Theo

Sweet Theo

see the shaved spots on both front legs where his IV's were?  

Our dog Theo is almost 9 years old and for several months  has not been feeling as good as he used to.
He drinks lots more water,  has weakness in his back legs,  small shakes and tremors when he lays down and sleeps.
Mostly we thought it was just signs of aging.
Then about 2 weeks ago,  he quit eating.  He has always been a quirky eater so at first we thought he was just not liking what was served to him.

He was just getting worse so we took him to our vet on Friday.  They did tests and found some weird levels in his blood but all his other signs were good.  They wanted to start him on IV treatments to flush his kidneys so Theo had to stay there Friday,  then all weekend and all day Monday getting round the clock IVs.
At first the 2 vets thought he had kidney failure,  then maybe cancer but neither diagnosis seemed quite right.
After consulting with 2 other vets,  our vets diagnosed Theo with Addisons disease. 
It is rare and hard to diagnose Addisons but is easy to treat with shots and pills.

The vets gave him a cortisol shot and sent him home with us some more pills to take twice a day.  Theo improved immediately.  He came home Monday and finally wanted to eat!
Theo is just about back to normal happy self.  We are very thankful for our veterinarians who worked hard to save our sweet puppy.