Feeding the healthiest diet for dogs with Cushing’s Disease starts with knowing what to eliminate from your dog’s diet.

Processed foods, denatured foods, species inappropriate foods and chemically laden foods all contribute to disease.

Below I’ll tell you what a healthy diet for dogs with Cushing’s Disease should include.

First, let’s talk about the symptoms of Cushing’s Disease in dogs.

What is Cushing’s Disease in Dogs?

Your dog develops Cushing’s Disease when your dog’s body makes too much of a hormone called cortisol. This chemical useful for helping your dog respond to stress, control their weight, fight infections, and keep their blood sugar levels stable. However, too much cortisol can cause many different health problems including Cushing’s Disease.

Cushing’s Disease is also known as hypercortisolism and hyperadrenocorticism.

Symptoms of Cushing’s Disease in Dogs

Cushing’s Disease mostly affects older dogs. The symptoms of Cushing’s Disease in dogs can be difficult to recognize as Cushing’s Disease. These symptoms are so broad and there are an array of possible causes for them, making a Cushing’s Disease diagnosis difficult.

Symptoms of Cushing’s Disease in Dogs:

• excessive panting
• frequent urination
• hair loss
• unexplained hunger
• less active
• lack of bladder control
• pot belly
• recurring skin infections
• slow hair growth
• thinning skin
• thirstier than usual
• tired

Because it takes a year or more for these symptoms of Cushing’s Disease in dogs to develop and because the symptoms can be easily mistaken for other health issues or simply signs of aging, many dogs have advanced Cushing’s Disease before their owners even recognize that there’s a problem.

The Two Types of Cushing’s Disease in Dogs

There are two major types of Cushing’s Disease in dogs – pituitary dependent and adrenal dependent.

Pituitary Dependent: Pituitary dependent Cushing’s Disease is most common. It affects 80%-90% of dogs who have the disease.

Pituitary dependent Cushing’s Disease occurs in dogs when a tumor grows in the pituitary gland, located at the base of the brain.

Adrenal Dependent: Adrenal dependent Cushing’s Disease occurs when a tumor forms in one or both of the adrenal glands – glands that sit on top of a dog’s kidneys. About 15% of cases of Cushing’s Disease in dogs are of this type.

Additionally, Cushing’s Disease in dogs can also be caused by steroids given over an extended period of time. It can be caused by excessive amounts of prednisone or dexamethasone for prolonged periods. Overuse of ear drops that contain steroids can also cause Cushing’s Disease in dogs.

Use All-natural Ear Infection Treatments

Dog Breeds Reported to Have A Higher Risk of Developing Cushing’s Disease

• Beagle
• Boston Terrier
• Boxer
• Dachshund
• Poodle

Diagnosing Cushing’s Disease in Dogs

It can be difficult to diagnose Cushing’s Disease in dogs because the same symptoms occur for other conditions as well.

There is no method that is 100% accurate for diagnosing Cushing’s Disease in dogs so a veterinarian will run several tests to determine what’s causing your dog’s symptoms.

First, your veterinarian will start with a blood and urine test.

These two tests will detect the following:

• diluted urine
• urinary tract infections
• alkaline phosphatase issues

All of these are common in dogs with Cushing’s Disease.

The follow-up to these tests are hormone screening tests.

ACTH Hormone Test: One particular hormone screening test is the ACTH stimulation test. This test measures how well the adrenal glands are working in response to a hormone called ACTH. The ACTH hormone prompts the adrenal glands to make cortisol. Your veterinarian will take blood samples before and after your dog gets a shot of ACTH to see how the hormone affects them.

LDDS Hormone Test: Blood samples are taken before and after your dog gets a shot of dexamethasone. Low dose dexamethasone suppression (LDDS) test looks at how your dog’s body works with dexamethasone – the medical version of cortisol.

Lastly, your veterinarian will recommend an ultrasound of the abdomen to help determine if there is a tumor on the adrenal glands.

Common Medical Treatments for Cushing’s Disease in Dogs

In some cases, surgery can be a cure.  If the Cushing’s Disease is caused by a tumor on your dog’s adrenal glands, your veterinarian might be able to remove it with surgery. This will cure your dog of Cushing’s Disease. However, if the tumor has spread to other parts of your dog’s body or they have other health problems, surgery may not be an option.

If an operation is not an option or would likely be ineffective, your veterinarian will recommend medicine to control your dog’s cortisol levels.

A dog can usually live a normal life on Cushing’s Disease medication but they will need it for the rest of their life. Drugs are prescribed to dogs that have a tumor on their pituitary gland that is causing the Cushing’s Disease. Those tumors are too risky to remove.

The medications prescribed for Cushing’s Disease in dogs do have many side effects. Frequent blood tests are needed for the first few months after starting treatment. Your dog will also need follow up blood tests every few months after that.

Most Common Medication: Vetoryl (trilostane), approved to treat both pituitary and adrenal dependent Cushing’s Disease in dogs.

What it Does: This prescription drug stops the production of cortisol in the adrenal glands.

Side Effects: Side effects are poor or reduced appetite, vomiting, lack of energy, weakness, diarrhea/bloody diarrhea, collapse, severe sodium/potassium imbalance, destruction of the adrenal gland, shaking, elevated liver enzymes and elevated kidney tests and death.

Other Medications Used to Treat Cushing’s Disease in Dogs

Anipryl (selegiline): Only used to treat uncomplicated pituitary dependent Cushing’s Disease in dogs.

Lysodren (mitotane): Destroys the layers of the adrenal gland that produce cortisol. Lysodren can have severe side effects.

Mitotane (Lysodren): Causes many side effects and requires frequent blood work to monitor its effectiveness.

The location of the tumor dictates which treatment. Once treatment starts, the symptoms of Cushing’s Disease should begin to dissipate. Some will resolve over a week or so and others, such as the skin issues, may take several months to resolve.

Prognosis for Dogs with Cushing’s Disease

The average survival time for a dog with Cushing’s Disease is about two years. Only about 10% of dogs with Cushing’s Disease live beyond the four-year mark. Because dogs tend to get Cushing’s Disease in their old age, many dogs with Cushing’s Disease die of complications of old age.

Reduce Your Dog’s Stress Levels

Because Cushing’s Disease increases the stress hormone cortisol, in your dog’s body, it’s extremely important that you decrease your dog’s stress as much as possible. Increased cortisol due to daily stress, on top of increased cortisol due to Cushing’s Disease will compound the symptoms of Cushing’s Disease.

Establishing a solid daily routine will help decrease your dog’s stress. Enjoyable daily exercise will also help decrease stress, as does a healthy diet.

In addition to these things you can also add CBD oil to your dog’s meals, daily.

CBD drops for dogs can ease the following:

• Anxiety
• Stress
• Moderate to Severe Pain
• Chronic Inflammation
• Arthritis
• Joint Pain
• Epileptic Seizures
• Digestion Issues
• Nausea

All of these can increase cortisol levels, so in addition to relieving each of the above, your dog will also benefit from decreased cortisol.

If you’ve chosen to medicate your dog for Cushing’s Disease then you need to check with your vet before giving your dog CBD oil.

Remove Processed Foods From Their Diet

Now let’s talk in depth about the healthiest diet for dogs with Cushing’s Disease. Before we discuss what’s included in the healthiest diet for dogs with Cushing’s Disease, we first need to talk about what you need to eliminate from your dog’s diet that contributes to poor health.

Kibble: For optimal health all processed foods should be eliminated from your dog’s diet. Feeding processed food is the largest contributing factor to why our dogs are suffering from so many illnesses and diseases.

If you not only want your dog to be healthy but you also want to increase their longevity, the single best thing you can do for them is removed processed foods from their diet.

Species Inappropriate Foods: A species inappropriate food is a food your dog was never meant to eat. These foods include but are not limited to pasteurized dairy, fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, sugar in any form and any cooked foods including cooked meat.

When your dog is fed species inappropriate foods their body sees those foods as foreign. Their bodies have an inflammatory response to foreign which not only compromises their health it can also lead to disease and illness. We see this happen because of processed foods and we also see this happen when animals are fed foods that their bodies were not designed to digest. The same can be said for humans.

Cooked Meats (denatured): The healthiest diet for dogs with Cushing’s Disease include cooked meats. While cooking meat can be a stepping stone for eliminating kibble from your dog’s diet and towards feeding a raw diet, it should not be fed long-term.

Cooked meats are denatured. This means that their qualities are not the same as when they were raw, nutrients have been lost and damaged, and the body sees them as foreign.

Eliminating processed foods, species inappropriate foods and cooked foods from your dog’s diet is going to have a tremendously positive impact on their health.

Keeping Your Dog Hydrated

The healthiest diet for dogs with Cushing’s Disease starts with hydration. Dehydration and thirst are both symptoms of Cushing’s Disease so it’s essential that you tackle this problem.

I have two recommendations for keeping your dog hydrated. While a raw diet of meats, bones and organs is hydrating in and of itself (contains about 70% water), these two additions below will boost hydration further.

Bone Broth: The benefits of bone broth are astounding. Its properties can help heal everything from a leaky gut to arthritis. The gelatin in bone broth is incredibly healing to the gut and it helps reduce toxins and inflammation, while the collagen in bone broth supports healthy skin, hair and joints. Because dogs with Cushing’s Disease suffer from hair and skin issues, their bodies need extra support in this area.

Bone broth for dogs should not be made with any vegetables, only bones, connective tissues and a dash of apple cider vinegar to help break down the bones. For best results cook for 48 hours or more. If you have a pressure cooker you can cook bone broth in as little as three hours.

Raw Eggs: Not just any raw eggs will do. When feeding eggs to your dog as a part of a diet for dogs with Cushing’s Disease (or any dog), it’s extremely important that you feed raw eggs from healthy hens that were raised on pasture and fed organic feed.

You can feed eggs whole or cracked open. Either way, it’s very important that you feed the whole egg because the properties in egg whites, the yellow of the egg and the egg shells all together create a complete form of nutrition. When you separate an egg the nutritional properties are incomplete and imbalanced.

Bone broth and raw eggs can both be added to your dog’s raw meals or separately if you notice that your dog is dehydrated or acting particularly thirsty. When your dog becomes dehydrated their body also loses important nutrients that both bone broth and eggs will help replenish.

The Healthiest Diet for Dogs with Cushing’s Disease

A balanced diet of raw meats bones and organs create the healthiest diet for dogs with Cushing’s Disease. No other diet comes close. If you want optimal health for your dog and you want them to live the healthiest and longest life possible then above all else they need to be eating a balanced species appropriate diet.

Here’s a look at what a balanced raw diet includes.

Meats: Raw meats commonly fed to dogs eating a raw diet include chicken, beef, venison, rabbit, lamb, quail and fish. 80% of a dog’s raw diet should be made up of raw meat.

Note: There are raw meats that are dangerous to feed your raw fed dog. For a list of those, click here.

Bones: Raw bones are essential to a healthy balanced raw diet. Without raw bones your dog’s diet would be incomplete and your dog would experience severe digestive upset. Raw bones do not splinter like cooked bones do. While there are some bones that you should avoid feeding your dog, commonly fed bones include chicken bones, rabbit bones, ribs and oxtail from beef, neck bones and rib bones from lamb, etc.

Organs: Organs are packed with vitamins and minerals. Without organ meet your dogs a raw diet would be incomplete. The most essential organ your dog needs to eat is raw liver. Raw liver can be considered a superfood or a multivitamin. The reason being that raw liver has higher nutritional values than most other organs.

A raw diet really is that straightforward. The healthiest diet for dogs with Cushing’s Disease doesn’t require a degree in nutrition or rocket science. It’s as simple as feeding three staple foods to your dog at a ratio of 80/10/10, adjusted slightly for your individual dog.

For more information on feeding the healthiest diet for dogs with Cushing’s Disease, a raw diet, I’ve included a link to the Feeding Raw e-book, below.