When you take an older dog or cat to the vet, over 6years, have the vet run a full blood panel. There is a disease called Cushing's disease. While this is usually not fatal to the animal it will cause conditions that will kill the animal. The symptoms you may observe are excessive drinking of water and a voratious appitite. If you are interested in knowing more you can got to: http://www.canismajor.com/dog/cushings.html or Google on Cushing's disease.

Eh? ;)

Thanks for the heads up Arvon, I bookmarked the site for the future.

Eh? ;) </font>[/QUOTE]To answer this... Cushing's it self is usually not fatal, but it causes other conditiond which are fatal. Cushings screws up the liver and kidneys. Also it causes bone damage and bone mass loss and a bunch of other things. Look at tha article.

Is this anyway related to Cushing's syndrome? Or is it a coincidence?

Possible...You could look it up in the article. I just have a dog going through the test. We'll get the final answer this comming week.

Cushings syndrome.. sounds like a horror to me

OK read through it and it is the exact same thing (too much corticosteroids). The symptoms differ between dogs and humans though. I'm sure we have people old enough on this board to remember cortisone with horror. A shame really since cortisone is one of the best drugs we have today. [img]smile.gif[/img]

The article didn't say anything about if the disease can be spread to human as well if they eat the animal that is infected with such disease.

umm do you eat dogs and cats?

umm wait, do not answer that, I do not want to know

[ 05-25-2003, 01:57 AM: Message edited by: Stormymystic ]

They should try to Hammer this before it gets too serious, give it no Leeway.

I doubt it. You see the animals are not infected. It is a body disorder that arises from an increase of steroid production. The same can happen in humans with tumors in the adrenal gland.