Hi Don,
Wanted to give you an update on Henri. On Tuesday November 28th we noticed that Henri didn’t seem like himself, lethargic, loss of appetite and all around quiet. I also noticed that he was shaking his head and scratching at his ears. I called our vet and scheduled an appointment for Thursday Nov 30th. The vet took his temperature (it was good), checked him all over & looked at his ears and he did in fact have an ear infection. They gave us a prescription and we were off with a scheduled recheck for Monday to see how things were going.
Friday night Henri seemed to be even more lethargic and he still hadn’t eaten any food. He was also shivering and looked like he was struggling to walk. It looked like his back legs were giving out. We called the Emergency Vet and spoke with the on call Veterinarian (Adrian Tompkins DVM) from Fundy Animal Hospital in Saint John. He suggested we bring Henri in right away. We had to carry him to the car because he wasn’t able to stand at this point.
Luckily they were there waiting for us and he was able to see Henri right away, he took a blood sample and within 30 minutes he was able to diagnose Henri with Addison’s disease (hypoadrenocorticism). I’ll be honest I had never heard of Addison’s before and I was in complete shock. They hooked him up to an IV and he spent the night there. We got home around 3am that night. Luckily they had a female dog having puppies overnight so the veterinarian and another staff member where there all night and was able to check on Henri every 30 min.
The next morning Mike and I went back to see Henri & he was already showing great improvement, he was sitting up and licking our faces and wagging his tail. They wanted to keep him for the rest of the day but said we could come pick him up when they closed at the end of the day.
We decided to stop in at our Veterinarian’s office (Kannon Animal Hospital) and had a chance to talk to our vet and give her a heads up on the situation and schedule a follow up appointment for Tuesday to check his electrolytes. He was prescribed Florinef & Prednisone. Originally he was taking 10 Florinef pills (5 in the morning & 5 at night) but after they checked his electrolytes on Tuesday they advised he still wasn’t stable and asked us to up his pill intake to 12 a day.
We had his second follow up appointment yesterday and the vet called a few minutes ago and she was happy with his electrolytes. For now he will stay on the 12 pills a day and she also wants us to keep giving him the Prednisone for this week and after that only if necessary. We have a scheduled follow up appointment in 3 months.
Since Henri’s diagnosis he has made huge improvements and It’s safe to say he is back to his 87lbs happy tail wagging self. He is eating breakfast, supper, treats , playing ball and enjoying walks again. It was a very scary 48 hours but after a week and a half I feel things are much better. I am very confident with the staff at both Veterinarian’s office. They took very good care of Henri and I feel good about his progress. I should mention that we had kept the Pet Insurance so it will come in handy to cover most of the costs. Also his ear infection is completely gone. We have been doing lots of reading on this disease and we will be keeping a very close eye on his behaviour to ensure he does not have a “crisis” again.
Felt this is something you needed to know.
Danielle
