At vet school we studied many topics, but one that baffled me was Endocrinopathy.
Perhaps it was because I had never heard of the endocrine system before.
I soon discovered that the endocrine system is all about hormones, and it blew me away to discover that there are so many, other than just oestrogen and testosterone.
It is something of a philosophical thought, but I do sometimes wonder just how our amazingly complex bodies ever work correctly. And an important part of that successful functioning is thanks to our hormonal messengers such as cortisol.
We tend to think of cortisol as a bad thing. In excess it is often blamed for what we call stress.
But, when a patient’s production of cortisol goes down, the effects are also very serious.
Luckily it doesn’t happen very often, and the management of the problem is straightforward.
The skill is in recognising some specific symptoms and knowing when to run a blood test.
Mickey is a cross bred dog in his prime. One morning he was loving life, that afternoon he started being a little sick. His owner left it a couple of days, assuming it was something that would pass over. But he was so weak when he arrived at the vets that he could barely stand. His temperature was below normal, and his pulse was weak.
My initial concern was that he had swallowed something he shouldn’t, as he had been vomiting so much.
Whilst preparing to do an xray, we ran a blood sample, which immediately sent us off on a different tack.
His blood electrolytes were so wrong, in a way we often see in Addison’s disease. This is the rare problem where the adrenal glands fail to produce enough natural cortisol. It could easily have been fatal if not diagnosed in time.
We started him on intravenous fluids, and gave him a dose of cortisol. Once the diagnosis was confirmed, we started him on long term specific treatment. It’s not something we can cure, but he should now lead a full life with careful management and medication.
