Canine Addisons Disease tip

One of our dogs was diagnosed with Canine Addison's at age 6 (now 9yrs. old). We have heard that many put their pet to sleep when this diagnosis is given because the cost of florinef is so high. In fact one vet gave us no other option - thankfully we found a new vet! Sam is happy and living a normal life. I want to pass along the name of the compounding pharmacy that we use because the medicine is extremely affordable and they ship it overnight. It is Nora Apothecary in Indianapolis. The web site gives a toll free number. http://www.noraapothecary.com/

Anyone else out there dealing with Canine Addison's?

 

I have never heard of this disease -- please explain.

 

I haven't heard of it either.

 

I googled it and did a little reading -- it sounds like it is an autoimmune disease.
Is it hereditary?

 

Addison's disease is a severe or total deficiency of the hormones made in the adrenal cortex, caused by a destruction of the adrenal cortex.

It is an adrenal gland disfunction.

People get the disease also. It is controlled by giving a steroid and florinef daily. Because dogs do not process the drug the same as humans they take large doses - thus the very high cost. Blood levels are taken to monitor dosage.

Sam's symptoms were sudden and scarey. Vomitting, loss of appetite, lethargic. Within 12 hours of our noticing his changes he was close to death. We refused to put him to sleep at a the ER on a Sunday, had him hydrated and thankfully he was diagnosed right on by a young vet who has 1 other addison's patient the next day. (amazing how easily the first vet was ready to give up on our pet in front of my 12 year old crying son!)

Here are two good sites with info:

http://www.medhelp.org/www/nadf3.htm

http://www.k9addisons.com

 

Good for you for seeking a second opinion! I'm glad to hear Sam is doing well now.

 

thanks for posting this can now show up in the search funtions That is great you have found something that works. This disease is becoming a lot more common

A few months back the vet wanted to test my moms dog for addisons and I kept finding over and over dogs live a few years at the most. My mom chose not to after I found out it was most likely caused by an overdosage of steriods which causes an what they call steriod induced addisons and will go away with time. She verified this with her vet, and luckily is she if fine now.

 

Honeybears-glad things have worked out well for your mom's dog.

We are told that our Addison's dog call live a Looooong and happy life...although the steroid has made him Very fat! Looks like a sow pig when he is lying on his side. We love every pound of him!

 

One of my co-workers has a female great dane with addisons. Not sure when she was diagnosed but I believe it was around 5 years ago (she is 8 now). The dog takes prednisone on a daily basis .......... unfortunately she is plagued by recurrent urinary tract infections. These have become more and more resistant to treatment and it is becoming increasingly more difficult to find a drug that has any effect.

 

8 is a good old age for a Great Dane. It could be possible that the reoccuring UTI's are because of other conditions from age.

I really believe that sometimes, it is best to let nature take it's course. Sometimes we humans, with all of our science and medicines can make an animal suffer unnecessarily.

Sometimes we humans with all of our science and medicines, can help an animal have a happy and healthy life.

I think that it is part of the huge responsibility of pet ownership to be able to make that decision for our pets.

Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change,
the courage to change the things I can, and
the wisdom to know the difference.

 

I didn't know that frequent uti's had anything to do with Addison's but maybe you didn't mean that anyway.....

I think that we have concluded that we will continue medicating Sam until the quality of his life is no longer good. It is my understanding that he can live to a normal age happily as long as we moniter his blood levels.

 

My whippet had asthma her whole life which required on again off again pred, she also at various times had a partial cruciate (pred again), pinched nerve in her neck (more pred) and a couple of other injuries that required pred I was expecting her to die from liver failure but she didnt, on and off throughout her life almost every time she had been on a course of pred she would get another UTI....eventually she was put to sleep as she developed a tumor attached to her bladder. (she was almost 17 years old) Pred is great for a lot of things but its an immunosuppressant so you (or your dog) are more likely to get an infection.

 

The UTI's are a result of the prednisone used to treat Addison's but not a direct result of the Addison's itself. Sorry if I didn't make it clear.