Olive was simultaneously diagnosed with Pituitary Dependent Cushings and Diabetes Mellitus in March 2006. Her cushings was managed by taking 125 mgs of Lysodren twice a week and monitored at six month intervals with an ACTH stim test and a check of her electrolytes and liver enzymes. Her mother was also diabetic but I believe Olive's DM was secondary to the cushings. She also had seizures from time to time which went untreated because they were so infrequent (twice a year at most) and I stopped vaccinating her following her diagnosis. She went blind from cataracts in June 2006 and developed a corneal ulcer with a bad case of uveitis, requiring her right eye to be removed in October 2008. In 2007 she developed a UTI (e.coli) that was very difficult to resolve, requiring many rounds of various anti biotics (baytril, briklin by injection). Regulating her in the beginning was no easy feat for many reasons but by process of elimination we got there- as soon as her BG came down from the 500's with initial cushings and insulin treatments, she was spayed and I switched from WD to home cooked. She ate a diet of boiled skinned chicken breast, steamed green beans, boiled oatmeal, cottage cheese, egg white and a multi vitimin/mineral supplement and milk thistle, twice a day with her shot of 4IUs caninsulin. I believe the home testing clinched it for us and she was pretty much regulated between 90-150, 200 tops. She was very happy and healthy and lived with Lotty the rescue hound, Gooch the cat (21 years young and counting) and Boogie and Pseeps, the rescue kitties. In June 2007 she nearly became Addisonian. I was able to catch it in time when I noticed her appetite was not as voracious as usual so I checked her blood, which was a bit lower than usual. This raised the red flag for me as over-supressed cortisol tends to lower BG, the same way it raises it when it is in excess. Sure enough she was boderline hypoglycemic and an ACTH stim test along with her electrolyte count confirmed boderline Addison's. Lysodren therapy was withheld and her insulin greatly reduced over the course of the summer. During the fall I noticed her BG started to climb again so we did another ACTH stim test to confirm that her cushings was coming back, which it was so I reinitiated Lysodren therapy without reloading her. She lived another two happy healthy years.
Tragically, Olive passed away quite suddenly on July 10th 2009 from acute pancreatitis and possible heart failure. Her diabetes though was regulated right up until the end and I have to thank those who encouraged me to home blood test and be proactive in managing her DM (Natalie Karst and the good folks at Pet Diabetes) and HAC (Heidi Schmeck and my friends at Canine Cushings Auto-Immune Care, aka CCAC). Thank you, Kathy for including Olive on the Wikia home page. She looks beautiful...sniff.
Rest in peace my sweet girl, and may your story be an inspiration to others who are starting out on this difficult, but navigable journey.