Rusty; my Addison's puppy

[rusty'smom]

Help!..anybody out there with a Rotti pup who has Addison's Disease?

[sophie's-mom]

My dog has addison's, is there something specific you're looking for???

[rusty'smom]

Rusty was put down yesterday....the vet and I know that he was poisoned by something..she said it was unrelated to the Addison's, but that just made it worse, because his immune system was already compromised because of the disease...he may have survived, if he could stay at the vet for 3 more days, but looking at a bill of over $1,000 dollars, plus long term treatment at home for liver and kidney damage, I could not bear another episode of something else happening to Rusty...please watch over your baby, because with Addison's, your dog is vunerable to "EVERYTHING"..., and I mean "EVERYTHING"!...Keep in touch...

[observer]

Rusty's mom-

I am so sorry to read what happened to Rusty and to your other dog (I saw the other thread where you talked about it.) I am so sorry for your loss of Rusty, and hope your other dog continues to recover. Hope you are able to get some information about how the poisoning occurred....what a terrible thing to have to worry about while you are grieving the loss of your boy.

[rusty'smom]

thank you...I had high hopes for "my little Rusty-Rust", as I affectionally called him...I knew I could manage his Addison's without a doubt, but then this happened, and I am so sad, angry and frustrated at the same time because I still don't know what happened to him!..I still continue to look for clues on how he was poisoned....and I will probably never know..I have such great memories of him, but his loss is incredible in my heart... his buddy, my male shephard King, who is 2 1/2 years old, loved, cared and protected him just like a mother, since Rusty was 7 weeks old!..King misses him, and is contstantly "looking for him", but at least Rusty is at peace and King is doing better on medication..they were inseprable...keep in touch...

[Sabu's mom]

Originally Posted by rusty'smom

Help!..anybody out there with a Rotti pup who has Addison's Disease?

Hi, my baby Sabu, almost 11, was just put down on Saturday. He initially had no symptoms whatsoever. About a month ago, he completely "crashed" suddenly with no warning. He woke in the middle of night, panting heavily, he fell to the floor when he tried to stand up. We immediately took him to the emergency vet, where he was placed on oxygen and IV. He had very little pulse and very low blood pressure. Over the next 24 hrs, he was kept on the meds and on oxygen, he had xrays and ultrasound testing - neither of which showed anything significant.

We thought we were going to lose Sabu that day. Fortunately, he was able to come home with us, after two nights at the vet. He was much improved. Due to lack of any other diagnosis, the vet said they suspected Addison's due to some of his blood work. It was kind of puzzling because he was not your "typical" Addison's case. He was male, Rottweiler, older, etc - not your typical case of Addisons. Plus, some of the testing didn't quite match-up w/an Addison's diagnosis.

Nonetheless, we took the dr's advice and put Sabu on Prednisone - 5mgs two times a day. He seemed to improve more and more every day. Then, last Wednesday night, we noticed he was panting heavily, off and on. On Thursday, he was completely lathargic, lying on the floor, unable to move. He was very thirsty however. When he did finally go out to urinate, he came back in to the house and fell over, unable to stand.

We watched over him like hawks all night and by Friday morning, he seemed to be improving, he was up walking around and even seemed to have a little appetite back. We decided to take him to the vet that day just to see what they thought. The vet decided it was his Addison's flaring up and they decided to give him an injection of a medication usually given to dogs once a month, in addition to prednisone for the Addisons. Unfortunately, the name isn't coming to me right now.

We left, thinking Sabu would improve over the next few days. Unfortunately, 2 hrs later, we was having difficulty breathing again. We assumed his meds needed time to kick-in, so we just stayed up w/him most of the night, waiting for some improvement. There was no improvement, after 18 hrs of watching our baby suffer, we returned to the vet. She was again guessing it was the effects of the Addison's and wanted to give him yet another medication for Addison's. At that point, we were emotionally wrecked and questioned everything the dr was saying. We were never certain of the Addison's diagnosis and were worried about continuing to "experiment" . We were afraid we would have to continue watching Sabu suffer needlessly off and on and didn't want to put him through it anymore.

He was so tired on Saturday, he just looked like he was letting go. It was the hardest decision I ever had to make and I still feel as though maybe I made the wrong decision. I feel like my heart has been torn out of my chest and still question the Addisons diagnosis. I feel like I should have questioned the vet further and I should have done more before letting him go. I am filled with guilt and loss right now.

Sorry this is so long and sorry to vent. My heart goes out to all of you w/pets who are suffering from illness. Sabu was my only baby for the past 10+ yrs and I don't know how my life will go on without him.