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Posted On Jun 24, 2025

Updated On Jul 03, 2025

Is Addison's Always Deadly Or Life-Shortening?

Internal Medicine

This question was submitted in regard to a past webinar on the topic of Canine Addison's Disease:

Question:
If diagnosed early and treated with twice-daily low dose prednisone and monthly blood tests, is Addison's still considered a potentially deadly or life-shortening disease?

Answer by Elisabeth Zenger, DVM, PhD, DACVIM (SAIM):
Addison's disease is life threatening when an Addisonian crisis occurs. With proper treatment and monitoring dogs can live very normal lives with no concern that they will die of the disease - as long as they continue treatment. I have had some owners get very distressed when I tell them that their dog has Addison's because they previously had a dog that died of this disease. This is terribly sad because Addison's is one of the most treatable diseases that we veterinary internists get to deal with.