I love your attitude!! With that attitude you and Marty will be fine. Stick to your guns about you getting his prescriptions so you can buy from the cheapest place. My vet didn’t have 1 mg Pred, only 5 mg. My vets price for a bottle of Percorten was the same as your vet. When I had her lytes test ran at home it was $65. But if I was at my mom’s her vet only charged $35 FOR THE SAME TEST!!! The vet wanted me to give Scooter 2.5 mg also. Wrong… With the wonderful help of the Adog group I knew she would be over medicated at that dose. When I told the vet I felt she was getting to much Pred he as much told me he was the vet and this was the best for her. She was be treated by a new vet to our clinic. Well he was Wrong Again! That is the point I have to make up my mind to either go with the vet or take matters into my own hands and do what I felt was right… I shopped around for availability and price for 1 mg tabs. Here I called Walgreens and Walmart. I could get the 1 mg tabs from both. I work at Walmart and get a 10% discount too. My old vet was more than willing to get me the prescriptions. He even called them in for me. So REMEMBER, you need to CALL 1800petmeds and ask them to “Price Match” Then you will get the cheapest price.

Marty is still weak. I think that is why he won’t do the stairs yet. At this point it is way better to carry him up and down the stairs until he gets all his strength back and feels HE can do it. He will let you know what he feels like doing, Scooter did. I know you wouldn’t want him to fall down the stairs and that this point in his recovery that is a good possibility. Scooter’s legs with like noodles. After 2 years I could see her getting tired. She would stop on the trail to look at something and her rear leg would shake. Time to head back!! At this point carrying him is the best for him. If it were me I would even put a puppy gate ($10 at Walmart in the Infant Dept) at the stairs to keep him from going up or down right now. It may take him a few weeks, it may take longer, BUT he will get back to his normal self!

Sounds like you are on the right path now. Lucky Marty has you for his mom!! Good Job!! Keep us posted!

Hi Nancy. How is Marty since coming home? How are you holding up to his new routine? Best wishes to you all...

Sounds like Marty is in good hands for now. He'll be home with you soon. He is so pretty. Pippin's brother has Marty's face making too. But I think Pippin will be a red-headed tri. The back of her ears are showing some red already. Time will tell. They are such GREAT dogs!!

Back to you questions!! After Scooter main crash we never had another! They say stress can bring on an attach. Scooter had cracked a molar and had to have it removed. Within 2 weeks after that surgery she crashed with Addison. After that she had no more attacks. Let's hope Marty is the same way!!

It did change her some. She always was afraid of loud noises like thunder, gun fire and fireworks. I don't know if she was her more fearful or I was more protective. She was so sensitive anyway. She would find small places to curl up in where she could feel safe. She took over the lower story of the cat tree! That was her main safe place and her other was under my bed..

The Addison also changed her hair coat. Her hair grew longer and thicker. Not as long as a fluffy but longer for sure. It was longer and thicker the rest of her life. I have read where some hair-coats change colors completely, and very short haired dog (Great Danes) grew long hair.

She didn't have the stamina she had before. It took her a good year to get that back. I remember twice we walked to far and I ended up carrying her back home. That was not a fun time. She weighted 30 pounds and with my RA it was hard. But you do what you have to do!! We made it home with a few rest stops! After that I really watched her. At the first sign of lagging we headed back home. She and I were very close in mind and body. She was always with me. I could tell what she was thinking and she knew what I was thinking. She got to the point where she would sit down and bark letting me know we had gone far enough. She also would let me know which trail she wanted to go on by doing the same thing. She was so smart. Gee how did I get off on her, sorry...

Over time you'll work all this out with Marty. There are dogs with Addison competing in Agility, Fly-Ball and other sports. So Marty will get back to his old self. It just may take awhile.

Unfortunately this is not a cheap disease. I gave Scooter her shot of Percorton. My vet would allow me to buy it on-line. I bought a 4 ML bottle from www.1800Petmeds.com. It's $199 on their webpage but if you call them they will match price with vet-meds which only sells to vets. Then it was right at $150. The predinsone was cheap and bought it at Walmart.

Well I think that is all and maybe more than you asked for!! Please feel free to write any time. Here is my email address cjd_jammer@yahoo.com

Good Luck, Carolyn and Pippin with Scooter in my heart always..  

Hi Nancy,

So sorry to hear Marty was diagnosed with Addison's. Believe it or not getting diagnosed is half the battle. Just remember it's not a death sentence. He will be able to live a normal long life. It may take him awhile to get back to normal but he can do it.

Scooter was my girl who had Addison. (Pippin is my new puppy) Scooter was dianosed in 2007. After I got her meds regulated she lived a nornmal live to the end. At 9 I lost her to Cancer. That was just this past October 10 :-(  

There is a great website you must join. www.AddisonDogs.com There is loads of information here and tons of help from caring folks. I really feel without the guidance I recieved over the years we never would of made it. We lived in a small town in Nevada and our vet was "Following the Book" for her treatment. But I read everything I could get my hands on and felt Scooter was being over-medicated. With the help of the moderator on this website I was able to cut her meds in half. It took time because it's not something that can be done overnight. The vet started Scooter  on 3 ML of Percorton-V every 30 days and 5 MG Prednisone each morning. after reading all I could about Addison I decided to go against what the vet said and that the advice of the Moderators,( Elizabeth was my favorite) With the advice of the moderators on this website I was able to get her down to .6 ML of Percorton every 28 days and .5 MG of Predinisone. She seemed to get tired faster and I just let her tell me what she felt like doing and what she didn't.

Please let me know how Marty is doing and PLEASE PLEASE go to this website and sign up. Even if it is just to be more informed about Addison's.

If I can help you in any other way just drop me a line. GOOD LUCK....