Daisy’s lockdown treatment for Addison’s disease

Daisy receives emergency treatment for Addison’s disease during Covid-19 lockdown

The Internal Medicine Service at Davies Veterinary Specialists was kept busy during lockdown, conducting remote consultations, virtual re-examinations, and treating urgent and emergency cases. Now as the teams are seeing more patients on site they are reflecting on how well the practice operated over the past few months.

Eva Buresova, Clinician in Internal Medicine explains: “Despite a very different working environment, operating under the government guidelines, we are very much getting back to business as usual at Davies. Throughout lockdown we’ve been seeing routine cases via video consultations and urgent cases and emergencies on site.”

Daisy, a six-year-old Labradoodle is under the referral care of Davies for the treatment of Addison’s disease and eosinophilic bronchopneumopathy (inflammatory lung disease). She suffered an acute episode of diarrhoea, vomiting and lethargy at the beginning of lockdown and was admitted to her local veterinary practice. Specialists at Davies were on hand to provide phone advice to help the practice manage Daisy’s complex health problems.

“The episode was due to a relapse of Addison’s disease,” explained Eva. “But Daisy is a complicated case suffering from multiple conditions. This time also her pancreatic and liver enzymes were elevated, and thyroid hormones were abnormal. We adjusted her medication and she had a follow-up blood test. She is now back to her bright and happy self, but we are keeping in touch to monitor the situation.”

Daisy’s owner Flick Thorley continued: “Daisy came into our life via the Doodle Trust last year after our other Doodle Trust rescue dog sadly died. We were able to take on Daisy as we had previous experience of caring for a sick dog long term. Because Daisy has multiple medical problems, I wanted to consult with the medical specialist at Davies who already knew her so we could get Daisy back on track and restore her quality of life as quickly as possible. I am in the vulnerable group for COVID-19 and need to avoid any unnecessary contact so the remote service was reassuring on all counts. Eva could see her, and the video consultation was so much better than just a phone call.”