THE RAINBOW BRIDGE

Several years back,

when Carrleigh's puppies were due,

Nurse Lilly

put out the call

for help.

Nurse Lilly

had worked her little toes

"to the bone"

waiting on Carrleigh 

"hand and paw".

All at once

a private plane 

circled our pasture

and landed.

Out stepped

these three beauties,

Nurse Agatha,

Nurse Asta

and 

Nurse Lacie.

Of course Lacie

didn't go anywhere

without her pawsonal blender!!

Those were the days!!  

Fun with blogging!!

Today is a sad day

for us at

Rocky Creek Farm.

We have just found out that

Nurse Agatha

has joined

Nurse Lilly

across the Rainbow Bridge.

We are grieving

with her family. 

XOXO,

Piper, Celti, Bonnie

and 

Ivy

CUSHINGS STUDY AT VIRGINIA TECH/MARYLAND

As you all know, Cushings is a prevalent disease among Scottish Terriers.  Although none of us have ever been diagnosed with it, we are aware that it can happen at any time.  It is a manageable disease and once diagnosed a dog can live a happy and full life with a few minor adjustments. 

Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine invited all Scottish Terriers in the area to participate in the study.  Below you will find an update.

 Dear Scottie supporters,

Thank you to those veterinarians and owners who participated in the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine’s study of Atypical Cushing’s in Scottish terriers. We wanted to provide an update on our research findings for those who may be interested in learning more.

Atypical Cushing’s in Scotties

Cushing’s disease is a chronic debilitating disorder in dogs. Scotties have an unusually high incidence of Cushing’s. It can contribute to the development of diabetes, obesity, immune system problems, inappropriate urination, and other negative health outcomes. In normal dogs, the pituitary gland and adrenal glands produce hormones necessary for the function of many systems in the body. If something goes wrong in these glands and certain hormones are overproduced, then Cushing’s can develop. These abnormalities are often detected by observing clinical signs and when routine blood work shows elevations in a liver protein called ALP.

Our Earlier Findings

Preliminary data indicate that in Scottish Terriers, the cause of atypical Cushing’s appears to be due to excessive amounts of noncortisol steroids, which is an atypical form of the disease. These findings prompted the group at the vet school here to speculate that there might be a unique underlying cause for atypical Cushing’s in this breed. The study you participated in was designed to test those theories.

Our preliminary research, which has been ongoing for several years, had already figured out a few things:

· In the most common form of Cushing’s, excessive amounts of a single hormone from the pituitary gland signals the adrenal gland to overproduce cortisol. However, in Scotties excessive amounts of sex hormones, not cortisol, are observed.

· This increased production of adrenal sex hormones is not due to excessive amounts of a variety of pituitary signaling hormones.

· These elevated concentrations of sex hormones are the cause for the increased ALP values commonly seen in these dogs.

· There is no indication of adrenal cancer as a cause for this increased production of sex hormones.

· The magnitude of ALP elevations increases over time, but pituitary and adrenal regulation do not change.

The Virginia-Maryland college team identified 3 candidate genes in a very small pool of patients which are uniquely expressed in Scotties with atypical disease compared to normal Scotties and other breeds with Cushing’s disease, and undertook the study you participated in to understand how these genes might influence the development of atypical Cushing’s.

The Newest Study

The latest study you participated in found that there was indeed a genomic variation in Scottish terriers that was associated with increased serum ALP activity. The variation was located on the same chromosome as a gene responsible for inactivation of sex steroids. Genes can be active (expressed) or inactive (not expressed). If genes are overexpressed, their effect can increase. If they are under expressed, their effect is reduced. In Scotties, the sex steroid inactivation gene was under expressed in comparison to other breeds with Cushing’s disease (pituitary dependent hyperadrenocorticism). We suggest the gene variation seen in Scotties may be linked with “turning off” this sex steroid inactivation gene, leading to increased concentrations of sex steroids. We believe the higher concentrations of these sex steroids may explain commonly observed liver and ALP changes seen in Scottish terriers.

Questions?

The results will be published in academic journals, shared with the AKC’s Canine Health Foundation, and published on the AVMA’s clinical research website. We hope that better understanding of the mechanisms of this disease in Scotties can lead to better treatments for affected dogs. 

If you have any questions about this research, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Mindy Quigley

Clinical Trials Coordinator

Veterinary Clinical Research Office

Virginia Tech

Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine

205 Duck Pond Drive

Blacksburg, VA 24061

Office Phone: 540-231-1363

Web: http://www.vetmed.vt.edu/clinical-trials/ 

Working Hours: T, W, TH (8:30am-5pm)

HELP OUT A WORTHY CAUSE

We know that many of you

were good friends with 

Stuart at The Scottie Chronicles.

 We were devastated

when we found out 

that he had to go 

to 

The Rainbow Bridge

to be with our Lilly.

His Peeps,

along with some Vets

are researching the horrible

cancer that took our buddy.

You can help out

by ordering one of 

these cool t-shirts

with a picture

of Stuart on it.

All you have to do

is go here.

They come in several different styles,

even a cool hoody.

Our Mom has

already ordered one.

XOXO

Piper, Celti, Bonnie

and 

Ivy

OH HOW WE LOVE THOSE CHEWY BOXES

As most of you

are well aware,

one of the best days

of the month 

is the day 

that you get a package from

chewy.com.

Mom is a little slow

about getting this review done,

but we wanted to

let you know about 

this superior toy.

Ms. Sydney sent us 

a Zogoflex

to try out.

It's a great design,

rounded on the bottom

with little fingers inside

that hold treats!!

(please mute you computer

unless you want to hear the 6:30 news)

The best thing

about the Zogoflex

is that it stands up

to the tough jaws

of a 

Scottish Terrier!!

The second best thing is

that it's on sale right now.

We give it 12 paws up!!
(because we don't let
Ivy play with it.  
We're sure she'd like it too)

We are impressed.

XOXO,

Piper, Celti, Bonnie

and Ivy

MENDING A BROKEN HEART....

....is not easy

and sometimes never happens.

You all know how heartbroken

we were when we lost

Our Angel Lilly

at such a young age.  

 Mom had grieved

for over two years

and then she 

held a wee black Scottie girl

when she was visiting

our brother and sissy 

in California.

She felt her heart 

start to mend

a bit

and she knew it was time.

Two weeks ago,

she went to visit them again,

and when she returned

she had a red plaid bag

with a little black Scottie girl

inside.

MascotHaven's RC RhythmnBlues

came to us 

all the way from Australia.

She is a granddaughter

to Piper and Carrleigh

and is Celti's niece.

We're so excited

and we love her dearly.

Even though she has

a long posh name,

we just call her

Bonnie Blue.

Please help us 

welcome her.

XOXO,

Piper, Celti, and Ivy

WE'VE GOT TO BRAG JUST A BIT

If you've been with us

for a while,

you might remember

when

Carrleigh and Piper

had a littler of 

eight Wheaten Scottie puppies.

 Guthrie was one of those pups.

 But once he was selected

for his forever home,

his Mum named him Arlo.

And he's been around

the show ring 

a time or two.

But Arlo

(due to the magic of AI)

has a daughter 

in 

Australia

who is really prancing

around the show ring.

 This past weekend,

she won 

Best Puppy

at 

The Victoria Scottie Show

and

 She won

Best Puppy

at

The Royal Melbourne Show.

We are all so proud

of

Our Little Champion!!

XOXO,

Piper, Celti, Bonnie

and

Ivy

PS - we'll be back tomorrow

with another surprise!!

THE BEST DAYS...

...are the days

when we find a

Chewy bag or box

sitting on our front porch.

 This month we got to

try out 

Ideal Balance Breakfast Medleys.

 They smelled so good

that Lilly could hardly

"sit pretty"

long enough

for Mom

to get one out of the bag.

 She leaned in to see

what was going on!!

 Then she got her reward

for sitting and staying!!

Look how big they are -

waffles larger than a quarter

and gooooood!!

And do you want to know

what we like best - 

on the back of the bag,

it says to eat them up

within three weeks!!

You'll want to get your peeps

to get some for you to try.

We like them 

and we know you will to.

XOXO,

Piper, Celti, Little Lilly and Ivy

WE HAD VISITORS AND GUESS WHAT MOM LET THEM DO

We knew we had a box

that came from 

Chewy

several days ago.

We didn't know why Mom 

was waiting on to open it.

Weeeeeellllllll,

Saturday, 

we had visitors

and we had to be nice.

 Guess what?

Mom let them open

OUR 

Chewy box.

Can you believe that?

Well one of them,

Arlo - the wheaten Scottie,

is Piper and Carrleigh's son

so technically he is family.

And the pretty black girl, Abby,

was one of Lilly's best friends.

 But this little gal

is the main reason 

they got to open it.

She needed some training treats.

This is Little Daisy Belle

and she's getting her first grooming.

These Good Dog Treats

that Chewy sent us to demo

are the perfect training treats - 

yummy and little

and we like them!!

So does Mom - 

the don't crumble up in her pocket.

 Daisy Belle liked them too!!

And she was a good dog

who got a lot of treats - 

and now she's booootiful!!

XOXO

Piper, Celti, Ivy and Little Lilly

PS - we didn't mind sharing a few treats 

because we got to keep the whole box

and there are 100's of little treat bones in it -

it will go a long way!!

Thank you Chewy!!