【VMC Vets Tips ─ Adrenal Disease in Pets : Cushing’s disease】

Hyperadrenocorticism (Cushing’s disease) is an endocrine disorder more commonly seen in dogs. An impacted dog may produce too much hormone cortisol in the body or has a tumor in adrenal glands or pituitary gland. Let’s check out how to diagnose this disease and the relative treatment.

Hyperadrenocorticism (Cushing’s disease) is an endocrine disorder more commonly seen in dogs. An impacted dog may produce too much hormone cortisol in the body or has a tumor in the adrenal glands or pituitary gland. Let’s check out how to diagnose this disease and the relative treatment.

- Diagnosis:

Your clinician might request to perform an abdominal ultrasound especially to assess the size and shape of the adrenal glands. Enlargement of either one or both adrenal gland(s) will be seen. The diagnosis of Cushing’s disease is however based on performing a serial blood test on the body’s cortisol level. Some clinicians might also ask to perform a cortisol level in urine as an initial assessment too.

- Treatment:

The mainstay of treating Cushing’s disease is to control clinical signs and to prevent co-morbidities arise from the disease. Treatment varies depending on the type of Cushing’s disease. Medical inhibition of cortisol production is effective in controlling the signs of both PDH and ADH Cushing’s disease. Alternatively, a chemotherapy drug can be used to destroy certain parts of the adrenal gland, stopping the production of hormones. Surgically, the adrenal tumor can be removed provided there is no invasion of the adjacent structures and no evidence of metastasis (usually in the liver and lungs). Mass located in the pituitary gland at the base of the brain can be surgically removed as well, but this is only done in certain universities and referral practices. Some universities and referral practices also offer irradiation therapy which is especially helpful in PDH Cushing’s disease when the pituitary mass is growing in size and causing neurological signs.

-Complication associated with Cushing’s disease:

- Systemic hypertension
- Diabetes mellitus
- Pyelonephritis
- Congestive heart failure
- Pancreatitis
- Steroid hepatopathy
- Pulmonary thromboembolism
- Degenerative myopathy
- Pseudomyotonia
- Persistent anestrus
- Pituitary macrotumor syndrome
- Cystic calculi

- Prognosis:

If the clinical signs can be controlled, the prognosis is generally good. Median survival times for dogs with ADH were 102 and 352 days depending on the treatment choice. The median survival time for dogs with surgical removal of the adrenal tumors was 492 – 952 days. Patients with PDH have a mean life span of around 30 months.

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