Cushings disease

[KazBarringer]

Have made several trips to the CCT in the past couple of weeks. Daisy had a lump removed from beneath her right eye (fatty so not to much of an issue) but has periodically suffered with thinning hair.

Thinning around her belly and middle of her back. Spent a fortune on skin tests with negative results to everything that could be tested for.

The hair on her back however recently thinned so bad it has all but gone!

It was confirmed no mites. Daisy's been bathed in a special soap / natural products (cant think what its called for the minute) so believe no fungal activity. Not made the slightest bit of difference.

Vedra asked for me to test Daisy's urine. Which I have now done.

Glucose is normal, Ketone is normal, Specific gravity is way off the chart, Blood sugars are fine, ph is fine, protein should be negative but 3/300, nitrate is normal and leukocytes are normal.

My mobiles gone on the blink! so cant call Vedra till tomorrow. It was thought Daisy perhaps has cushings? if I have spelt that right.

Anyone got experience of this?

 

[Laura-CCC4]

Vedra has described one of my past pigs Lottie as Cushings but blood test diagnosed hyperthyroid. I'll pull up the info for you about Lottie so you can have a read.

I also have a pig in my care at the moment who is thought to have Cushings. She had hyperthyroid treatment but responded badly, so was taken off that. She's virtually bald over her back and sides. Has been seen and treated by Vedra but moved onto one of the vets Vedra recommends, Aladair Tebbutt in St Neots, as he may be able to investigate further e.g. blood tests.

 

[Laura-CCC4]

Here is a thread you may find interesting, my post copied from there follows.

http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=44227

When I adopted Lottie in 2005, I noticed she had very large eyes. Not so much bulging at that stage, but still very large; they gradually began to bulge as time went on. She also had quite a firm pot belly, and as the next couple of years went by she was losing weight everywhere else, but her abdomen remained this firm shape. (Note she wasn;t actually losing weight, but she became bony while retaining the pot belly) She was always quite a dominant character, and in September 2007 I had to remove her from the main group and pair her up with another neutered male as she became so sexually aggressive to the other sows.

In October 07 I first went to see Vedra with Lottie, and as well as a small urethral stone Lottie was found to have quite significant hair loss on her sides and back, and Vedra was able to feel a small ovarian cyst. Lottie had two injections of HCG, four weeks apart. The hormonal behaviour that I had previously noted quickly eased, and she became a different guinea, very mellow and sweet natured.

However, the hair loss had still not corrected after a few months, so I took her back to Vedra in February 2008 and she could not feel a cyst, but gave another two injections of HCG (again, four weeks apart).

Her hair continued to thin slowly, and in August 2008 I did some research and found on Guinea Lynx that hyperthyroid can cause not only this hair loss, but also a distended abdomen and weight loss. Researching on hyperthyroid in humans, I discovered bulging eyes was a symptom. I went to Vedra armed with this info and she agreed that it seemed she was very likely to have the condition.

Lottie had a urine test and blood test, and the results came back in September 2008 pointing to hyperthyroid. Lottie was started on Neo-Mercazole (carbimazole); the dosage was to be reduced over time and the courses we worked through with Lottie went as follows:

Course 1:-
19th Sept to 9th Oct - one quarter of a tablet every three days
12th Oct to 2nd Nov - one eighth of a tablet every three days

Course 2:-
4th Nov to 26th Dec - one eighth of a tablet every other day

Lottie was also weighed every other day while on the medication.

We never got to continue her treatment, as in mid-December she develoepd an infection on her back leg. We had to take her off the Neo-Mercazole tablets in order to give Rimadyl to help her leg. This condition rendered her unable to walk, she dragged herself around no problem but her overall condition was poor due to the effects of having the hyperthyroid undiagnosed and untreated for what was probably a year or more. Lottie died on 27th December 2008 ...I gave her a cuddle at midnight on 27 Dec, placed her in a comfy spot in her cage and the next morning found she had passed away during the night, I found her in that same place.

This is about the best pic I have of her hair loss, harder to see with her being dark but she ended up with just the guard hairs...literally:

 

[Abi_nurse]

Ive never heard of a Guinea pig getting cushings, only dogs, But maybe Laura_CCC4 is right, maybe try for a blood test, this may bring something to light.

x

 

[KazBarringer]

Cushings

Will have to suss this up load of photos thing. So I can show you all Daisy. Thing is she is not hunched, does not drink water excessively, is pretty normal outside of noisy (the loudest pig in my shed). No bulging eyes.

I have her sister and they are pretty much the same size, shape and weight. Daisy just has this hair loss going on.

She is an American Teddy so did think maybe it was just her coat. I have to brush her each day as other wise her fuzz catches all sorts.

Her urine samples state something though. Waiting for Vedra to get back to me on what to do next.

 

[Laura-CCC4]

Has Vedra tried a series of hCG injections yet and ovarian cysts been ruled out?

I can't recall what specific gravity readings can suggest/indicate but protein can suggest infection or can indicate kidney trouble. Do keep us up to date, would be interested to hear how things go for Daisy.

(To upload pics, register with an image hosting website e.g. www.photobucket.com, upload your photo there, you'll be given a few different codes e.g. URL, HTML etc. - to get your pic showing directing in your message, copy and paste the IMG code into your post on here.)