ACTH Test Result in Addison’s Disease in Dogs
Posted: August 27, 2012 Filed under: Tests Leave a comment »While low potassium-sodium levels in dogs can indicate Addison’s disease (along with a plethora of other diseases), the only test that definitively can diagnose Addison’s disease in dogs (hypoadrencorticism) is an ACTH test, also known as a repository corticotropin injection. The injection stimulates an increase in cortisol plasma concentration. The test is useful in diagnosing Addison’s disease in dogs because there is a large difference in magnitude of cortisol plasma concentrations between dogs with Addison’s disease and those dogs without the disease.
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Diagnosing Canine Addison’s Disease
Posted: July 13, 2012 Filed under: Tests Leave a comment »
Jenny Wang knew something wasn’t right with her German Shepherd, Bo. Bo’s usually spunky temperament had turned to listlessness. “Her eyes had just lost her spark,” Jenny said. Sometimes she would notice Bo had trouble walking or getting up onto the couch, but the symptom would appear and then disappear for days. eventually, Bo lost her appetite, ignored her dinner and had diarrhea. Jenny started looking at Google for answers but found an overwhelming amount of information. “Diarrhea, vomiting and listlessness could have come from a dozen or more illnesses. “I thought perhaps she’d got into some poison, but I had no way of knowing. My vet initially diagnosed her with inflammatory bowel disease.”
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The Titer Test: an alternative to vaccines for Addison Dogs
Posted: August 3, 2009 Filed under: General, Tests 1 Comment »In my article Do Vaccinations Cause Addison’s Disease, I discussed how a dog with a lowered immune system (such as Addison dogs), 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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Addison Dogs: What is an ACTH test?
Posted: July 22, 2009 Filed under: Tests 3 Comments »There is only one way to give a firm diagnosis of Addison’s disease in Addison dogs, and that is to perform an adrenocorticotropic hormone stimulation (ACTH) test.
The ACTH test for Addison dogs 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. Addison dogs 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.
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