Does anyone have any experience of a dog showing symptoms of Addisons disease?  I have a ten month old border collie for whom the vet has given a tentative diagnosis of atypical Addisons - the diagnosis is tentative because, even though he is showing all the symptoms of Addisons, his electrolyte levels were normal and his ACTH stimulation test showed a slight increase in cortisol - although not enough for it to be in the normal range.  The vet has put him on prednisolone for a week, and he has shown a slight improvement (he's been taking it for two days now) but he's still far from well - I think the idea is to put him on Florinef if the prednisolone works.

My worry is this - if he does not respond to the prednisolone and/or Florinef, this will  mean he has not got Addisons - does anyone know what other conditions have similar symptoms?

Had the dog been treated with pred or any other steroids in the weeks prior to the stim test?  AFAIK this can affect the readings

Yes Teri - he'd had a cortisone injection on the Saturday and a dose of Prednisolone on the Monday, and had the ACTH stim test on the Tuesday.  That's probably why it showed a slight increase then, though not enough to be normal, I'm guessing.

I'd check with your vet but that's my understanding of steroids on several types of blood tests.  The thing is, the fact he's now on a course of them means that re-doing any tests already carried out will again affect readings.

There will be other things which cause symptoms similar to Addisons but of course your vet has the benefit of expertise in what many are and how likely any are.  Do you know if s/he tested for and ruled out any other specific diseases such as SIBO, giardia, pancreatic problems, IBD?  (guessing here as I'm assuming from Addisons cropping up the symptoms are pointing to severe GI problems - which may not be the entire picture)