tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17862494.post4188677812610779889..comments2024-03-28T15:56:01.577-04:00Comments on Wednesday's Child: Riley Had An Ultrasound This MorningJoanne Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01623855664379207620noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17862494.post-49233153209366514332017-02-23T08:36:17.954-05:002017-02-23T08:36:17.954-05:00I'm glad that the ultrasound showed no tumors....I'm glad that the ultrasound showed no tumors.<br /><br />Our youngest dog was just diagnosed with atypical Addison's Disease. He would be fine for a couple weeks, then he would have "episodes of not wanting to eat anything, sometimes diarrhea, gurgling guts, looking like he was "swallowing hard" all the time, occasional vomiting, etc... The symptoms would come and go.<br /><br />I kept taking him in to the vet and I would hear oh, he got into something or did you change his food or some other idea but finally, I got so frustrated and angry and the new vet agreed that we needed to start testing for what was going on.<br /><br />Blood tests, x-rays with barium, etc... showed nothing except some strange elevated values in liver and kidneys. Then we did an ultrasound and we had a really good vet that goes from clinic to clinic doing nothing but ultrasounds and reading them. She noticed that his adrenal glands were strangely difficult to image. She didn't know if they were undersized or just hiding but she recommended a resting cortisol test to see if that would show what was happening.<br /><br />We had the resting cortisol test and values that should go way up were just flatline. One other test after that called the ACTH test was done and they confirmed he had Atypical Addison's Disease. They told me the ACTH test was the definitive one.<br /><br />I'm not a vet and I'm not saying Riley has this. I just wanted to make you aware of it because the vets told me that they are seeing more and more of Addison's and Cushing's Disease and they don't know why. <br /><br />My dog's symptoms were considered to be a very unusual presentation of the disease. They told me that full blown Addison's Disease usually isn't even discovered until the dog crashes because all his levels just go flooey. We were just lucky that it was discovered in time before something worse happened.<br /><br />One other thing they said was that if a dog has Atypical Addison's Disease it usually progresses to the full blown Addison's Disease. You might want to ask your vet if she noticed anything unusual with Riley's adrenals during the ultrasound. <br /><br />Diane Nnoreply@blogger.com