We got Louis as a 3 year old through poodle rescue. He had been well cared for, but his owners circumstances had changed and they were finding it increasingly difficult to give him the level of care he deserved. They had already had to change his food because they found that cetain foods didn’t suit him, but at this point there was no reason to think he had anything but a slightly delicate stomach,until 8 months after we got him.

One evening he had his tea, had violent sickness & diarrhoea and just lay on his side in the garden with his breathing becoming increasingly shallow & his heart rate slowing. I was phoning the vet, and at one point Roy came to tell me it was too late, but a few minutes later Louis came to the kitchen door & shook himself as though nothing had been wrong. The illness was a complete mystery to the vets, there were no further problems until 6 months later.

Louis by then had survived several Addisonian crises and had an exploratory operation before Addison’s was diagnosed. His case was made more complicated by the fact he was still making small amounts of corticosteroids & still responded to the ACTH test. At first Addison’s was ruled out, Louis was 24″ at the shoulder and weighed only 3 stone. Due to sheer determination & efforts beyond the call of duty by one vet at our practice, who took a special interest in him, he was eventually diagnosed with Addison’s.

Louis was on steroids & other medication for the rest of his mostly healthy long life, until we sadly lost him aged 13 (he died of bladder cancer,completely unrelated to the Addisons).

The above story was taken from a web site run by Michelle Hargreaves. I believe the owner of the material would be happy for the story to be reproduced here.

Lynne used the same vet as myself and the vet new exactly what Kerry was suffering from. Lynne attributes Kerry’s survival to Eddie’s recent passing. As without the new found knowledge that S Poodles are predisposed to Addisons, the vets may not have acted so swiftly with the correct diagnoses & treatment. Lynne is eternally grateful. With hindsight Lynne said she could now see that Kerry displayed many of the symptoms listed on the symptoms page for many years but the symptoms would come and go as true to the condition. This was my experience with Eddie also.

I thought I would also share this e-mail received on the 5th June 2002.

Hi there. Just wanted to send you a note and thank you. We went through almost exactly what you went through in the last few weeks with our poodle Abby. She also looks so much like that picture of Eddie it’s amazing. Anyway, when the pathologist suggested to test for Addisons our vet said that it wasn’t likely and not to think that that’s what it was or could be. Never having heard of the disease we came home (leaving our dying dog in a kennel at the vet with IV fluid) and looked it up on the net. My wife was in tears a few minutes later after finding your website first. We read the whole thing and phoned the vet that night and insisted that that’s what she had. It took them 4 days to test for it and get the results.

After one day of waiting I made the decision to go ahead and put her on the medication even though the vet had suggested “never to do that”. 3 days later she was so weak and could barely breathe, holding her head high in the air to try and get the short breathes she could manage. The vet told us she was suffering and we should put her to sleep. We wanted to give her one more day, knowing she was strong and only 3 1/2. We took her home with an IV bag hanging from the wall and about 4 hours later she was playing with her ball and the tail started wagging.

Two days later the vet discharged her and she has been fine and slowly gaining her weight back ever since. Words cannot express our deepest and sincere thanks and love we have for you for creating that web site and telling the world about your poor Eddie. We feel that Eddie’s life lives on in others and that you saved our dogs life. It’s pretty simple, without your web site our dog would be dead.

Thank you so much once again. Glen & Katrina BC Canada

When I feel sad at Eddie’s passing I draw comfort from knowing he has potentially saved the lives of others. All the kind words of condolance I received from people who read Eddie’s story at different locations on the web has also been a great help . May I take this time to thank you all for sharing your thoughts, stories & photos of your loveley dogs. I have been able to publish some of them, as you can see on Eddie’s tribute site. A heartfelt thankyou to you all.

The above story was taken from a web site run by Michelle Hargreaves. I believe the owner of the material would be happy for the story to be reproduced here.

I found Jezebel at the Montgomery County Dog Pound in Blacksburg, Virginia. The price to take her home? $5. Jezebel, a black lab, hound mix was one of those rare dogs who learned every lesson the first time. She had a huge vocabulary and a huge talent for understandnig moods. She was intelligent and we spent a lot of time alone together during one summer semester and really bonded. I have never been as close to a dog as I was to Jezebel.

Jezebel moved with me after college home to mom and dad’s house, she moved with me when my boyfriend and I got married. I thought she’d still be here when I have kids. That wasn’t meant to be. At the age of five, Jezebel woke up one morning with puffy ears. A trip to the vet, a diagnosis of an allergic reaction and some medicine and all was well. It happened again with the same result. About a month after the first puffy ear incident, Jezebel seemed lethargic. The lethargy progressed into pain. She could barely walk.

Another trip to the vet and talk of a possible infection, or a disk problem. An outside chance of cancer, but doubtful because she was so young. Jezebel
continued getting sick in various ways that didn’t seem to fit together. We kept visiting the vet. Finally, after she’d lost 10 pounds and took another turn towards lethargy, we decided to give the vet one more chance. A manual search and x-rays finally pointed the vet in a definite direction. Jezebel’s lymph
nodes were swollen and he thought she had a form of cancer called Lympho Sarcoma. A fine needle aspiration showed mostly abnormal cells. We gave the doctor the go-ahead to do a biopsy.

On Christmas Eve, we got the results. Our girl, Jezebel, at the age of five had Lympho Sarcoma. A terminal form of cancer. I think anyone who has had any member of their family, human or otherwise, develop cancer will understand the helpless feeling that results from finding out such a devastating thing. We found out our dog was going to die. There were options, but time was a key element and it was ticking by on fast forward. We were told chemotherapy could extend her life in a relatively normal state for anywhere from a few months to upwards of 18 months.

But what would the side effects do to our girl? Was chemo the only option? How long would she live without it? Could we feed her anything special that would help? And if we did do chemo, would prolonging the inevitable be worth it?

These are questions that every person in this situation must decide for themselves. But, I was trained to make fully informed decisions. I wanted
answers. I found much information on the web and in the ‘Neurology & Cancer’ board on America Online. We had Jezebel put to sleep on January 5. The
side-effects were proving to be as unbearable to her as the cancer. As I said she was a very intelligent dog. She knew, I think, that she would never be the
same again and did not want to live with poor quality of life. We loved her very much. A small, good part of all of us died with her.

Five dollars bought us five precious years.

The above story was taken from a web site run by Liz. I believe the owner of the material would be happy for the story to be reproduced here.

Saffy is my first Standard Poodle and when she became ill for the first time I did refer to Eileen Geesons book (The Complete Standard Poodle) when the vet couldn’t find the problem. The book details all the symptoms but because they are so varied it did not sink in because Saffy only seemed a little depressed & was off her food.  She had been attacked by a dog whilst walking (she isreally sociable)  & we put the lack of appetite down to
shock for the first 2 days, but after that we felt there was more to it.

The luck is that a Standard owner locally, has a daughter who works at our vets. She told her mum (the Standard owner) and she rang round the Standard Poodle people she knew and they told her to check for Addisons which our vet immediately did.  She is now on florinef for the rest of her life (she is 21 months).  However we will always worry if she turns her nose up at food.

Our vets are now very aware of S Poodles being predisposed to Addisons.

You may find the following site helpful if you have a dog with Addison’s Disease: http://k9addisons.com/

The above story was taken from a web site run by Michelle Hargreaves. I believe the owner of the material would be happy for the story to be reproduced here.