My friends bull mastiff had Addison's Disease. It's not nice to see them going through it while the medication takes effect.

The owners were very upset. Luckily they have a good vet and she will sort her out. Once the medication takes effect is that basically the end of it? (I know she will still have the disease) but what are the chances of her developing the symptoms again?

With my friends mastiff it did recur but only when he was feeling ill with something else, like a tummy bug or such like. It never truly goes away it's just relieved I guess.

Okay, thanks for that. It does sound like a terrible disease. One minute she was fine and then wiped out bless her.

May be because until comparatively recent times it was unusual in the dog

I'm going to ask my dobe friends if they have heard of it and I for one will insist that a bitch is tested. Mind you, thinking about it I had better get Khan tested too.

Thanks to everyone for your help.

Karen

Good for you, new problems rear there heads all the time and the quicker they are delt with the less damage done to the breeding stock of the entire breed.

Yes but I bet many more won't bother. Still, my dog might not get used very often but at least I can hold my head up and say when he is used I do it properly.

Fingers crossed. Luckily no more matings booked so no rush for tests cos am skint!!

Sadly what you say is true, particularly in those who pretend to care about their breed, bad enough when a dog is mated to a bitch up the road and the owners are totally ignorant of good breeding practice but unforgivable when it is someone purporting to be a breeder of experience and quality.

In a breed with a small gene pool it always worries me when a large number of the breeding bitches are mated to the ‘stud of the year’ particularly if that stud is imported, it could cause disaster should that stud, unknown to anyone, be carrying something nasty.

I've just been talking to a friend of mine and she had heard of it in humans then twigged that a friends min pin died in whelp and that it could've been Addisons. As she and yourself have said many people who should know better won't bother about it until it becomes prevailant in the breed and testing is a matter of course much the same as vWD by which time it will be too late.