Does anyone have a dog with Addison's Disease?

[ninahbear]

Does anyone have a dog with Addison's Disease?

My dog was sick 2 weekends ago. We think that he just ate too much pork. Now keep this in mind my dog is almost 9 and is a very active dog he loves to play all the time. But when he was sick he was lethargic. He threw up chunks of pork 4 times and had diarrhea 2 times the first day. This happened around 3:00pm he didn't eat for the rest of the night and nothing Monday morning. At lunch time I went home to check on him and there were red piles on the floor. It was of course blood so I took him to the vet right away. He didn't have a fever. They just gave me some pills and said that if he isn't better within 10 days to bring him back. Well he didn't eat anything Monday so on Tuesday I called back and said he wasn't eating the bland diet or anything and they said if he still isn't eating tomorrow you'll have to bring him in. So Wednesday morning he was really bad he was just laying on his side and wouldn't acknowledge me then I think he started to have a seizure. I was waiting for the store to open so I could at least get some Pedialyte in him till the vet opened. Once I gave him some he stopped jolting his body but was still not right. So I called a different vet since I was not happy with my regular one. When they took his temperature there it was only 96 which is very low for a dog. So they kept him and ran all kinds of test which all came back negative. But his electrolytes were low I guess. They kept him through Friday and he was on an IV and they were giving him steroids. He still wouldn't eat for me on Friday and Saturday morning I tried to get him to eat but he wouldn't at first but then we got him to. But was pretty much back to his same old self. On Monday I took him back to the vet so they could see how he was doing and check his blood. Before he was sick he weighed around 15 lbs when we weighed him there he was only 12.6. Well the vet called me and said they think he might be Addisonian because his electrolytes still aren't looking right.

I looked the disease up and 70-85% of the cases are female ages 4-6. And there are certain breeds that are more prone to it and my dog isn't any of them is a male. He is still on his meds today is his last day but like I said he is back to his same old self wanting to play all the time. I kind of think that he was just so dehydrated and that everything just isn't back to normal yet. They want me to bring him back next week to check his blood again.

If anyone has a dog with Addison's how did you find out? And does it sound like Bodean has it?

 

[luvwinnie]

I knew someone who had a dog with it...I think the treatment was steroids. I know this doesn't help much but wanted you to know that I hope your poochie is ok!

 

[izzy]

I don't know if I should tell you this or not, but my brother just lost his Labrador Retriever to Addison's disease. He was 9 years old. The vet misdiagnosed him for 2 weeks (started out saying it was an ear infection, then said it was an ulcer), and by the time they figured it out, it was too late. I know he had blood in his bowels, would throw up anything he ate, lost about 12 pounds, and drank LOTS of water. They didn't put all of these symptoms together until too late. I think they finally figured it out from blood work.

Hopefully your dog does not have this disease, and if he does, maybe they've caught it in time. I have to say that the symptoms sound quite similar. Make sure you follow what the vet says!

 

[ninahbear]

Since he has been home has hasn't been sick at all. He moved his bowels finally today and it was normal. They did run the test (I think there is a test just for the disease) and that came back negative but they still think he has it because of his electrolytes. He is still on his meds so we will see in a couple of days if he is okay without them. I really hope he doesn't have it. They said that it really isn't a big deal if he has it I just have to take him for an injection every month.

 

[izzy]

The vet told my brother that they could also give his dog a monthly injection for $100 a shot, but that it had really gone too far at this point to help him live longer. I suspect if they had caught it sooner, my brother might have considered it, even though he really couldn't afford it.

I'm so glad to hear the test came back negative!

 

[ninahbear]

It's a shame it took 2 weeks for them to figure it out. I wonder why they didn't do blood work from the start. They did the test when he was staying at the vet and they want to check it again.