My dog has Cushing's: Do we need so many costly blood tests?

Question

My 13 year old miniature schnauzer was diagnosed with cushins disease a few months ago. We have to take her every 3 weeks for this very expensive blood work. She has also been given some trilostane. Both are not covered by our dogs plan. My question, does she have to have this blood work done so much? Can we spread more works in between. This cost is about $578.00 every 3 weeks! Pet's info: Dog | Miniature Schnauzer | Female | spayed | 13 years and 1 month old | 28 lbs

Daniel Fonza, DVM · Accepted Answer

Hi there and thank you for posting your question. The medication used to treat Cushing's disease can cause some pretty serious problems if not monitored appropriately. Unfortunately, the blood testing to monitor Cushing's is expensive. For the first two to three months I will perform this particular test called the ACTH test to monitor the response to treatment and to make sure that the medication is not causing the reverse problem called Addison's disease. If the dog is well regulated I might spread out the blood test to once every 6 months to ensure that the values are regulated. Of course, this is something that you will have to discuss with your veterinarian who is ordering this blood test up every few weeks. Every doctor is different with how they monitor their patients, so not all of us will recommend the exact same plan for every patient. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

My dog has Cushing's: Do we need so many costly blood tests?

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