Hormone hassle: Managing Addison's disease in pets
Pet Talk
From switching food brands to limiting exposure to certain ingredients to introducing new medications, uncovering the cause of your dog’s fluctuating digestive upset can be exhausting and confusing.
Interestingly, hormones may be at the root of the problem, as conditions such as Addison’s disease are known for affecting the production of hormones, which might be the source of your pet’s gastrointestinal discomfort.
Dr. Alyssa Jenkins, a second-year internal medicine resident at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, describes the necessary lifestyle changes for pets that are diagnosed with the hormone-afflicting Addison’s disease.
Bodily malfunction
Addison’s disease, also referred to as hypoadrenocorticism, is a deficiency of hormones that are typically secreted by the adrenal glands.
“Dogs and cats have two adrenal glands that live just above the kidneys,” Jenkins said. “They secrete multiple hormones that have a ton of functions throughout the body, but one of the most important is helping the kidneys to regulate the body’s fluid balance.”
When these hormones become imbalanced, several bodily functions — including the regulation of blood pressure, stress responses, metabolism, electrolytes and more — are put at risk.
Abnormal behavior
Recognizing the symptoms of recurring imbalances in your animal’s hormones is the first step in determining whether Addisons’s disease is a possible diagnosis.
“We see the disease primarily in dogs,” Jenkins said. “It has been reported in cats, but it is not as common in them.
“One of the things that we see most commonly is patients who have waxing and waning digestive struggles that maybe aren’t responsive to other forms of management,” she said.
Digestive struggles that can be a signal for the presence of the disease include:
• Regurgitation
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Loss of appetite
• Persistent dehydration
The symptoms of Addison’s disease can also indicate a variety of other health conditions, so it’s important that a veterinarian conducts further testing to confirm a diagnosis.
The pet’s veterinarian will run a series of tests that monitor and calculate the body’s ability to manage its typical levels of the hormone cortisol. If the patient’s levels don’t respond appropriately, it may be diagnosed with Addison’s disease.
Next steps
Following an Addison’s diagnosis, a veterinarian can create a treatment plan that best serves the adjusted needs of your pet.
“One of the big things that we have to do for an Addisonian case is supplement their hormones to the amount that their body would normally be producing,” Jenkins said.
To do this, the pet’s owner will need to supply the animal with a daily steroid medication as well as another medication to help them regulate their fluid balance appropriately.
“It is important for owners to accept that daily medication is going to be part of their pet’s management and that there will have to be consideration given to any changes in that pet’s schedule,” Jenkins said. “Fortunately, with proper care, pets diagnosed with Addison’s disease can still live a pretty normal life; it does not necessarily shorten their life expectancy if you’re managing it well with the proper recommendations from a veterinarian.”
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Pet Talk is a service of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University. Stories can be viewed on the web at vetmed.tamu.edu/news/pet-talk. Suggestions for future topics may be directed to vmbs-editor@tamu.edu.