Addison disease in Labradoodles

[Karina]

Our dog Rosie was extremely sick and we took her to the emergency pet hospital on Friday evening. She tested positive for Addison disease. We found out the following at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labradoodle

 

"A significant number of Mutigenerational and Australian Labradoodles have also been found to suffer from Addison's Disease.^[25] The Australian Labradoodle Association of America is currently conducting a study to try and determine how widespread the problem has become." (footnote url - http://www.goldendoodles.com/health_hereditary/addisons_disease.htm)

 

Our breeder was not part of the Australian Labradoodle Associaion of America. Breeders should test their dogs for Addison and not breed them. Girls are effected twice as much as the boys and both parents have to be carrier for the dog to have it.

 

It has been heartbraking to see Rosie so sick and with daily drugs and a shot every 25 days she should be ok. This makes me think twice about which breeder I will pick for our next doodle.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

So sorry to hear about Rosie. Hopefully, with the medicine and shots she is on her way to feeling better. Maybe you should contact your breeder and let her know about Rosie in the hopes that she starts testing for this or at the very least, stops breeding Rosie's mother and father. Good luck!

[Karina]

thank you. I am just hoping to be a lot calmer when I call the breeder, I want to know if she knew about it and if yes I could have cursed her out. We are going to get calm and centered before contacting the breeder early next week.

[Kim and Kashi]

I'm sorry to hear that too!  The poor girl...  Hope the medicine does its job and she can be happy and healthy.

[Karina]

Thank you, it has been heartbraking. At the Vet today Rosie did something so cute. She is starting to come out it and had more energy today. In the hallway a tech was walking by during our visit and she pulled to go say hi to her. The receptionist said, "I never saw a dog follow a tech before". I guess a regular dog doesn't want to talk to the person who gives them shots, iv needles, etc. I told the lady, not my Rosie she still loves everyone, she is a people person.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

I'm so sorry to hear about Rosie's illness. I hope she has a complete recovery! What were her symptoms when you took her in to emergency?

 

Thanks for passing along the information about this disease.

[Jennifer and Jack]

That is a little better to get a shot every 25 days. I take pills a few times a day for my Addison's disease. I am thinking they are going to give her a depo shot of some type. There are some steroids that can stay in your system that long. I know for humans they want us to have the type that most resemble what the adrenal glands make and that is Corteff aka hydrocortisone. I can not use generic or any other brand name then Corteff or I feel sick.

 

I can't wait to talk to you more... I would for sure let your breeder know. If she is responsible she will not breed those parents again, or at least take notice. To my understanding, they could not test the parents for this disease, though it is deemed to be genetic, there is not a test to test a parent to know if they will pass it along. Rosie is in the company of me, JFK and also it is believed to be that  Obama also has Addison's disease, so she is among some good and some well up to you to think if they are good or not people.

[Karina]

For dogs Addison emergency Vet said she gets daily pills and a shot every 25 days. Thank you for pointing out that I will have to watch her closely. Now I will have something to compare her health to.

 

Rosie's mom is bred too much in my opinion at least 2 times a year if not more. So that entire population is probably effected. I don't know if I could have been calm on the phone today, I am waiting to calm down and strategize how I will present this to her.

 

Thank you very much for your support, it means so much to us. I will be asking for a copy of Rosie's whole chart tomorrow including blood work etc.

[Jennifer and Jack]

That totally makes more sense to me to get pills daily. Since you are already a great mom, you will know what to look for. When she is more tired, definitely  when she has any ANY kind of physical illness, trauma or sickness or is just throwing up and keep her medications down, you need to double if not triple the steroids, Every time I get a stomach bug, I am either hospitalized or I do at home injections.

 

In all fairness to the breeder, this honestly may be the first time she is hearing of the addison's disease, Like Adina said, it is a genetic defect but a lot of things have to happen to make the disease line up. How old is Rosie, is she still under the health guarantee?  This is for sure a genetic defect. I think is should be covered depending on your agreement.

 

I would give the breeder the chance to do the right thing. If she doesn't then I would spread the word about her. I am very interested in her chart. I look forward to hearing what is in it.

 

Try to remember, thank the Lord there is medication to treat this and she can live a relatively treatable disease.

 

I can give you more details as you want them, For now, just keep her on the medications and make sure she swallows them down.

 

Love and Hugs, Hang in there you are doing a great job

 

[Karina]

Thank you very much. I will keep in mind that I should always have extra steroids on hand. That is a great tip. I will ask the vet tomorrow about having an emergency shot and being trained in giving her the shot.

 

I am hoping she didn't know. I always wondered why she wasn't a part of the Labradoodle Club (forget their exact name). I will keep an open mind.

 

Rosie is so smart at taking pills, it is always a big effort. We are going to Petco for pill pockets and wewe pads because the steroids are making her do #1 a lot, several times an hour.

 

Thank you again for the support. I had such quilt that I did something wrong before I learned about this disease. I hope folks at UC Davis really can make progress. We are going to take her there for a blood test for their study.

[Adina P]

I'm sorry about Rosie.

 

Addison's is quite common in poodles.  At this time it is my understanding that there is no DNA test for Addison's so it isn't easy to weed out completely.  I think in the poodle world good breeders do their best to stay away from it by really knowing the lines they are using.  I'm afraid for a long time Addisons was not talked about among doodle breeders...though it has been discussed lots more recently. 

[Adina P]

Okay, basically the Poodle Health Registry states "There is no line or color" of poodle not affected by Addisons.  That doesn't mean all poodles will have it but simply that it has shown up in all lines at one time or another: http://www.poodlehealthregistry.org/docs/Standard/PHR_Standard_Addi...  -- so it is NOT an easy disease to eliminate in the breed.  Since doodles are all part poodle...there is always a chance to reduce it in doodles with utmost breeding care.  But...that sounds very difficult to do.

 

AND in a link off of the page above one message to breeders is NOT to spay/neuter a dog simply because of Addisons but to try to breed to a very low risk dog simply to break up the genes because Addisons is now thought/known to be a disease influenced by multiple genes all lining up just right (or wrong!).  So basically a breeder needs to be extremely knowledgeable about lines and breed with utmost care.

[Jennifer and Jack]

HMMM I seem to always get the genes that line up just exactly wrong!!! Mostly all genetic diseases are diseases that line up on the DNA strand the right way to cause the disease to be formed.

 

I am really curious about Rosie's gums, did you notice brown spots on them, Right as I was diagnosed I had brown spots that looked like I used tan in a can on my skin in all the wrong spots.....

 

I had no idea poodles were genetically predisposed to addison's.. How like me to get a dog that can get the same disease as me, I least I know he won't get Cystic Fibrosis, though I am told dogs can get that too