Hey guys. First let me thank you all for your well wishes during Cookie’s surgery. She is recovering well, and will get her stitches removed on Saturday morning. I talked to Dr. Russum yesterday, and thankfully, the histopath showed that no cancerous cells! This is great news because it means that we don’t have to be as worried about more “carcinogenic” lesions popping up, although we will continue to protect her from the sun as a general rule. What the tests did show is that the lumps were calcifications on the skin due to Cookie’s adrenal glands producing too much hormones. When I looked this up on the Internet, I found a lot of information that could send me into a tizzy, but, for the record, I choose not to “go there” because we can’t be really sure what caused them in the first place. The most obvious cause would be a potential case of Cushing’s disease:
“Calcinosis cutis (or cutaneous calcification) is a type of calcinosis wherein calcium deposits form in the skin. A variety of factors can result in this condition. The most common source is dystrophic calcification, which occurs in soft tissue as a response to injury. In dogs, calcinosis cutis is virtually pathognomonic for Canine Cushing’s syndrome.“
I have always been concerned about an induced case of Canine Cushing’s syndrome because we give Cookie Temaril-P for her serious ongoing skin allergies. Granted, we always taper it to the lowest most effective dose as it is a steroid, but when she has bad flare-ups, we must blast full force again for her to achieve any kind of relief. Dr. Russum said that she does not look Cushing-oid, nor did her blood work indicate this. So that is good. It’s just something we have to watch out for, and it is curative should this happen. While researching more about Calcinosis, I also found references to cancers, kidney disease and old age. And as I mentioned earlier, I am not going to let myself spiral about any of these hypothetical situations.
As you can see, Cookie is beautiful and healthy! Here she is in the kitchen whining for blueberries. Look at those sexy legs! Cookie’s, not Tim’s. Ha ha. Anyway, we are going to continue to treat our bodies like temples, (in Cookie’s case, a small, squatty, white, domed edifice) and do the best we can with what we got! To your health!
Tags: calcinosis cutis, Canine Cushing's Disease, canine skin cancer, Cookie, English Bulldog, Temaril-P, Tim
