NeylasMom

Unbelievable! What fantastic news!!!! Yeah Penny! You could get pee pads (we use washable in my house, but given how little sleep you've gotten, disposable would work as well!) to further encourage her to go in the bathroom. Just lay one where she's been going and replace with a clean after it's been used once or twice. What a relief! :pinkele

Sending lots of positive thoughts. Please keep us posted!

So glad she's home. How did the night go?

Do you have the normal ranges?

What a relief! I am SO happy to hear what Dr. Couto said!!! I will keep good thoughts for Penny until she is totally out of the water, but YEAHHHHH!!!!!! :yay :yay :yay

Just saw this thread now. I really feel for what you're going through - my biggest fear is of my spooky girl getting loose. Do contact Dr. Couto if you haven't yet. He has a lot of experience with DIC and if nothing else, may be able to reassure you that you're taking all of the steps that you can. I'll be watching for updates and rooting for Penny all the while. She is beautiful by the way!

I just posted about this the other day. You might find some helpful (and humorous) responses here.

Well I'm SURE I have, but don't you know that it goes in one ear and out the other these days? Or in my eyes and out wherever all that stuff I forget goes. Seriously, 8 years at a crappy desk job will do that to you! Cris_M - did the vet give you any indication why your dog had the problem? I'm assuming it didn't come back? Thanks!

Thanks, that sounds MUCH better than having her stand with her foot in a bath. I have some EMT gel too - I've heard that speeds up healing dramatically so I may apply that after the soak. It already looked much better last night so that's a good sign. I did look at the nail again and it is well off the ground (and shorter than some other nails), so still not sure how it's happening. I would think if it were just from the pressure of walking so much, it would happen on other toes as well. Thanks!

We did work up to longer distances. We've always been very active, we walk an average of an hour a day, generally on pavement or sometimes on dirt paths. In the winter, we couldn't do the hikes we can now, but we almost always fit in one hike at a nearby refuge on Sundays. Because of the weather, that was generally only about 5 miles on mostly flat terrain. When the weather warmed up, we very gradually started increasing our distances until we reached about 10 miles/hike. We hike around this distance every weekend in addition to our daily walks so that pretty much is our normal schedule.

I posted a little while ago that Neyla was dragging on hills and rocky surfaces. Turns out I may have found the problem. Her nailbed under one toenail on a back toe is a bit inflamed and bloody. I haven't actually seen it bleeding, no blood on bedding or anything, but it's dark from dried blood if that makes sense and the toe is sensitive. I noticed this when I was checking her for ticks after our weekend of camping and hiking. When I saw it, I remembered having seen it before, but I monitored it and a few days later it appeared to be gone. Because of our mileage this weekend (23 miles Sat/Sun combined) I am thinking it's a minor problem that resurfaces when we do longer hikes. Does anyone have any idea what this is? I don't think it's pemphigus b/c it's only on one toe and the nail is not loose. I need to schedule her annual exam soon so I'll talk to my vet about it, but wanted to ask here as well as usual beforehand so I can go in armed with my preconceived notions. I do have Therapaws that I can try in the meantime to see if that gives her some relief, but I'm afraid it would just apply more pressure to the nail. Strangely enough, Zuri was licking the nail of his same toe this morning, but I couldn't see anything wrong with his. Maybe it's just too much pressure on their nails when we hike that much? I do try to keep them cut back, but Neyla is very sensitive about it so it's tougher with her although we're doing better now that we have the dremel. Either way, they aren't particularly long, but I could see how the extreme angles of the hills on some of our hikes could put pressure on the nailbed. Well once again, long post - anyone who has experienced something similar or who has any ideas, please let me know. For now, my plan is to be even more diligant about working those nails back and take a rest from hiking until it heals, then go from there. We may try the therapaw once it's healed, if it will heal on its own, but probably not before. By the way, here they are enjoying a nap during our lunch break. Zuri was kind enough to dig a hole big enough for both of them this time so they could really cool off (and get covered with ticks in the process - more fun for mom later!). Thanks, Jen

My two cents - I'd hold off and see if she actually gets tapeworms. Those are chemicals you'd otherwise be putting in her body unnecessarily.

My vet is on the more conservative side when it comes to vaccines (conservative in the sense that she would like to give them as little as possible) but she recommended I vaccinate since I foster and visit the dog park occasionally. It's generally also required if you're going to enroll in obedience class although I somehow managed to avoid that when I took Zuri.

I think 45 days is generally considered safe. I'm actually going to speak with my vet about going to that schedule permanently when I take Neyla in for her yearly exam next month as I would prefer less chemicals to more.

None if you feed a raw diet. My dogs are 8 and 3 and neither have had one.

Any news? I am also definitely for starting the doxy treatment asap. The titres don't always show up positive and it's such a simple and inexpensive treatment if that's what's going on! Doxy is also what's used to treat leptospirosis. which someone else mentioned.

I wouldn't wrap it. Wounds heal better when air can get to them. If you're worried about her working on it when you're not there, you could use an e-collar (they make soft ones that aren't quite so torturous) or a muzzle with poop guard. It's only temporary so she'll survive wearing either.

Meredith said everything I was going to say, particularly regarding the second dog. I am finding my second dog much more challenging than I anticipated. It's become a challenge for me to devote enough attention to Neyla while working with Zuri on his issues and I don't have a baby! Walks and even just 10 minutes of clicker training a day will go a long way to making your dog happier. And do keep the upstairs open to her in the meantime. She needs a safe retreat if your baby is mobile. Keep us posted. Jen

This is sort of like looking for a needle in a haystack, but hey, I'm bored at work and I know you're all bored at work too so I figured I'd ask. For at least several months now, Neyla has been slow on walks when we're going uphill or when the surface she's walking on gets rough. I suspected at one point that she had a corn - there was some back and forth about it, with the final note from my vet being that she probably had one coming in, but the steps I was taking were causing it to stay back. But there is no longer anything visible on that paw pad (or any others, and I've stopped treating her in any way) and she still slows down in these situations. Having said that, I'm a big hiker and Neyla has been able to hang on long hikes with me without an issue. We generally do 10 miles every Saturday or Sunday. Our longest hike this season was 23 miles in 2 1/2 days. She is generally keeping up (or pulling ahead) with no problem, although there were times during our 23 miles when she dragged (there were also a lot of other potential factors there). She also runs around my house like a maniac when I get home or in the dog park, has no issues getting on and off furniture, etc. In other words, there appears to be nothing wrong with her, with the exception of these walks. Neyla is also a "reformed" spook but she still has her hangups so sometimes it's hard to tell if she's hesitating b/c she's scared or for another reason, but based on the regularity of when this happens, I don't think that's it. So having said all of that, does anyone know of anything that would cause sensitivity only in these situations (walking up hills or on rough surfaces)? She's 8 now, could she be developing something that comes with old age? She's on a daily joint supplement already, has been for years now due to a previous injury in her rear leg. I considered an appt with my vet or the really good orthopedist we have in this area, but with such vague symptoms, I don't think it will be worthwhile. I feel like we sort of have to wait for something more obvious to turn up before we investigate. At the very least, her annual checkup will be in July or August and I can share my concerns with the vet at that time. Thanks for reading my LONG post. I know I sound like a crazy person complaining that my dog who can hike 10 miles a day has an orthopedic problem, but I figured I'd just throw this out there in case there is something going on and it rings a bell with someone more experienced. I know the medical issues we encounter regularly with fosters, but I am new to the senior dog so if this is something that might turn up with age, I'm clueless. Thanks, Jen

My vet was nice enough to run the urinalysis in house this morning while I waited. No UTI. So I'm just going to keep an eye on Neyla for the rest of the weekend. She seems fine today - the vet said it's possible she had something irritating her that came out when she peed so maybe that was it. I'm not convinced yet though - only time will tell I guess. Thanks for the replies.

So while at the dog park this evening, Neyla started squatting to pee over and over. She would literally walk a few feet and squat down again. She was clearly straining and only a few drops would come out. I waited about 5-10 minutes while she continued to do this, then we went back to the car. She did it all the way to the car as well. We had to drive a bit to pick something up so we got home about an hour later, I gave her a chance to go but she didn't seem to want to and now we're back inside and she's chilling on her dog bed. She did urinate and defecate normally when I took her out right after work. So right now I'm thinking she might have a UTI and I should just drop off a sample to our vet when they open tomorrow morning, but I thought I'd see if anyone is online right now who can tell me if I should be concerned about anything. I did find an accident one day last week and I thought it was her, not Zuri (no "splash") but there was really no way to tell b/c I didn't see it happen. Otherwise, she's been totally normal - although the only other time she had a UTI her only symptoms were increased water intake and one accident. I haven't noticed an increase in her water consumption though. Anyway, I'm not too worried, my rational mind says UTI, but there's a little part of me that's nervous remembering her kidney problems a few years ago (she was diagnosed with acute kidney failure, but we never figured out the cause and it went away either on it's own or b/c of something we did but can't identify). Basically, someone please tell me this is just a UTI and not a symptom of a greater problem! Or even better, any other ideas for why she was doing it? She wasn't marking, I'm sure of that. Thanks, Jen

The results look normal to me, but I guess the important question is what symptoms of hypothyroidism does Arlie have?

This is waht I actually ended up ordering and from the same company. The arrived in a reasonable timeline and everything seemed to be in order. They have by far the best prices I've found!

I might also suggest joining the rawfeeding group on yahoo. There have been others on there who have dealt with this who can help you sort it out. I don't believe switching off of raw is in order if he does in fact have kidney problems, but I'm definitely not an expert. Check out that group - the question pops up every so often. You can probably found out a lot of info just by searching the archives.

What bloodwork have you had done and what were the results? I'm not sure I can be of help here, but there are others who can and will ask for it I'm sure. I was going to suggest a thyroid panel and a TBD panel just to rule those things out. The thyroid panel should be a full panel, not just a T4. MSU does them for around $100, there are other labs that do as well. I hope you get this figured out.