogenic – this type of disease develops when the patient has abused the use of corticosteroids. Corticosteroids are used to treat various ailments such as arthritis, allergies and various skin diseases. Because the blood is filled with corticosteroids adrenal glands do not secrete cortisol and begins to decrease in size. The clinical symptoms of Cushing’s dog starts to eat a lot, drinking and urinating in large amounts, it loses the hair of the belly is flat as excessive anxiety, skin becomes thinner easily bruised skin of the dog is lethargic and weak bladder infections seems to diagnosis Canine Cushing: To diagnose the disease, the veterinarian should perform a physical examination, ultrasound has in the blood and urine, and also, x-ray. Additional laboratory tests may be necessary to determine the type of Cushing’s disease.
Treatment of Cushing’s disease in dogs This disease is treated with drugs. Mitotane is well known and used and destroyed part of the cortex of the adrenal glands that produce cortisol. The dog being treated should be monitored carefully, but if the complication does not appear, the dog must be able to live a long life on drugs. Another treatment is surgery. This implies that a part of the adrenal gland is removed so that it produces less cortisol. If the tumor is benign extract, the life expectancy of dog is very high. But if the tumor is malignant and spread to other parts of the body, the prognosis is not good and the dog can die.
The type of iatrogenic Cushing’s disease is often treated with corticosteroids abandon a controlled manner. This is done by gradually reducing the level of corticosteroids, and after a while ‘, stop the treatment when the adrenal gland can work on himself. Be aware that no matter what the treatment, the dog will suffer the side effects of drugs. Instead we should also seek natural methods of treatment and to help the dog to regain her health.
