Is my A-Dog developing Epi?

[Pippin&Runa]

Hi, thanks for adding me to the group. I am looking for some answers and hoping to find some insights. Pippin is an 8 year old Standard Poodle female 52 pounds. Dx with primary Addison's Disease at age 3. she had been well managed on a relatively low dose of Docp (1 ml every 28 days) and daily prednisone (1.5 mg) In the last few months she has begun showing mild signs of symptoms that remind me of when she was descending into Addison's. Until recently she has had no issues - active, happy, playful, energetic, great appetite, and healthy digestion. On Oct. 1 we had blood work done that showed possible pancreatitis. We have an ultrasound scheduled for Nov. 26 - just curious if anyone else has an A dog that developed Epi?

[Olesia711]

I do know that we do have members with dogs with Addisons + EPI..... just which came first ... well... not i cannot accurately say exactly how many had which condition first.

BTW........ please know that the ONLY accurate way to determine if your dog has EPI would be via a specific TLI blood test.

[Chance]

It is certainly not uncommon for a dog to have more than one auto immune disease. And EPI happening after pancreatitis is also not unheard of. Poodles do Addison's disease very well! Almost better than Sheppard's do EPI

Having Addison's disease obviously does not make the dog more prone to pancreatitis or EPI. But also just because a dog has one condition does not rule out other issues later! EPI symptoms can certainly mimic Addison's disease. But usually Addisonians have less appetite than EPI dogs. With EPI, usually they are very ravenous! (My Addison's dog was almost impossible to feed before diagnosed. He had soft poops, but vomiting was the worst. When electrolytes were bad, he'd have trouble walking, and couldn't get upstairs without help. My EPI dogs didn't really have diarrhea. They had a lot of undigested food in the poop! That was the worst. Poops were gray.
Although when first starting symptoms, Rylee started off exactly the way Charlie - Addison's dog - started....terrible acid reflux! But later presented with a LOT of undigested food. Charlie never had undigested food, nor did he have gray poops).

1.5mg Pred is *okay*, but it is a little higher than most would need. Average is about 1mg per 100 lbs of body weight. But some might need a little more. Too much can decrease stool quality; but usually it takes more than that. DOCP dose sounds about right. But again every dog is different. I assume electrolytes would have been the first thing you checked when symptoms started? That *shouldn't* change after all this time, but it certainly wouldn't be the first time!

It doesn't hurt to do the ultrasound that you have scheduled. It will neither confirm or rule out EPI, but could help determine if there's inflammation in the pancreas, or anywhere else. GI panel (tests TLI, folate and B12) would be required to diagnose EPI.