Christmas is about…

unconditional love…

  And boy do these guys have lots to teach me about unconditional love! 

This is our pooch that has been sick. Her ultrasound results are back.  Now our next step is a blood test to prove it is what it seems to be…Cushings Disease.  Athena has most of the symptoms and once we have the definitive, then comes the hard decisions.  I don’t want to even have to think of that yet. 

The most common symptoms  of Cushings include (Athena’s symptoms are underlined):
      • increased/excessive water consumption (polydipsia)
      • increased/excessive urination (polyuria)
      • urinary accidents in previously housetrained dogs
      • increased/excessive appetite (polyphagia)
      • appearance of food stealing/guarding, begging, trash dumping, etc.
     • sagging, bloated, pot-bellied appearance
      • weight gain or its appearance, due to fat redistribution
      • loss of muscle mass, giving the appearance of weight loss
      • bony, skull-like appearance of head
      • exercise intolerance, lethargy, general or hind-leg weakness
      • new reluctance to jump on furniture or people
     • excess panting, seeking cool surfaces to rest on
      • symmetrically thinning hair or baldness (alopecia) on torso
      • other coat changes like dullness, dryness
      • slow regrowth of hair after clipping
      • thin, wrinkled, fragile, and/or darkly pigmented skin
      • easily damaged/bruised skin that heals slowly
      • hard, calcified lumps in the skin (calcinosis cutis)
      • susceptibility to infections (especially skin and urinary)
      • diabetes, pancreatitis, seizures

symptoms taken from this article