Cushings Disease

A little background on Stinky.

She is 15 1/2 years old.  She lives in a bookstore with another cat, Harriet, who is almost 17 years old.  Two years ago, my office (and the cats) moved from our original location to one of our other stores.  Several months later I noticed Stinky was drinking & urinating a lot.  I have Type 1 diabetes so of course I immediately suspected diabetes, especially since Stinky is a large cat.  I tested her blood sugar several times and her numbers were always normal (Fall 2012).  Took her to the vet and he decided she had some kind of infection.  She was on antibiotics for 2 weeks, no change, and then he said to start her on antibiotics again for 6 weeks.  Still no change.

A number of years ago I noticed she had some bumps on her skin.  The vet at out old location said they were nothing to worry about.  In April (I think) of 2013, one of the bumps opened up and Stinky had a large bald patch on her skin surrounding the bump.  Went to the vet, he removed the rest of the bump plus two more random ones for testing.  I forget what he said they were, but they're benign and he said they weren't that unusual.  He did say Stinky's blood sugar was now very high and she was diabetic.  She was started on Prozinc insulin twice a day.

10 days ago, on a Saturday, I saw a huge open wound on Stinky's side.  Brought her to the vet and they stitched it closed as best they could.  It was a large area so she left the center open.  Took her back to work wearing a cone, kept her confined to my small office at night.  They wanted to see her again on Wednesday of last week (May 28th).  The wound wasn't healing as well as they'd like so they wanted to keep her to put a bandage on it and change it daily. 

On Monday, they said that they now think Stinky has Cushing's Disease.  They said she now has another wound.  They want to do a blood test first, then some kind of scan (sonogram, maybe) to see if it's her adrenal glands or pituitary gland that are affected.  He said surgery would be a possibility and the outcome is not guaranteed.  She may need medication.  The vets at this practice don't really have any experience with Cushings disease in cats.

Money is a big factor.  The bookstore is being sold to new owners.  The current owners have been closing down all of their other locations.  I can not afford to pay thousand, or even hundreds, of dollars.  I have no savings, no credit card.  The new bookstore owners (the transfer is most likely going to happen next month) won't take on the cats.

I've been having nightmares and waking up crying for the past week and a half.  I feel like I have no choice but to have Stinky put to sleep.  Harriet is also on long term medication for chronic constipation but overall she's in pretty good health, especially since she's almost 17.  I love Stinky so much.  I have two male cats at home in my small apartment and so I can't take on the cats physically, never mind financially. 

Does anyone have experience with Cushings in cats? 

I have no experience but I would be interested in the replies from people with experience.  My kitty is on a steroid long term, a low dose but I know Cushing's is a possibility.  

From what I understand it is actually more common for the problem to be with the pituitary.

I had a horse with Cushing's, and honestly it was the easiest of his chronic conditions to treat.  The drug used for horses is different, but all I had to do was give him his medication once daily and he felt a lot better.  Honestly I'd consider lifelong meds over a surgery on a cat this age.

I agree that medication should definitely be attempted before surgery, especially considering the age of the cat.

I have a dog with Addison's, which is the opposite end of the spectrum from Cushings.  They are both adrenal diseases that affect the natural corticosteroid levels:  Cushings is too much production, Addisons is not enough.  Once upon a time, the treatment for either was to push the animal to the other end of the spectrum, essentially trading one illness for the other.  Now there are medications to keep the levels balanced.  We give our dog a shot once every 23 days to manage her levels, and she occasionally gets a very low dose of prednisolone if she's feeling stressed.

Thank you to everyone for your replies.  After speaking with the vets again this morning it was decided that it was time to let Stinky go.  Even with a diagnosis (and she did not have an official diagnosis yet), she had a massive skin wound that wasn't healing and another opened up just above it.  I can't even remember everything the vets told me.  I have never had to go through this with a pet before.  My co-worker came with me.  He is a cat person and after me, he was Stinky's favorite human. 

It was not an easy decision.  While money played a part, it was really more about her chances of recovery.  Her wound wasn't healing and the skin was dying, and then a new one opened up yesterday.  She is covered in those little cysts that burst every so often, and I'm wondering if one of those opened up and the skin just tore apart.  Even though the cysts themselves are harmless, the sites were taking a lot longer to heal than they were last year. 

I miss Stinky so much.  We still have one office cat, Harriet, here and even though I love her she is not Stinky.  When we adopted the cats Stinky was 3 months old and Harriet was 1 1/2 years old.  I think because I've had Stinky since she was a kitten I became especially attached to her.  I had never had a kitten before, only adults.  Here is Stinky a few years ago trying on a co-worker's necklace.

My condolences - what a sweet picture. It sounds like she had a great, long life with you though, not to mention the comfort of both of her favourite people with her when the time came.

What a beautiful girl, and how proudly she wears that necklace!  As much as it hurt to let her go, I'm glad she had humans to give her that last gift. 

RIP Stinky.

I'm sorry you had to let her go, but it sounds like the best decision. She was lucky to have a long, interesting life with lots of love and attention. I hope her sister Harriet does alright with her gone.

How wonderful to have two office cats at your workplace! Shame the new owners aren't onboard with that though.

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