pate the sheltie

This is my first baby, Pate. He is a shetland sheepdog (sheltie) and has been the greatest pet I've ever had. He was born and bought in Memphis, TN by a breeder but was the runt of the litter. They called him "Leaf" but of course I immediately changed his name on the carride home. Peyton Manning was on the radio doing an interview while he was the quarterback for UT. Pate just stuck at that moment.

He's been my buddy through thick and thin, through pharmacy school, etc...

He also has cushing's disease, a fairly common disease in dogs that basically causes their body to have too much cortisol. The biggest issue with cushing's for Pate is muscle wasting in his hindlegs which keeps him from being mobile as far as jumping goes. I cannot remember the last time Pate could jump on the bed. He's controlled with a drug called Vetoryl (trilostane) that I special order from England as it is not available in the US. It's been a great alternative to the more toxic lysodren. Besides, he became resistant to lysodren.

Pate is 13 years old now and having more issues with walking on the hardwood floors and getting around. It breaks my heart but at least yesterday the vet gave me hope as we are trying a new drug for his arthritis, rimadyl, a cox-2 inhibitor. We're also going to use sucralfate for a couple of days to coat his stomach.

Fingers crossed that this treatment really makes a difference in his quality of life. I'm not ready for the end of his yet.

abilify

It always makes me a bit nervous when a psychiatric drug is used for such different disorders... or perhaps the disorders aren't truly so different and thus why a drug as abilify can be used for bipolar I disorder (Mixed/Manic), depression, and schizophrenic.  More surprisingly is that this drug treats these disorders sometimes at the same dosage.  Strange.

Pharmacologically aripiprazole exhibits high affinity for dopamine D2 and D3, serotonin 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A receptors, moderate affinity for dopamine D4, serotonin 5-HT2C and 5-HT7, alpha1-adrenergic and histamine H1 receptors, and moderate affinity for the serotonin reuptake site. Aripiprazole has no appreciable affinity for cholinergic muscarinic receptors. Aripiprazole functions as a partial agonist at the dopamine D2 and the serotonin 5-HT1A receptors, and as an antagonist at serotonin 5-HT2A receptor.

The mechanism of action of aripiprazole, as with other drugs having efficacy in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, is unknown. However, it has been proposed that the efficacy of aripiprazole is mediated through a combination of partial agonist activity at D2 and 5-HT1A receptors and antagonist activity at 5-HT2A receptors. Actions at receptors other than D2, 5-HT1A, and 5-HT2A may explain some of the other clinical effects of aripiprazole, e.g., the orthostatic hypotension observed with aripiprazole may be explained by its antagonist activity at adrenergic alpha1 receptors.

Of course the side effects are always different with this class of medication.  There's the fly-catcher tongue or tardive dyskinesia, neuroleptic malignant syndrome, cerbrovascular events like stroke, etc..., diabetes exacerbation (elevated blood sugar), orthostatic hypotension, body temperature reglation issues, seizure, and the list goes on as it does for a lot of drugs in this category.