Health News on Meika

As many of you have already heard, we had some health issues with our pup a few weeks ago. We've always noted some strange qualities about her, but we never thought much of them. For example, ever since she was a tiny pup she would tremble occasionally when she was sitting still. We figured these were growing puppy muscles and it was all normal.

We'd occasionally take her to the vet for vomiting ... but we assumed it was her grass-eating habit that was causing this. And she wasn't gaining weight. Other mastiff pups her age were weighing in around 140, and Meika could barely hit 100. We always had a sneaking suspicion that we bought the runt of the litter, so small was ok.

... and then it all happened at once. Our perfectly housebroken and trained puppy started wetting her crate! ... during the night, while we were at work, anytime she was in there for a few hours. We thought it sounded like a puppy bladder infection and took her to the doctor (Saturday, July 8) to check things out. They, too, thought it sounded like a bladder infection and gave her some antibiotics to treat it.

She didn't feel like eating much, and when she did, she would throw up. By Tuesday morning (July 11), she was throwing up everything she took in ... including water. We took her back to the vet, and it sounded like she was having some nausea issues with the antibiotics for the bladder infection. They swapped out her antibiotics with a nausea medication, and we went back home.

On Wednesday (July 12), she was still sick. We took her back to the vet first thing in the morning. At this point, everyone suspected an obstruction and we left her at the office for a day of x-rays. We picked her up after work with good news that the x-rays didn't show anything! We took home some GI-friendly canned food to try her on and returned home with our sick pup.

By Thursday morning (July 13), Meika could hardly walk. She was so weak - she hadn't had any food go down and stay down since the previous Saturday. She'd take two steps and collapse to the ground. I thought for sure my puppy was dying. :( We took her to the vet one more time, asking them to give her an IV of fluids for a day and wanting to know what's next. We agreed that bloodwork was the next step (if only we had done this earlier!), and we left her for another day at the hospital.

Our vet rushed the bloodwork and called that afternoon with some good news / bad news answers for us. Her electrolytes were all messed up. Her potassium was high, sodium low. Her kidneys were having some issues. He said it could be (bad news) kidney disease/failure, leaving our good news to be Addison's Disease, or failure of the Adrenal glands to do what they're supposed to do, as the other possibility. While Addison's Disease isn't curable, (here's where the good news / bad news comes in) it is TREATABLE with monthly shots and steroids. These monthly shots wouldn't be cheap, you pay by the pound for the meds ... and we own a mastiff.

They kept her overnight to give her more fluids, raise her sodium levels, and run another test specific to diagnose Addison's. They rushed this bloodwork as well, and the lab at Columbia, MO, ran the tests in the middle of the night to get the results back to the vet ASAP!

On Friday morning we got the "good news" call. Our dog had an incurable, yet treatable disease! We were so scared that it could be kidney failure, that the Addison's diagnosis became the best news in the world!

We agreed to any treatment necessary, and she got her first DOCP shot the morning of Friday, July 14. We took her home again that night, and while groggy and lazy, she was already showing signs of improvement. By Saturday she was starting to eat again, and within a few days she was back to her 6-cups a day of food! She not only has her energy back, but she's back to being a PUPPY ... something I thought we had just grown out of!

Today we can see her starting to slow down as last month's shot begins to wear off and we get ready for the next one. We pump her up with more steroids to help out, and we wait until the next shot comes around.

For more information on Addison's Disease in dogs, visit http://www.addisondogs.com/.