“Woof!” It’s me, Mr. Magoo here, hoping all you faithful readers had an AMAZING summer. I know I sure did. I’d like to take this time and talk to you about my little sis, Buffy. As you may know from reading my (our) book, “Real Dogs Don’t Whisper,” available on www.amazon.com, Buffy is very special to everybody that knows her.
But her life hasn’t always been as great as it is now, and ooh this really gets my fur standing on end! Those clowns that had her before mom and I were soooo bad to her, I can’t even type what they did. You’ll have to read about in the book. And if she hasn’t been through enough already, in 2004 mom took her our veterinarian, where she was diagnosed with what is called Cushing’s Disease.
Mom told me that this Cushing’s thing is an autoimmune (I needed help with that one!) condition caused by the overproduction of some bad dude called the hormone cortisol by the adrenal glands located in Buffy’s belly near her kidneys. Ugh! So many words I don’t understand. I just nodded my head and set my paws a typin,’ while mom explained it to me.
Lucky for Buffy, her disease was caught early. Mom is a hero when it comes to us and a whiz on Google. Buffy was only showing one symptom of the disease excessive panting – but mom wasn’t going to give up until she had answers. A LOT of tests later, Buffy was diagnosed with an inoperable (huh?) tumor (Grrr) in her brain. So, now mom feeds her a pill called Lysodren four times a week (yuck)!
Cushing’s Disease is often mistaken for canine aging, so this is why it is so important to have your dog checked out early.
Symptoms include:
- Drinking a lot of water
- Increased urination
- Excessive panting
- Increase in appetite
- Large tummy
Until next time!
Mr. Magoo
