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I'm glad he's home & doing a little better! Dogs always seem to recover & stay healthier when they get to be at home....
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Addisons disease?
- Thread starter pombina
- Start Date
Addison's disease, like any hormonal condition, is complicated, but basically, your adrenal gland isn't able to make some of the hormones it should be able to. The problem is, the endocrine (hormone) system regulates everything in the body and it works like a cascade or a chain reaction. The brain wants something changed in the balance of the body, it starts off something like a game of telephone to pass the message along from one edocrine organ to the next. The messengers between are the hormones themselves. If one of the links in the chain is broken, it recieves the signal (a hormone) to make what's needed, but can't make it. This means 2 things:
1. Without the hormones being made, many systems fall out of balance. This causes problems, one major one having to do with sugar regulation. One important job of the missing hormones is to tell your body to use its sugar stores between meals. Addison's patients can't do this without medication, so it's best that they eat small meals very frequently. Large meals are put into stores that can't be accessed and this can cause hypoglycemic crises.
2. The brain doesn't know where the chain is broken, just that something needs to be done, so it keeps sending the signal. That means all the links in the chain keep making their hormone to signal the needed action, up until the break. So, any endocrine organ before the adrenal gland in the reaction will be continuously secreting a hormone trying to signal the adrenal gland. Since hormones affect many systems, not just one chain....they overlap, this causes secondary problems in the body. One example is pigmentation (dark spots) on the skin, because the hormone meant to signal the adrenal gland also supports melonin (skin pigment) production.....so since there is more and more of this hormone being made, trying with no hope of success to signal the adrenal gland, there sometimes appear dark spots on the skin of Addison's sufferers.
This is just a small review. Hormones affect so many systems, the effects of a disease like this are widespread. The good news is, it can often be treated by exogenous hormones in pill form. I hope Alfie will be strong enough to recover and get on the right track. Managed properly, he can still live happily and well.
1. Without the hormones being made, many systems fall out of balance. This causes problems, one major one having to do with sugar regulation. One important job of the missing hormones is to tell your body to use its sugar stores between meals. Addison's patients can't do this without medication, so it's best that they eat small meals very frequently. Large meals are put into stores that can't be accessed and this can cause hypoglycemic crises.
2. The brain doesn't know where the chain is broken, just that something needs to be done, so it keeps sending the signal. That means all the links in the chain keep making their hormone to signal the needed action, up until the break. So, any endocrine organ before the adrenal gland in the reaction will be continuously secreting a hormone trying to signal the adrenal gland. Since hormones affect many systems, not just one chain....they overlap, this causes secondary problems in the body. One example is pigmentation (dark spots) on the skin, because the hormone meant to signal the adrenal gland also supports melonin (skin pigment) production.....so since there is more and more of this hormone being made, trying with no hope of success to signal the adrenal gland, there sometimes appear dark spots on the skin of Addison's sufferers.
This is just a small review. Hormones affect so many systems, the effects of a disease like this are widespread. The good news is, it can often be treated by exogenous hormones in pill form. I hope Alfie will be strong enough to recover and get on the right track. Managed properly, he can still live happily and well.
