Diagnosis, March 2012

March 25, 2012: Jack and I went up to one of our favorite hikes, near Skyline and Joaqin Miller roads in the Oakland hills.  Jack was very low key, and hadn't finished  his breakfast, which was rare for him.
All through the hike, his energy was low, and he stayed right behind my knee, instead of running up ahead and waiting for me..."are you coming?".  He didn't want to interact with other dogs or humans on the trail, also uncommon for him.
He didn't touch his supper.  We knew there was something wrong at that point.
He wouldn't eat anything else again until Tuesday morning Mar 27.  He ate part of his breakfast, so we thought whatever had been wrong might be turning around.
However we noticed an odd quivering when he was laying on the couch with us.  Like a little shiver occasionally.
Over the next couple of days, this got worse and he'd just spend the whole day in his crate.
We got him into the vet Mar 29.  They examined blood, stool and urine.  When the test results came back, the electrolytes were off enough to reinforce our fears: Addison's Disease.
As he was continuing to decline the vet, Dr. Michael Doe, suggested we start a course of treatment including a Percortin-V (DOCP) injection of 2ml/50mg (based upon the recommended dosage of 10mg/lb) and 5mg of Prednisone.  They also administered the ACTH test, and sent the sample off to the lab.
The next day March 30, the ACTH results indicated no adrenal stimulation at all, confirming the Addison's diagnosis.