addisons disease?

Question

The owner of my pup's mom told me that one of the pups has addisons disese and that i shouldn't breed her in case she is a carrier for the disese. She said the mom is a carrier but is not effected but she cant be bred again. I'm confused on the subject. im fixing my pup this week but would like some more info on it. thank you my pup is a year and a half old rotti

Answer 1

Kudos to both you and your puppy's breeder for being responsible!

Addison's can be a very difficult disease to deal with. I worked at a clinic where we diagnosed a Bearded Collie with the disease -- but almost lost her in the process of getting her well.

Some links to info:
http://www.vetinfo.com/dencyclopedia/deaddisons.html
http://www.addisondogs.com/addisons/whatis.html
http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/clientED/addisons.asp

Good luck with your Rott!

Answer 2

Ok since I'm not sure what info you are looking for:
Addisons is proven heritatary in several breeds - the statistical figure for the heritatity of addisons (the degree of certainy that they feel its is all in the genes) is around.75 in all breeds they have enough data to figure it on, by contrast this figure is .35 for hip dysplasia in the German Shepard
Genetics 101: every dog inherits many genes all of which are in pairs - one from each parent. But since you can't have say both blond and brown hair, the genes usually do a sorta card game of "war" the high card (er gene) is what you see, the other hides. The addisons gene is a low card (say a 2) and so you will not see the 2 (IE: the dog gets addisons) unless there is a 2 from BOTH father & mother. BUT should you breed a dog with a king showing (healthy) but a two hidden under it she would randomly pass a king to half her pups and a two to the other half and if her mate had a two hidden also he will pass a two to half the pups also. If one of the pups is unlucky and get two twos - well disaster! (an addisons pup).
Now It is important to note that since she has an addison affected sib (I assume littermate) that means that both parents had a 2 to give out, so her chances are 3 chances of 4 she could pass addisons her pups
Her chances that she got a two from Mom OR Dad (making her a carrier but healthy) is 1 out of 2 - her chances of getting the two from mom AND dad is 1 in 4 and in this case she could HAVE addisons which hasn't shown yet, meaning 3 chances of 4 she could pass addisons her pups.
Addisons often doesn't show up till the dog is 4 or 5 (or even older) and you need to be aware of the fact that addisons is a possiblilty since Addisons is frequenly misdignosed.
There is no way to tell at this time, if your dog could get addison's in the future (the dignostic tests only say if she has it NOW and if she's not sick it's not very likely she has it now)
Symptoms and even bloodwork usually looks just like kidney failure.
Check out either
www.k9addisons.com or www.addisondogs.com
Both web sites give a lot of information on symptoms...

Answer 3

Addison's disease is also known as hypoadrenocorticism. It is an insufficient production of adrenal hormones by the adrenal gland. Since these hormones are essential for life, this is an extremely serious disease.
Adrenal insufficiency can be primary or secondary. Primary adrenocorticism affects salt/potassium balance in the body and glucorticoid as well. Secondary adrenocorticism usually only affects the glucocorticoids. It is not known why primary adrenocorticism occurs but it may be an immune mediated process. Secondary adrenocorticism probably occurs most often when prednisone or other cortisone being administered for medical reasons are suddenly withdrawn. It can occur as a result of pituitary cancer or some other process that interferes with production of hormones that stimulate the adrenal glands.

Most dogs with Addison's disease initially have gastrointestinal disturbances like vomiting. Lethargy it also a common early sign. Poor appetite can occur as well. These are pretty vague signs and it is extremely easy to miss this disease. More severe signs occur when a dog with hypoadrenocorticism is stressed or when potassium levels get high enough to interfere with heart function. Dogs with this problem will sometimes suffer severe shock symptoms when stressed, which can lead to a rapid death. When potassium levels get high heart arrythmias occur or even heart stoppage which also is fatal. In some cases, especially secondary Addison's disease, there are no detectable electrolyte changes.

Treatment for this disease is usually done by oral administration of fludrocortisone acetate (Flurinaf), salting the food, and administration of corticosteroids like prednisone. In a crisis situation this disorder must be treated more aggressively with intravenous fluids, IV glucocorticoids and correction of acid/base balances.

You have to pay close attention to a dog with this problem. Don't ignore any changes in appetite, GI disturbances or anything else that makes you think your dog is ill. If you work with your vet and are careful about following his or her directions this disease has a good prognosis when it is discovered before a crisis occurs.

Since this disease is very serious (and can be taxing and expensive to treat), one must be careful not to take a chance on breeding a dog that has the condition or that may be a carrier of it. Some dogs may be carriers of the gene that causes the condition, but never contract the disease themselves. That is why your breeder told you not to risk breeding the dog.

Good luck!

Answer 4

Addison's is a rough and very expensive disease to treat. It's great that you are getting your pup fixed. Unfortunately with some breeders they wouldn't care. It's all about making money, no matter what/