# Cockapoo with Cushing's?



## Iniche (Oct 14, 2020)

Hello everyone!

I am new to this forum and stumbled across it while doing a Google search for Cushing's Syndrome in dogs. I have a six year-old Cockapoo who has had some unusual symptoms throughout her entire life and I was hoping that someone here could provide me with a little information.

I got Millie when she was 3 months old and right away I noticed that her hind legs did not seem to function properly. My vet said that it was possible that she was crushed by her mother and that there may be some nerve damage, but said he did not believe it was a cause for concern. She has difficulty squatting when she defecates because it seems like her legs are weak and sometimes shake. She has difficulty jumping onto furniture - especially out bed. In fact, about a month ago she attempted to jump on the bed and did not make it and fell.

She has also battled her weight since she was a puppy. She eats constantly. We call her a "vacuum" because she will put her nose/mouth to the ground and literally inhale any bit of something she can find. We have to be very diligent about keeping any small items off the floor because if it is left she will eat it. My mother used to call her a "trash dweller" because Millie constantly tries to get into garbage to eat ANYTHING that she can find in there. She tries to eat her own feces and the feces of our other dogs. She used to be 14 lbs, then got up to 17 (and I was then told by my vet that she needed to go on a diet), but now she is close to 21 lbs. I have not tried any special diet food, but we do limit her food intake and we try to get her to exercise, but she is lethargic. She does enjoy fetching a ball and/or stick, but only does it a couple of times and then lays down and will not get up. Even when she was a puppy she would run down into our field and play with our German Shepherd, but she would refuse to climb back up the hill to get back to the house. She would stand at the bottom of the hill and wait for someone to come get her and carry her. All of these symptoms have been mentioned to my vet and he has maintained that it was just due to her "laziness" and being overweight.

She also has had incontinence problems off-and-on throughout her life. She was asleep in my lap once when she was about a year old and peed in my lap. She has urinated in every dog bed I have ever gotten her and if she sleeps in bed with us we sometimes wake up with a puddle. She does this in her sleep and cannot control it. She is housebroken and we do not have issues with her purposely urinating in the house. Lately it has become much, much worse. Instead of it being something that happens once every few weeks it is now happening a couple of times a day. We have had to confine her to a kennel for the past few days because she is losing control of her bladder everywhere - even when we let her out. We've been letting her out about every half-an-hour when we are home, but we both do work full-time hours during the day so it is difficult to manage that. We have been coming home on our lunch breaks to let her potty.

She now is displaying signs of dehydration - she is drinking constantly (perhaps the reason why she is losing control of her bladder?). It's like she can't get enough to drink. What's more, she seems to have lost interest in food since she started displaying the signs of dehydration, which is odd for her because, as I previously stated, she always acts as though she is starved.

She also has an usual body shape. Her head looks like a pin head and her legs are teeny tiny, but her stomach looks bloated. The stomach feels tight and it is very round. The stomach does not look proportionate to the body.

Another thing, which may or may not be related, is that she has had horrible breath since she was a puppy. She has never had the cute "puppy breath."

I am currently 39 weeks pregnant and I am scheduled to have my delivery induced on Thursday, so my father has offered to take her to a different vet on Tuesday (and he is very familiar with her situation) so she WILL be getting vet care, but I just have been a nervous wreck all weekend over this and I was really hoping someone could tell me whether or not I'm crazy for suspecting Cushing's for her. Another thing I wondered was possibly diabetes?

Anyway...thank you very much for reading my very long post. Any help is much appreciated.

Thank you!


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## Wendaka1969 (Sep 10, 2019)

Oh know you've got a lot on your plate and definitely think going to a different vet would be for the best as there is something going on and maybe a few tests and blood test would be helpfull. I had a look about cushings syndrome and everything you have put are the symptoms of this but there is lots they can do for this once diagnosed. Please let us know how you get on and good luck with your new baby ☺


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## Chloebear Mom (Jun 4, 2021)

Agree with wendaka1969, ditch that vet! A caring vet can treat Cushings and there are little diapers you can put on made for such occasions. I give a cranberry chew supplement mixed in with food. Helps to keep urinarytract infections away. I only do it every three weeks worth of food I’m making so not an everyday supplement like vitamins. Her pee does burn spots on the lawn as result…. My vet told me last year my Chloebear likely has Cushings so that’s when I switched to making her own food. She now drinks way less water! No more late night trips out to pee. She is also a piglet. 35 lbs but a diet to lose weight in your 80’s/silver years is ridiculous. She’s still bebopping about fine. New human baby will consume your mental sleep time. But Moms aren’t called superwomen for nothing. Hang in there glad you have help to take care of your fur baby.


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