Vetfilter:Canine Addison's disease
May 18, 2009 9:18 AM   Subscribe

Could my dog have been saved? Did the vet drop the ball? Any vets or folks who have experience with canine Addison's disease, please help shed some light on this situation for me.

I received a telephone call from my mom last night, that our 9 year old dog had to be put to sleep that morning. We are all completely devastated, as it was completely unexpected. The previous Wednesday, he had started vomiting and was not eating or drinking. My parents took him to the vet, who put him on an IV and made the assumption that our dog must have eaten something he shouldn't have, and that he should be ok. The dog seemed to bounce back, and even ate and drank a little over the next few days. Come Sunday though, he started throwing up again, and was very weak, so my family rushed him back to the vet. He was placed on IV and shortly after, the vet announced that his kidneys had shut down, probably due to Addison's, and the chances of him being saved were slim and that he should probably be put down, as he was suffering immensely. As a result of this information, my parents made the painful decision to say goodbye. I can't seem to get it out of my mind, however, that the vet really dropped the ball on this one and I have been up all night thinking about it. The more I read about this disease, it seems almost as if my dog could have been saved. I know there is no getting our dog back, but the thought that he could have been saved, is really eating away at me. It even seems, according to some articles, that Addison's mimicks kidney failure when it is not really occurring. I wouldn't dare say it to my parents, as they would be devastated if they thought for even a second, that he could have been saved and that they made the wrong decision. But I need to know for myself, if that makes any sense. Thank you.
posted by anonymous to Pets & Animals (8 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
My sister's dog had to be put down for the same reason. Addison's (or Lyme disease) can go undiagnosed in a dog almost until the point of lethality.
posted by Gungho at 9:40 AM on May 18, 2009


If his kidneys had shut down he probably couldn't have been saved. You may never know why (Addisons, toxin, other disease) but rest assured that your parents did the right thing.
posted by fshgrl at 9:46 AM on May 18, 2009


I'm so sorry to hear about your dog. I wonder if the reason your dog's kidneys shut down was due to something other than Addison's. Did they do the full tests for Addison's? Vets often suspect Addison's, but the tests for it require a full day of testing. I think the vet saw that your dog was very ill and suffering and that's why he suggested euthanasia. Once a dog loses kidney function very little can be done.
posted by parakeetdog at 10:00 AM on May 18, 2009


I'm sorry for your pain. This is what we sign up for when we get dogs, and we have to take it, balanced with the joy they brought us while they lived.

Whatever might have been wrong with your dog is probably irrelevant. If it was just a few days between the original onset and complete organ failure, your dog was likely too ill to be treated, even with a completely accurate diagnosis on day one. And with any treatment, costs, quality of life, discomfort to the animal all need to be addressed, and you could still end up with the same outcome, along with some additional imposed misery.

I'm not a vet or any kind of expert, but I've had dogs, and I've had dogs put down and know many people who have done the same. Doubts and second-guessing are common, regardless of how obvious it is to your rational mind. The part of you that loves your dog just wants him back.
posted by sageleaf at 10:00 AM on May 18, 2009


I am so sorry.

You're never really going to know this answer. I'm so sorry. In your grief it will be one part that will somehow find resolve eventulally. You are grieving right now. Of course you know this. However don't kid yourself by thinking your mind is clear. It is clouded by unbelievable sadness. Your mind wants to find solace by reading information - educating yourself has worked to solve problems before. But the problem of grief is different. It cannot be solved by the mind. It is a confusing bundle of random, difficult emotions.

The tricky thing about reading about a disease is that information is not specific to your dog. It's general about that disease. It's not about how far along your dog was in the illness, it's not about any comorbidities that may have also come into play specific to your dog.

You can help your grief by trusting your parents - you know them - to have made the right decision when they were there in the moment, seeing your dog, talking with the vet over a period of days about this specific situation. You know this was a decision they did not make lightly. You know they made this decision out of love for this dog, who had been a family member for a long time.



And I'm sorry it's not much of a comfort right now unfortunately. Death is hard to face. You are in the first part of grieving. Let yourself grieve. Don't fill your head with a bunch of articles on Addison's right now. Gaining that knowledge right now will not change the reason you are so sad. My advice would be to comfort yourself. Treat yourself gently right now. Do things that feel good to you. Do things that honor the love you have for this dog. You need to grieve.

A note about death. I watch people die with some frequency in my job and have watched a few pets approach death over the years. People and creatures often rally before they go. They have these moments where they seem better, lucid, as if they could heal completely and this will have just been a scare. But they don't. It's happens. so. often. It seems like a cruel trick but I think it's more a way for that person or pet to have a moment prior to death to say - hey - I love you so much. I'm sorry but this is it. Gotta go. And then they do.

With pets, a painful transition to death can be lessened by early intervention. I think - even though it always begs the question - "was this the right time to do this?" - that having the choice to put a pet to sleep somewhere in that stage is a gift we can give them. Painful long deaths can compound the emotional trauma of the family tenfold.

Tell yourself this is not the time to question what you're questioning. You need to come to terms with this loss. If you got answers to those questions it still would not take away your sadness. Comfort that sadness.
posted by dog food sugar at 11:00 AM on May 18, 2009 [1 favorite]


Based on what you've said here, my wife (who has been a vet tech for 16 years) does not see that the vet did anything wrong. Addison's is very low on the list of suspects when a dog presents with gastrointestinal problems, so it is not surprising that they did not test for it on the dog's original visit. In addition, there are many many things that can cause kidney failure (including toxin ingestion), and so the Addison's (if the dog definitely DID have Addison's -- it's not clear from your question) may not even be to blame for the renal failure.

I am so sorry for your loss.
posted by Rock Steady at 11:14 AM on May 18, 2009


Big ups to dog food sugar for an empathetic and very wise response, and my condolences on the loss of your family friend.
posted by ottereroticist at 12:31 PM on May 18, 2009


I don't know the answer to your question, but I am so sorry about your dog. Few things are more painful than losing a beloved pet. The grief can be overwhelming.

One of my dogs was killed by a car, and the recriminations and what ifs can be endless. It sounds like whether he was misdiagnosed or not, he was spared a painful disease, and it sounds like he was well-loved in life.
posted by walla at 5:58 PM on May 19, 2009


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