A dog with Cushing's goes into winter with two disadvantages that are easy to miss. There is less coat than there used to be, and often less muscle underneath it.
Both of those are about staying warm, and neither is obvious until the first genuinely cold morning, when a dog who has always been fine outside suddenly isn't.
Why This Winter Is Different From Last Winter
Hair loss in Cushing's is typically symmetrical across the flanks, trunk, and belly — which is precisely the area a dog relies on for insulation. The head, legs, and tail often keep their coat, so a dog can look reasonably furry from the front and be almost bare along the sides.
At the same time, cortisol breaks down muscle. Reduced muscle mass means less of the tissue that generates heat through movement and shivering, and it is why so many Cushing's dogs develop that pot-bellied outline with noticeably thinner back legs.
The practical consequence: your dog's cold tolerance this year may be genuinely lower than last year, and you should not assume the old routine still fits.
Coats and Sweaters, Honestly
For a Cushing's dog with real hair loss, a coat is not an indulgence. It is doing a job the dog's own coat used to do.
What to look for:
Coverage along the trunk and belly, which is where the hair is missing. A garment that covers only the back leaves the bare area exposed.
A soft lining and no rough seams. Thin, fragile skin chafes easily, and a rub that would not mark a healthy dog can break this skin.
Easy on and off. Anything that requires wrestling gets abandoned after a few uses, and a wrestled limb is a bruised limb on a Cushing's dog.
Check underneath the clothing regularly. Skin problems hide under it, and Cushing's dogs are prone to secondary skin infections. Take the coat off indoors and look at the skin every few days.
Shorter Walks, More Often
The instinct on a cold day is to do one brisk long walk and get it over with. For most Cushing's dogs the opposite works better.
Several shorter outings beat one long one. Muscle weakness means they tire faster, and a dog who has run out of energy a mile from home is now cold as well as exhausted.
Keep moving on walks rather than standing about. Standing still in the cold is much harder on a thin-coated dog than walking is.
Do not stop exercising. Muscle is use-it-or-lose-it, and winter inactivity accelerates exactly the muscle loss you are trying to hold back. Gentle, regular, consistent is the aim — our guide to muscle loss and mobility covers what safe activity looks like.
Stiffness Is Not Always Arthritis
This is the part worth slowing down for, because it gets misread constantly.
Winter stiffness in an older dog gets attributed to arthritis almost automatically. In a Cushing's dog, weak back legs, difficulty with stairs, trouble jumping into the car, and a reluctance to rise are often muscle weakness from cortisol rather than joint pain — and the two need completely different responses.
Why it matters: some arthritis treatments are steroids. Giving a steroid to a dog with Cushing's makes the underlying problem worse, because you are adding to an already excessive cortisol load.
So if your dog seems stiffer as the weather turns, raise it with your vet as a specific question rather than assuming it is age and joints. Ask them directly whether they think it is muscular, arthritic, or both. Many senior dogs genuinely have both, and the plan should reflect that — not default to one explanation.
Never give a dog human anti-inflammatory medication. Not ibuprofen, not aspirin, not anything from your own cabinet. Consider instead giving a joint supplement, such as our egg-shell membrane based supplement. Cortisol destroys bone and inhibits its reconstruction. An egg-shell membrane supplement can supply every building block needed to repair bones and joints.
Salt, Grit, and Paws
Salted and gritted sidewalks are hard on any dog and harder on a dog with fragile skin and slower healing.
Rinse and dry the paws after every winter walk. Salt left between the pads causes irritation and cracking, and dogs lick it off, which upsets stomachs.
Boots work well for some dogs and are refused outright by others. Worth trying, not worth a battle.
Any wound heals more slowly on a Cushing's dog, so a cracked pad deserves attention earlier than you might otherwise give it.
Indoors: Heating, Water, and Dry Air
Central heating dries the air, and dry air is hard on skin that is already thin and dry. If your house gets very dry, a humidifier in the room your dog sleeps in is a reasonable small intervention.
Keep water topped up and easy to reach. Thirst does not go away in winter, and a heated house can increase it. This is not the season to move the bowl somewhere less convenient.
Give them a warm, draft-free place to sleep, off the floor if possible. A raised bed away from exterior doors makes a real difference to a dog with little insulation.
Be careful with direct heat sources. A dog with reduced mobility can settle too close to a radiator and burn themselves without moving away.
Watch for shivering, seeking heat, reluctance to go out, or curling up tightly — all signs your dog is colder than you are assuming.
And if the coat itself is the thing bothering you most, our guide to coat regrowth covers what genuinely helps and the one thing to stop doing. You can find clearly labeled lignan and melatonin options in our range for dogs.
The Bottom Line
Assume less cold tolerance than last year, because there is less coat and less muscle. Use a coat that covers the trunk and belly, check the skin underneath it, and keep walks shorter and more frequent rather than long. Do not let winter stop the exercise. Treat new stiffness as a question for your vet rather than assuming arthritis — and never reach for a steroid or a human painkiller - dog safe options like an egg-shell based joint supplement may help. Rinse the paws, watch the dry indoor air, and give them somewhere warm and off the floor to sleep.
Sources
University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine — Treatment Option Considerations for Hyperadrenocorticism in Dogs (PDF). https://vetmed.tennessee.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/Treatment-Considerations.pdf
Oliver JW, et al. "Effect of combined lignan phytoestrogen and melatonin treatment on secretion of steroid hormones by adrenal carcinoma cells." Am J Vet Res. 2011;72(5):675. https://avmajournals.avma.org/view/journals/ajvr/72/5/ajvr.72.5.675.xml