Our Scottie, Sophie, was diagnosed with Addison’s disease in August 2016. She was 2 years old at that time. We did not suspect she was sick. She began showing signs of weakness in her back legs. Our primary vet saw her on an emergency basis as it was a Saturday night. The vet felt Sophie was dehydrated and recommended we take her to Michigan State University vet services immediately. As we drove the 70 miles to the Vet hospital Sophie began to have slight ticks as she lay on my lap. By the time we walked into the emergency room she was having severe seizures. She spent the weekend there as they re hydrated, tested and medicated her. The diagnosis was Addison’s Disease. The doctors who first saw her suspected Addison’s immediately, the tests done confirmed it.
Now Sophie takes a minute amount of Prednisone (1/4 of a 5mg tablet) and every 25 days she receives an injection of Percortin. So far this regiment seems to be doing the best.
Sophie does get easily stressed, is somewhat hyper at times and also never has much appetite. We know that we can give her an extra dose of Prednisone in stressful times. Our primary vet manages her care and is knowledgeable on the disease and her care.
Addison’s is the opposite to Cushings. I’m pleased that you have got her medicated as I believe, as you say, that it is essential for regular injections to help keep this condition under control.
My husband and I got our first Scottish Terrier in 1995 when our kids were 8 and 5. He turned out to be the perfect pet for our family! When he was about 4 or 5 he suddenly became critically ill, vomiting and seizures so we rushed him to the vet who did lab work and told us he was extremely dehydrated. He hooked up an IV and kept him over night but had no diagnosis for it at that time. This happened another 2 or 3 times, each time suddenly and causing near death. The vet said his electrolytes were extremely low each time but could not figure out why. Finally he said he believed he had Addison’s Disease which at that time he said was rare for a dog and actually put him on a medication used on humans with Addison’s. The medicine was Florinef and I could only fill it at a regular pharmacy which I did for the rest of his life. He lived to be 9 years old. I did my own research on Addison’s Disease and read that a trauma can sometimes trigger it and it occurred to me that a couple of months before it started he had been hit by a car! It was a slight hit that knocked him down but there were no serious injuries, just a scrape on his side. I thought that was probably the cause but never knew for sure. The Florinef did help and he only had an occasional bout of low electrolytes after that but the medication was quite expensive. Good luck with Sophie, we loved our McTavish as another member of our family and we still tell stories of him today!
My 8 year old Scottie, Max, has suffered a rough year. I rescued him as a puppy with a cleft palette and rare polyp that obliterated his ear. He had specialists patch the palette and remove the polyp. He’s very stoic and also sensitive to stress. His only chronic illness leading into the year was hypothyroidism. In December, the dose was cut in half and he tore his ACL. A month later, he had pancreatitis. Since then he’s had chronic diarrhea even with good diet and medication. He’s my 7th Scottie, and I see signs of cushing’s, body shape and fur loss, drinking, peeing often. I read it can cause pancreatitis. My vet told me she thinks it’s IBD and to expect pancreatitis in future. I’m thinking about insisting on a test for Cushings and possibly Addisons to rule them in or out. Any advice or other thoughts given his symptoms and recent history?
Hi, I’m sorry to read about your little scottie Max. What a little trooper he is. I would definitely have a Cushings Test done, if only to rule it out. The test here in the UK is quite expensive, and Max will need to stay at the surgery for half a day. The test has to be conclusive for him to then be given medication, and the right dosage could take months to achieve with Max needing to go back to the surgery on a regular basis to have the tests done until the correct dosage is achieved. It’s not a quick fix to start with. I will put your post onto our Facebook page, as we have 8.9K of followers who are usually more than happy to offer up suggestions. If you don’t have a Facebook profile, I will collate the comments for you and send them back to you in an email format. Our presence on Facebook is as a “Page” so you don’t need to ask to join. Anyone anywhere can see it and make comments. I’ll be putting the post onto the Facebook Page within the next few minutes, so please, if you can let, me know if you can access Facebook, or whether you would like me to send you the responses by email. Let’s hope we can find some suggestions for you to put to your vet to be able to start working out a medical plan of action. Sending your beloved Max a big hug, from me and my 6 scotties, Regards, Karen and the Sparhawk Scottie Clan.
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Scottish Terrier Health Network 
Our Scottie, Sophie, was diagnosed with Addison’s disease in August 2016. She was 2 years old at that time. We did not suspect she was sick. She began showing signs of weakness in her back legs. Our primary vet saw her on an emergency basis as it was a Saturday night. The vet felt Sophie was dehydrated and recommended we take her to Michigan State University vet services immediately. As we drove the 70 miles to the Vet hospital Sophie began to have slight ticks as she lay on my lap. By the time we walked into the emergency room she was having severe seizures. She spent the weekend there as they re hydrated, tested and medicated her. The diagnosis was Addison’s Disease. The doctors who first saw her suspected Addison’s immediately, the tests done confirmed it.
Now Sophie takes a minute amount of Prednisone (1/4 of a 5mg tablet) and every 25 days she receives an injection of Percortin. So far this regiment seems to be doing the best.
Sophie does get easily stressed, is somewhat hyper at times and also never has much appetite. We know that we can give her an extra dose of Prednisone in stressful times. Our primary vet manages her care and is knowledgeable on the disease and her care.
Addison’s is the opposite to Cushings. I’m pleased that you have got her medicated as I believe, as you say, that it is essential for regular injections to help keep this condition under control.
My husband and I got our first Scottish Terrier in 1995 when our kids were 8 and 5. He turned out to be the perfect pet for our family! When he was about 4 or 5 he suddenly became critically ill, vomiting and seizures so we rushed him to the vet who did lab work and told us he was extremely dehydrated. He hooked up an IV and kept him over night but had no diagnosis for it at that time. This happened another 2 or 3 times, each time suddenly and causing near death. The vet said his electrolytes were extremely low each time but could not figure out why. Finally he said he believed he had Addison’s Disease which at that time he said was rare for a dog and actually put him on a medication used on humans with Addison’s. The medicine was Florinef and I could only fill it at a regular pharmacy which I did for the rest of his life. He lived to be 9 years old. I did my own research on Addison’s Disease and read that a trauma can sometimes trigger it and it occurred to me that a couple of months before it started he had been hit by a car! It was a slight hit that knocked him down but there were no serious injuries, just a scrape on his side. I thought that was probably the cause but never knew for sure. The Florinef did help and he only had an occasional bout of low electrolytes after that but the medication was quite expensive. Good luck with Sophie, we loved our McTavish as another member of our family and we still tell stories of him today!
My 8 year old Scottie, Max, has suffered a rough year. I rescued him as a puppy with a cleft palette and rare polyp that obliterated his ear. He had specialists patch the palette and remove the polyp. He’s very stoic and also sensitive to stress. His only chronic illness leading into the year was hypothyroidism. In December, the dose was cut in half and he tore his ACL. A month later, he had pancreatitis. Since then he’s had chronic diarrhea even with good diet and medication. He’s my 7th Scottie, and I see signs of cushing’s, body shape and fur loss, drinking, peeing often. I read it can cause pancreatitis. My vet told me she thinks it’s IBD and to expect pancreatitis in future. I’m thinking about insisting on a test for Cushings and possibly Addisons to rule them in or out. Any advice or other thoughts given his symptoms and recent history?
Hi, I’m sorry to read about your little scottie Max. What a little trooper he is. I would definitely have a Cushings Test done, if only to rule it out. The test here in the UK is quite expensive, and Max will need to stay at the surgery for half a day. The test has to be conclusive for him to then be given medication, and the right dosage could take months to achieve with Max needing to go back to the surgery on a regular basis to have the tests done until the correct dosage is achieved. It’s not a quick fix to start with. I will put your post onto our Facebook page, as we have 8.9K of followers who are usually more than happy to offer up suggestions. If you don’t have a Facebook profile, I will collate the comments for you and send them back to you in an email format. Our presence on Facebook is as a “Page” so you don’t need to ask to join. Anyone anywhere can see it and make comments. I’ll be putting the post onto the Facebook Page within the next few minutes, so please, if you can let, me know if you can access Facebook, or whether you would like me to send you the responses by email. Let’s hope we can find some suggestions for you to put to your vet to be able to start working out a medical plan of action. Sending your beloved Max a big hug, from me and my 6 scotties, Regards, Karen and the Sparhawk Scottie Clan.