Addison’s disease

[Costacoffeeplease]

Does anyone have any experience of Addison’s in dogs? Our 8 year old male podengo may have it, just wondering how it may affect his quality of life/life expectancy

Thanks

My labradoodle has Addisons, she is 12.5, diagnosed when she was 5. Once the medication was established she has been fine, we currently give her zycortal injection once a month and a quarter of a 5 mg prednisilone once a day. It’s scary when they are first diagnosed but with medication your boy should live a normal active life.

There is a great Facebook group called Addison Dogs (sorry, I’m rubbish with links).

Addison's is a funny condition, some animals can be very sick when diagnosed but it is normally really easy to manage once the diagnosis is found. Diagnosing it is normally the tricky bit so if your vets are looking for it that's really good. They can be really rewarding cases to treat. Normal treatment nowadays involves an injection about once a month and a very low dose of steroids which you may need to increase during stressful events as their bodies can't do that for themselves. It can be frustrating to find the correct doses and they often need quite a few blood tests to get them stabilised but once stable they can live normal lives with full life expectancy. Most of the endocrine specialists regard it as the best disease to get if you have to have one! Fingers crossed your boy doesn't have anything serious going on, but if he does Addison's is probably one of the better things to have.

Forgot to say, when first diagnosed she had bloods taken every 3 months. We now get them done twice a year.

Thanks everyone, very encouraging

We are 6 months post diagnosis. Younger than the ‘norm’ was just over 1 when diagnosed. Struggle so far to get the right balance but hoping things are starting to settle.

@newuser000 it took us about a year to get the balance of meds right, hang on in there.

My dog was diagnosed 3 years ago, very nearly lost her as she was so unwell. She lost 7kg in a week.
Luckily my vet recognised the symptoms and ran bloods quickly.
She has Zycortal every 4 weeks which I inject myself and Prednisolone every day.
She’s 9 now and full of life, full of energy, you’d never guess there was anything ever wrong.

Our poor boy isn’t picking up at all on the cortisone, he’s very down. 🙁

When did he start the treatment?
Took mine a whole week from the first dose to even start to improve a little bit and she’d also had a whole day at the vets on a drip as she was so dehydrated but even that didn’t perk her up.
I was seriously considering having her PTS as she was so, so ill and hadn’t eaten for the week but she turned a corner luckily as I was half an hour away from ringing the vet as she was starving to death in front of me and the vet would say every day ‘She’ll be better tomorrow’ and she wasn’t.

It’s been 2-3 weeks now. He’s going in for another ultrasound tomorrow morning 🤞 We had one day when he perked up, about two weeks ago, but on a downward trajectory since, with new symptoms every few days.

He’s had three days in on drips, cortisone injections and tablets and I’m not sure how much longer he can carry on like this

Sorry to hear that @Costacoffeeplease what is your vet saying?
We had 4 days on drip then it took ages for him to perk up and and then it was v changeable.

I definitely see when the injection is due. We see panting, thirst, exercise fatigue/exhaustion regularly. Also had bloody poop and vomit. He had the biggest dose of zycortal after a bad month and he was the best he’s been but vet concerned it’s too much - vet said it’s a juggle to get it right. Lost loads of weight initially but has now put on more and needs to lose some again!!

Even with the meds he’s drinking several litres a day and incontinent at night. He’s barely sleeping, just lying looking very uncomfortable, very wobbly on his legs and just doesn’t look ‘right’.

He had no appetite at the beginning and lost 4 kgs in a couple of weeks (from 16kg start) but the cortisone is making him hungry now.

I’m beginning to wonder if there’s something else going on

He’s been seen, and had his case discussed by at least 4 vets who all work together. 🤞 we learn more from the ultrasound this morning.

I hope today brings good news. Is he having blood tests to monitor the cortisol and electrolytes?
I also give frozen oralaid regularly. We have to freeze ice cubes otherwise he ignores it.
Water - not sure if helpful comparison mine drinks over a litre a day, sometimes has been way over (he has a 750ml drinking pot that gets refilled) he also makes use of puddles and sodden planters.

Yes he had blood tests on Friday and again today. He’s going back on a drip this afternoon but everyone still seems to think it’s addisons

He’s drinking maybe 4-6 litres a day

Blimey that is a lot of fluid, no wonder he’s having incontinence issues.

I hope you start seeing some of progress, it must be so worrying for you

I'm so sorry to hear he's not picking up. Addison's is relatively easily confirmed by a specific blood test called an ACTH stimulation test, was this done? It's a very accurate test so should give results well but can't be done once they've started the steroids which can complicate things. If he's had it confirmed with the ACTH stim then it's a case of separating clinical parts from steroid side effects which can be very similar to what you are describing. Though once you are on the zycortol you normally only need physiological doses of steroids so side effects are rare. If things aren't improving I would maybe consider referral to a medicine specialist if you can afford it because Addison's normally resolves relatively easily and if it's not then they will have much more experience in these cases.

We’re not in the U.K. so it’s slightly different here. He was already on cortisone so hasn’t had the ACTH stim test but everyone who has seen him is convinced it’s addisons.

Only slight incontinence last night although we did let him out at 3 and 5.30 am 🤞 he’s starting to improve

Please update with how he is, you must be worried sick.
Glad he’s improved a bit. Got all our fingers and paws crossed 🤞🏼 🐾

Unfortunately he’s quite down again today. He seems to have an infection but we don’t know where, nothing obvious on the ultrasound yesterday but his white cells are suddenly high, after a normal reading on Friday.

Starting the third lot of antibiotics now.

I'm so sorry to hear he's not feeling better yet. Do they still think it's Addison's with a secondary infection or are they thinking something else? Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in properly this time for him

I think it could be addisons with something else. He’s very down and miserable looking, no energy, trembling, doesn’t have the energy to sit, just slumps down.

I really hope he starts to improve soon @Costacoffeeplease

Thank you 🙏

@Costacoffeeplease How is your dog doing?