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Sick Dog


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I am sure Danza is terribly upset about peeing in the house.

She's so squirrely, it's hard to tell. She's not at all like Coyo. She's much less upset about it now that I'm not upset, that's for sure.

 

She's so lively, she cracks me up.

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So, here's the latest.

 

She spent a few hours at the vet's the other day. It wasn't planned, but her bladder was empty and they needed a sample, so they were able to watch her for a while, which was helpful, and they did bloodwork and a culture just to rule out infection. And all of the results are clear, all of the news is good, which might mean that....

 

she drinks a ton of water sometimes. This is true, she does. From when she first came home, I've never seen a dog drink like she does. There was a possibility that this indicated a problem with her kidneys or something else, but we've now ruled that out. She's able to do all of the complicated stuff she's supposed to do. She might be drinking more when she's stressed, and we went away recently, right when she was getting over her UTI, so that made things really murky. Plus she's not getting nearly as much excersice as she needs since she can't run off leash. We're walking her a lot, and I'm taking her with me lots of places, but it's not the same until I straighten her out.

 

So the vet thinks it's psychological, the water drinking. She is going to figure out how much both dogs should be drinking in a day and we'll go from there.

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Psychological!!?!

 

You say right here:

 

she was getting over her UTI,...

 

Give it a chance to be the most simple thing. You say she's squirrelly, but I'd be squirrelly too if I could not hold my bladder.

 

Give her some acidophilus. I use acidophilus on goat's milk. I open a capsule, and they just lap it out of my hand.

 

So it doesn't show on a test.....that doesn't mean that it is not still there in a small amount, waiting for an opportunity to take over. This is not her first UTI. She has had others, right? Perhaps she has never been fully over it.

 

Give her a chance to grow strong, not just "get over it", before you start thinking that the problem is in her mind.

 

Heck, how many of us women have heard that before--it's all in our mind..?!

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Psychological!!?!

 

Heck, how many of us women have heard that before--it's all in our mind..?!

:D

 

Not to worry, I'm keeping an eye on her for any symptoms, no matter how small, that another UTI is brewing. And there is still the possibility that her recessed vulva makes her prone to them. The acidophilous, which she did get (but is not right now) helps keep helpful bacteria in place to keep candida fungus from running amok. That won't keep another UTI from developing.

 

I haven't talked to the doc about the whole psychological aspect; Doug answered the phone, and I'll be talking to the vet tomorrow. I bristled at the word, too, but I do think that there could be a behavioral aspect to this. It is at least worth considering IMO, knowing her.

 

I'll have to look into how likely it is that a UTI can miss being detected in a culture. That's the I'll-pay-extra-to-be-sure test. But, she hasn't had a long string of infections, she's just had two or three. It's just that her first was quite young.

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You mention her "recessed Vulva", but this is something that is recent. She did not have trouble holding her bladder before. What has changed?

 

You know for these types of ailments (UTI) they give antibiotics. You probably gave some to Danza.

 

Antibiotics kill everything. They make you like a big petri dish, and whatever lands there first, grows.

 

Yeast, and the bad bacteria, are much stronger than our symbionts, acidophilus, and it's cousins. It is very common for a woman to have a yeast infection after taking antibiotics.

 

The acidophilus live in the mucus membranes--the bladder, the urethra, the mouth....they maintain PH, and help to control flow of nutrients in and out of the cells.

 

Dogs may be a bit different, but not so much. Build her up, and let the good bacteria fight off the bad.

 

Take a week, and give her acidophilus every day. Help her symbionts to help her.

 

Don't watch for signs, don't wait for the next infection. Stop it before it starts.

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You mention her "recessed Vulva", but this is something that is recent. She did not have trouble holding her bladder before. What has changed?

 

You know for these types of ailments (UTI) they give antibiotics. You probably gave some to Danza.

 

Antibiotics kill everything. They make you like a big petri dish, and whatever lands there first, grows.

 

Yeast, and the bad bacteria, are much stronger than our symbionts, acidophilus, and it's cousins. It is very common for a woman to have a yeast infection after taking antibiotics.

 

The acidophilus live in the mucus membranes--the bladder, the urethra, the mouth....they maintain PH, and help to control flow of nutrients in and out of the cells.

 

Dogs may be a bit different, but not so much. Build her up, and let the good bacteria fight off the bad.

 

Take a week, and give her acidophilus every day. Help her symbionts to help her.

 

Don't watch for signs, don't wait for the next infection. Stop it before it starts.

 

 

 

Just to say that Shunka drinks far more than Holly. when we are out for a walk he will search for water, Holly just walks through it, he seems to be lapping up gallons but when you think it's very little for each lap!

 

Perhaps some dogs drink m ore than others, fopr no real reason?

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"So the vet thinks it's psychological, the water drinking. She is going to figure out how much both dogs should be drinking in a day and we'll go from there."

 

I know nothing about this psycho babble, but wouldn't a dog have to be without water many, many, many times to create this psychological problem? I know some dogs gobble (inhale) their food, maybe she is doing this with her water instead??????

 

+

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Karen, I hope Danza is doing better. My first thought after reading the whole thread was...could she be having sympathetic symptoms that match her pack Daddy's? That is just the way my mind goes sometimes; but if the vet said it could be psychological? I've witnessed a dog lose its appetite for 4 months and its owner was diagnosed with Crohn's - once that was done, the pup started eating again. Stranger things and all that!

 

Not sure if this was mentioned, but there is "diagnosis" for over excessive drinking and urinating and its called: "pscyhogenic polydipsia" It's usually diagnosed after all other things have been exhausted. Reasons? No one seems to know and oft times it just goes away.

 

I hope she is doing better...will check in to see!

 

So, here's the latest.

 

She spent a few hours at the vet's the other day. It wasn't planned, but her bladder was empty and they needed a sample, so they were able to watch her for a while, which was helpful, and they did bloodwork and a culture just to rule out infection. And all of the results are clear, all of the news is good, which might mean that....

 

she drinks a ton of water sometimes. This is true, she does. From when she first came home, I've never seen a dog drink like she does. There was a possibility that this indicated a problem with her kidneys or something else, but we've now ruled that out. She's able to do all of the complicated stuff she's supposed to do. She might be drinking more when she's stressed, and we went away recently, right when she was getting over her UTI, so that made things really murky. Plus she's not getting nearly as much excersice as she needs since she can't run off leash. We're walking her a lot, and I'm taking her with me lots of places, but it's not the same until I straighten her out.

 

So the vet thinks it's psychological, the water drinking. She is going to figure out how much both dogs should be drinking in a day and we'll go from there.

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Not sure if this was mentioned, but there is "diagnosis" for over excessive drinking and urinating and its called: "pscyhogenic polydipsia" It's usually diagnosed after all other things have been exhausted. Reasons? No one seems to know and oft times it just goes away.

 

I hope she is doing better...will check in to see!

Yes, PPD is what the vet mentioned.

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"So the vet thinks it's psychological, the water drinking. She is going to figure out how much both dogs should be drinking in a day and we'll go from there."

 

I know nothing about this psycho babble, but wouldn't a dog have to be without water many, many, many times to create this psychological problem? I know some dogs gobble (inhale) their food, maybe she is doing this with her water instead??????

It could be similar to licking, as I see it. I'm not quite sure why this is drawing the heat it is, but she does have a mind and things go on in it. It could be stress. It could not be a factor at all. I'm just considering it along with all of the other things that have been suggested. It sounds like it might have some validity, and I want to help her.

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Did you read the part about putting a little cranberry juice in her water? Might help to make every drink useful.

 

I know you are looking at all the possibilities. Hope it turns out to be the simplest explanation.

 

We are thinking of you and Danza.

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How is Danza doing?

I've been giving her probiotics and cranberry extract, and she seems to be getting better, but she just peed in the house again this morning. I've been delaying seperating the dogs and tracking her water intake, but we're getting to the point where I'm going to have to do it. It's going to be hard; they are both going to be miserable, so I will, too. But she is much more comfortable than she was.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Update on Danza -

 

I never did the water intake test. After getting rid of the downstairs water bowl and having a rough idea of how much water the two dogs were drinking each day over the course of a week and then longer, I could see that Danza was not habitually drinking a ton of water. Some days she did, but it was not a regular thing. Meanwhile, I was treating her as if she had a recurrent low-grade UTI and taking her out for routine pee runs far more than I have for any other dog.

 

She is doing much better. She still has times - not very often, maybe every few days or even less often - where she will desperately have to go out and will pee so much that I can hear it hitting the ground, and it seems to take forever for her to be done. And she's figured out that she needs to let me know when she needs to go out. This might seem a little weird, like she should have learned that a long time ago, but she was going outside pretty often until recently when she started running away, so she never had to ask before. But now she has learned to sit and bore laser holes into me, and if I'm too dense to get it she starts hooking a paw onto my leg or foot, or putting it on my knee.

 

So now I have better information for the vet, and we'll start again. And I'll start by asking if we should maybe switch vets for this. Kim is great, I really like her, but she has been stretched on this and has been very up-front about it. Then again, maybe most vets would falter with this. But she's consulted with other vets quite a bit and has shown a level of dedication to helping Danza that is hard to find. So I don't know what to do.

 

And to everyone that got all alarmed at some of the things that were suggested earlier, I'd like to repeat that I never wanted to just jump onto the most extreme diagnosis. I really appreciated learning about the acidophilous, I think it really helped her feel better and helped me figure out at least part of what was going on - pointing me in the direction of new information was what we most needed.

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Update on Danza -

 

But now she has learned to sit and bore laser holes into me, and if I'm too dense to get it she starts hooking a paw onto my leg or foot, or putting it on my knee.

 

So funny. I know just what you mean.

 

Had an experience with Sitka, recently, at my father's place, where he woke me up, sort of whining, and everything was so dark, I said, "Go back to sleep. A little longer." He whined a bit more--it was so dark, but I had forgotten that I had closed the drapes against the neighbor's light, shining on his American Flag. It really was time to get out of bed.

 

And then I heard the short, "shhhh, shhhh, shhh,.." He was trying to get a little off the top. If he would have insisted, I would have gotten up, but he hasn't quite figured out how to let me know it's a desperate situation.

 

Anyway, 6:30am, I am at the laundry mat, washing the down mattress cover, and all the bed clothes. At least I can say the the bed was really fluffy the next night.

 

Next morning, he sort of makes noise, and I JUMP out of bed--out we go... It was 4:30am. Beautiful, though, with the moonlight through the trees.

 

He is tiny, like Danza is, and I can see that his bladder is a bit smaller than Coyo's. I am lifting the water at 6pm, and careful with the treats, and he is doing well.

 

Also, I started in with the acidophilus, after talking to you--them and us! It's all good.

 

Good news, Karen. Glad things are starting to make sense. If they could only talk.

 

Coyo does this looming thing. He LOOMS over me in bed, and then I know there is no way around it, he has to go out. Sitka is still a little too polite, but he is learning, and so am I.

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