Registered: Aug 2007
Location: Powhatan, VA
Posts: 56

I went hunting last night with my B&T and when I found him an hour later he had gone from very high energy to very slow, tail drooped, drooling, very low temperature and low blood pressure. Took him to the vet and after some tests he was diagnosed with Addison's Disease. Have any of you had a hound come down with this before? Vet says he would require regular visits and a $100 a month pill, but should be able to live a normal life.

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Registered: Jan 2004
Location: Ohio
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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Beaver Springs, Pennsylvania
Posts: 3316

Never heard of it. Please give more info. on the cause and treatment of this disease.

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American Leopard Hound
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Registered: Mar 2006
Location: MI
Posts: 207

To information and treatment of addisons disease

http://www.vetinfo.com/dencyclopedia/deaddisons.html

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Funny you mention that...
I just made a post on the Plottdogs.com website regarding this.
Someone contacted me that has a Plott (just a pet) that was diagnosed with the same thing last summer.
http://www.plottdogs.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6994

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Registered: Aug 2007
Location: Powhatan, VA
Posts: 56

Brogy,

My vet gaveme the same options as in your post: for the rest of his life give once a month shot for $250, daily pills for $100 a month, or to put him down. I really like this dog, but its a hard decision to make when you are out of work and looking at an addtional $1200+ a year for probably the next 4 or 5 years.

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In my post it says they found another option, that has been working for them.

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Registered: Aug 2007
Location: Powhatan, VA
Posts: 56

brogy in your post it says the pills were $0.60 each and that the dog required .8mg which I assume is daily from everything I've been told. Were they able to find a pill for the full .8 mg because all the ones I have found were only .1mg each? That would be great if I could do less than a dollar a day. If they are buying them in the .1mg size though its still $4.80 a day and roughly $144 a month.

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I don't know much more than whats in the post. If you want to speak with them directly I can get you a phone number?

I think you need to decide 1) whether or not the dog is still going to be able to perform in the woods, 2) Is that important to you, 3) Can you afford the expense of treatment.
Then the decision is yours. I know what I'd do.
Good luck.

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Registered: Jul 2008
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Posts: 118

I have a 9 yo black and tan who had an Addison's crash when he was 3.

He had initially been misdiagnosed (common) with renal failure, so when it was all said and done, he was down from 80# to 50#, could barely walk.

But after he got his first dose of meds, he stabilised and took about 6 months to gain his condition back.

He has been fine ever since.

Addison's is very low to no adrenal gland function.

When we exercise, our adrenals have a feedback loop telling when more adrenalin or cortisol is needed. This does not work in a person or animal with Addison's, so fatigue is the outcome. The adrenals also connect to how our body maintain blood potassium and sodium levels.

Potassium will spike and sodium will drop, which will eventually affect the heart, and stop it.

One medicine for it is a mineralocorticoid to replace what the adrenals do not produce. This is supplemented by the needed cortisol in the form of prednisone.

This med, Percortan V, is made by Novartis. They have talked about discontinuing it because they do not sell tons of it. There are only so many Addisons dogs in the world!

It is about $150 for a 4 ml vial.

My 80# coonhound gets 1.2 ml every 35-45 days, and .5mg of prednisone per day. (Prednisone is cheap, just pennies per day, and comes in 1mg tablets which I break in half.)

Another option is the medicine used for humans with Addison's, a pill called Florinef.

It can be purchased compounded from the the pharmacy, and is a lot cheaper, but it has to be given daily.

Prednisone supplement is not usually indicated with the Florinef, but your vet can help you out with that.

Because the electrolyte balance must be maintained for the body to function, you would also want to get some monthly blood tests for a while, to make sure the dog is within normal parameters. If the lytes are too high or too low, usually results in lethargy, drinking a lot of water and excess peeing, vomiting and diarhea.

While the Percorten is dosed by weight, most large dogs end up not needing the amount of the initial dose. There is some 'storage' of the drug in the muscle or fat. I gradually lowered my hound's dose until his lytes were right on, and he does not have any of the symptoms of too high or too low a dose of the meds.

Once I figured out his best dose and number of days between, most of the time this doesn;t change and is easy to manage. But it does require some maintenance, and of course, is expensive too.

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