1. Ralphie, Male, 10 y/o
2. Neutered
3. Poodle/Chou Chou/Greyhound mix
4. 64 Lbs
5. What's their BEAM (rescue high anxiety, but super loving, usually very energetic and very sleeply after play, LOVES food, overall happy to be around his family)
6. Honest Kitchen grain free chicken with medical medium supplements and some heavy metal detox smoothie as well as occasional fruit snacking
7. Vaccination history (up to date but giving less vaccinations now) / exposure to toxins (pesticides likely over time even when we try to mitigate), other medication (Gabapentin, rimadyl and antibiotics just for this week)
8. Ralphie started to exhibit symptoms of Cushings about a year ago, but it took until last week to diagnose his condition. We went down a ton of rabbit holes, even performing surgery on a benign lipoma that we thought was sarcoma last November. He's always loved food as a rescue and would throw up bile if not fed every 6-8 hours, but otherwise extremely happy and healthy. He would get 3-4 walks a day and looked forward to it as well as Frisbee play dates. He started to have some hip issues and then started crying for food like crazy. His weight stayed the same despite us feeding a lot more and even dropped. He had one or two urination accidents in the house, but other than that was normal. This past month had really deteriorated where he stopped wanting to go on walks and his coordination would somewhat falter, especially on stairs. We no longer let him jump on beds and he's very tired. He has all the classic presentations of Cushings and they just did an ultrasound that showed the tumor on his adrenal. They said that surgery would be possible, but not without complications and they do see some masses/lesions on the spleen they are concerned with as potential metastasis. They do feel if there is no metastasis and the tumor is operable Ralphie could have a happy and healthy life for 1-4 more years.
9. He is definitive more sensitive to heat and gets excessive panting at night when this happens and has to move and we lower the AC
10. Diagnosis is cancerous tumor on the adrenal gland causing cushings
11. Current and previous treatment.
12. Hoping to just understand holistic treatments for this condition as we look at all angles. We may pursue a CT scan just to understand if the cancer has metastasized and to see if the tumor is even operable, but my goal is to give Ralphie the best quality of life for the time that he has and cushings had really ruined that quality of life, even though his spirits are strong and he is trying to go on a walk or two and goes on our paddle board and pals around with love. Trying to understand less invasive holistic approaches that might give him that quality of life without surgery or medications, but really in the dark on what might be right.
2. Neutered
3. Poodle/Chou Chou/Greyhound mix
4. 64 Lbs
5. What's their BEAM (rescue high anxiety, but super loving, usually very energetic and very sleeply after play, LOVES food, overall happy to be around his family)
6. Honest Kitchen grain free chicken with medical medium supplements and some heavy metal detox smoothie as well as occasional fruit snacking
7. Vaccination history (up to date but giving less vaccinations now) / exposure to toxins (pesticides likely over time even when we try to mitigate), other medication (Gabapentin, rimadyl and antibiotics just for this week)
8. Ralphie started to exhibit symptoms of Cushings about a year ago, but it took until last week to diagnose his condition. We went down a ton of rabbit holes, even performing surgery on a benign lipoma that we thought was sarcoma last November. He's always loved food as a rescue and would throw up bile if not fed every 6-8 hours, but otherwise extremely happy and healthy. He would get 3-4 walks a day and looked forward to it as well as Frisbee play dates. He started to have some hip issues and then started crying for food like crazy. His weight stayed the same despite us feeding a lot more and even dropped. He had one or two urination accidents in the house, but other than that was normal. This past month had really deteriorated where he stopped wanting to go on walks and his coordination would somewhat falter, especially on stairs. We no longer let him jump on beds and he's very tired. He has all the classic presentations of Cushings and they just did an ultrasound that showed the tumor on his adrenal. They said that surgery would be possible, but not without complications and they do see some masses/lesions on the spleen they are concerned with as potential metastasis. They do feel if there is no metastasis and the tumor is operable Ralphie could have a happy and healthy life for 1-4 more years.
9. He is definitive more sensitive to heat and gets excessive panting at night when this happens and has to move and we lower the AC
10. Diagnosis is cancerous tumor on the adrenal gland causing cushings
11. Current and previous treatment.
12. Hoping to just understand holistic treatments for this condition as we look at all angles. We may pursue a CT scan just to understand if the cancer has metastasized and to see if the tumor is even operable, but my goal is to give Ralphie the best quality of life for the time that he has and cushings had really ruined that quality of life, even though his spirits are strong and he is trying to go on a walk or two and goes on our paddle board and pals around with love. Trying to understand less invasive holistic approaches that might give him that quality of life without surgery or medications, but really in the dark on what might be right.
