Possible Diseases In Thomas Addison's Cruel Crisis

Imagine someone sitting at home with their furry little animal, and they realize that the animal is acting quite strange. They think that the animal, is probably just dehydrated, and grab some water for the animal. Soon, several days pass, and the owner of the animal, sees their dog laying on the floor shaking, and unable to stand. They try to feed them, but the animal refuses to eat. As the animal lies on the floor, they look depressed, and seem to progressively become worse.They soon decide that the animal will go to the vet, where the animal undergoes some testing, and becomes rehydrated through an IV. Soon after being treated, the dog seems to act like it was never sick. The doctor asks the owner questions, and soon a diagnosis is clear.
Some may have never heard about this disease, and may wonder what this diseases symptoms are. Is Addison's disease inheritable? Can this disease be cured? Thomas Addison recognized Addison's disease in 1849. At this time, this disease was only found in humans. According to the author Arnold Plotnick, from the article, "Addison's Disease Averting an Adrenal Crisis," "Thomas Addison associated the disease with a dysfunction of the adrenal glands." Once discovered, no therapy was available to treat Addison's disease, so everyone who suffered from the disease passed away (Plotnick p.1, 2001). Just over one-hundred years after being discovered, Addison's disease arose in animals. According to the author Arnold Plotnick, from the article, "Addison's Disease Averting an Adrenal Crisis," "...A small-animal practice with two veterinarians each seeing 1,500 dogs per year, should expect to diagnose one case of Addison's disease a year." This disease is diagnosed at almost anytime of an animal's life, but is mainly diagnosed when the animal is middle age (Plotnick p.1, 2001). Generally, larger sized dogs have a better chance of contracting this disease. The disease appears to have a genetic background in some breeds of animals but not in others. The reasoning depends on how closely related the parent animals are (Hines, 2011). Either gender can contract the disease, but the female is
This is only some of the things that the animals who suffer this illness have to go through. This disease causes the immune to attack system attack the adrenal glands, which are located just above the kidneys. The animal's adrenal glands will soon fail to produce enough cortisol, which helps provide adrenaline, and several other hormones (Marguiles, 2008). This is an important hormone because, adrenaline helps to regulate salt, sugar, and water. Some of the disease's symptoms include; "poor appetite, vomiting, weakness, weight loss, and might be dehydrated..." (Plotnick p.1, 2001). Some other symptoms include; "...very low blood sugar levels or seizures or muscle tremors or heart beat irregularities." (Marguiles, 2008). These symptoms are the most prominent when the animal is stressed and they are associated with various other health issues, so this disease is easy to misdiagnose (Marguiles, 2008) because the symptoms go unnoticed up to this point. The only sure way that seems to work to diagnose this disease, is through a blood test (Plotnick p.1,