The Titer Test: an alternative to vaccines

In my article Do Vaccinations Cause Addison’s Disease, I discussed how a dog with a lowered immune system (such as a dog with Addison’s disease), regular vaccinations might not be the best choice. An alternative to vaccines is a titer test, which measures how much antibody to a certain pathogen is on your dog’s system at the time of the test. However, titer tests are not without their own problems.
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What is an ACTH test?

There is only one way to give a firm diagnosis of Addison’s disease, and that is to perform an adrenocorticotropic hormone stimulation (ACTH) test.

The ACTH test involves several steps:

• A blood test is taken to determine the cortisol levels
• An injection of ACTH is given.
• An hour or two later, another blood test is taken and cortisol levels are measured.

When an ACTH injection is given, a normal animal will produce cortisol in response to the ACTH injection. An Addison’s dog will not produce cortisol.

The ACTH stimulation test is the gold standard to diagnose Addison’s disease—without the test, your pet will not have a confirmed diagnosis.