NeylasMom

Poor girlie had very full anal glands and one is infected. My vet ended up swabbing and doing a cytology here and saw bacteria from her vulva, but no yeast. She said some of the bacteria was intracellular, so thinks she likely has a good infection going on there. So ABs that will hopefully address both and we'll continue the Apoquel and topical care as well for now. She said we can culture the vulva bacteria if this AB doesn't address it. She was also pleased with the way it looks, so hopefully this is the beginning of the end of this! ETA: Oh, I asked about the Neo-Predef. She's used it though no longer carries it because of cost, but said it is a steroid so we're going to hold off on that for now.

If you're really curious, I posted a photo of Skye's in one of our older threads about this: http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php/topic/318472-skyes-vulva-irritation-possible-tumor/?hl=skye

I'm not going to do anything surgical until I'm sure it's necessary. She's 5 years old and this has never been a problem before. It's dragged on at least in part because I've been too distracted with other things and haven't attended to it properly so it's never had a chance to fully heal. So I'm going to do that diligently and see where it gets us. Its already vastly improved again since starting her back on the Apoquel.

Her vulva is recessed. Rather than sort of sticking out, it's recessed, which creates an awesome space for urine and bacteria, etc. to get trapped. It happens in dogs that are spayed before they're sexually mature. Violet actually has one as well and she licks herself more than is normal, but it hasn't thus far created issues for her that I'm aware of at least. The big issue as I understand it is bacteria gets trapped in there and then travels up the urinary tract, which is why dogs that have it often get recurrent UTIs.

Yes, she does, though it's never been an issue before. In the meantime I've realized she's got an anal gland issue going on so now there's the additional likelihood that she's transferring poop when she kicks and causing more potential for bacteria. So I scheduled an appt for tomorrow and spoke to my vet a bit. We're going to take care of the glands and she said she'd do a culture just to rule out yeast, fungus, weird bacteria, etc. I don't think she thinks it's necessary but at this point I want it to make myself feel better that we're not missing anything.

I would switch her back to the Diamond chicken grain free that she seemed to do well on. If her stool is already nasty, I probably wouldn't bother with bland diets or transitions. If you are worried about her weight, consider just adding some cooked chicken breast to the kibble. And start her immediately on Vetriscience Probiotic BD. It contains probiotics in high amounts, but also other supplements that soothe the intestinal tract. It has been a lifesaver for me on many occasions and I always have some on hand in case I need it. I would do only that and eliminate all special treats (use plain chicken for training, skip the chews and bully sticks for now) and give it a few weeks. If she improves, then I'd wait about a month and then reintroduce things like bully sticks in small quantities one at a time.

You said he's back to burping normally. Was that just a little humor or does he burp a lot routinely? I would try a food dispensing toy to get him to eat more slowly.

Thought I'd check in and see how everyone is doing and also share a bit of good news. Violet started limping last week. It didn't present in a way that I suspected osteo, but still, it's always the first thought that comes to mind, at least for me. We went to the orthopedist on Tuesday morning and her x-rays were clear! Looks like a soft tissue injury in her shoulder. Absolutely no abnormalities on the x-ray, not even a calcification that would still scare the crap out of me. Hope everyone is doing well. I'm missing Zuri like crazy at the moment. It seems to be so random when it hits me. Mostly I try to keep myself busy so I don't have to deal with it. I really don't believe it's been over a month that my boy has been gone.

You'd think she'd still leave spots sometimes though after she'd been sleeping? I'll have to watch more closely for signs of leaking.

That's what I thought, but maybe there's something else in the supplement that's helping? The awesome news is Vetriscience decided to make the supplement - which is one of their "Everyday" line so what's the freaking sense in that?! - available Rx only, but the feline one is still available and is the same thing, she'll just need to take 4 of them to equal the canine dose. Here's what's in that supplement (this is the canine version, so the amts she was getting): Active Ingredients Per Chew: D-Mannose, 400 mg; N-Acetyl-Glucosamine (Shrimp and Crab), 400 mg; Cranberry Extract, 200 mg; Bromelain, 200 mg; Corn Silk, 120 mg; GanedenBC30 TM (Bacillus coagulans GBI-30, 6086), 200 million CFU. When I discontinued it, I continued the same probiotic so that wasn't it. I know bromelain and I think the n-acetyl-glucosamine are anti-inflammatory so maybe that's what was helping? And I just read that d-mannose supposedly prevents e coli from sticking to the urinary tract. While she's been negative for UTIs she has had bacteria externally. Maybe the d-mannose helps with that as well? Who knows. It's very hard to tell what works and what doesn't but since I thought it was helping I figured best to put her back on it. Any idea what would be too acidic in terms of her urine pH? I thought I'd try to keep an eye on it using the dipsticks in between vet visits, but it's hard to read those. On my last check I thought it was definitely between 6 & 6.5, probably closer to 6.25. I don't have results from her last urinalysis handy.

So I just looked this stuff up and it looks like it could be really helpful. The added benefits of being an anti-inflammatory and anesthetic seem like they would really help and I like the idea of a powder to keep the area dry. My vet is out today so I should hear back from her on Monday and will ask about trying it, but am thinking I might order it in the meantime so I have it on hand if she says yes. Would I have to worry about her licking it off or would it be safe if she ingests small quantities? We're taking steps to prevent the licking regardless, but just want to make sure it wouldn't be unsafe if she accidentally were able to.

Don't apologize. I changed my response because I realized if I was having to say sorry if I sound bitchy it's probably because I sound bitchy. I just shouldn't post before coffee - I always sound grumpy until I have caffeine in my system. Thanks for the Neo-Predef suggestion. Will mention it to my vet.

How does one diagnose spay incontinence? There's no evidence of her leaking on bedding, etc. So how would we know it's happening? Its helpful to know you've seen good results from the surgery. I would like to rule out other things we might be missing first, but it's obviously still on the table. Thanks for all of the feedback so far. I'm going to talk to my vet first and see what she thinks. Oh, and to answer questions, yes she's on a daily Probiotic. As far as her urine, the UT supplement has cranberry and other things that I believe are intended to change the acidity. I think stopping it may have worsened things, though her pH has never shown up as abnormal on her urinalyses or using a dipstick. But I'm not sure whether within normal but toward one end could be a problem?

Thanks, I did have that thought. However, don't think they'd know about possible abnormalities or tumor type stuff (would they??), which is so much less likely but I'd kind of like someone who can cover it all. But I do like our derm and he's reasonably priced as far as specialists go so maybe I should start there. My poor girl is wearing panties right now. Trying them in an effort to keep her from licking the ointment off for longer after I apply it. "Why mama, why?" ETA: The more I think about it, the more I think maybe the derm is a good idea. I'll call my vet and the dermatologist's offices and ask what they recommend.

Here I him with my vajayjay posts again but Skye's vulva irritation is not resolving and I am so beyond frustrated right now. We did see improvement from the Apoquel and silver sulfa approach, but not enough so we went back and the vet gave us Muciprocin instead. Things seemed to be getting a bit better and then I ran out of the UT supplement she was on. Now she has what looks like urine scalding and is licking a lot. So she's back on Apoquel and a UT supplement and I am being super diligent about cleaning and watching her so she doesn't lick, but I think we need to do further digging. All of this to ask - what type of specialist does one see for this sort of thing? An internal medicine vet? I'm freaking downright broke between Zuri's osteo costs and everything happening with Violet, but I feel like my vet is a bit too laid back in her approach at times. I could probably go back and pester her, but I've now seen them 3 times for this with no major change in treatment plans. I want cultures or whatever other tests they could run and I want to be reassured ther are no tumors or other strange things going on. They keep saying her vulva is the problem and it is recessed, but we didn't have this problem for the first 4 1/2 years of her life so something has to be going on!

There is something called psychogenic polydypsia where a dog drinks and needs to urinate excessively for behavioral reasons, but it's a diagnosis of elimination, meaning you rule out all of the potential medical causes first. Depending on the tests they've already done, I'd say they should likely pursue pursue further testing.

Dark yellow just means her urine is concentrated, which makes sense if she's not a big drinker. I wouldn't worry about it unless you've had her a long time and something has changed. A urinalysis is always an easy way to check to make sure everything is okay. You wouldn't worry about protein in her diet unless she had a lot of protein in her urine.

Any chance this is a "things are going to get worse before they get better" scenario because the ABs are doing their thing and blowing it up in there? Because Violet has been rubbing her face a lot tonight. We started the Clindamycin at dinner last night so she has had 3 doses so far.

That makes sense and at the same time, it's all relative. You wouldn't necessarily be alarmed by a creatinine of 1.8 in a greyhound, but when Zuri's reached that level it was because his kidneys were failing. He had consistently had a creatinine of 1.5ish so with that as baseline and the start of some symptoms we reached a different conclusion. In all likelihood this is a normal value for her. I'm just hesitant to make that assumption *just* because she's a greyhound, if that makes sense. Thanks for all of the info so far. The test you guys are mentioning, do we need to request that in advance or could we wait to see if there is protein and if there is, ask them to run it?

It was, and her urine was very concentrated, as it always is unless she's just had a ton of water (1.052).

Any thoughts on this? I'm waiting for results to be faxed over, but all of Violet's blood work is normal, including kidney values. Urinalysis is good as well except there is trace protein in it. Part of the reason I took her in was because last week I thought she may have had a minor rhabdo incident and when I checked her urine a few times with the dipstick it showed protein (which is common after rhabdo). Her urine is always really concentrated, which I know can turn up false positives on the dipstick, but urinalysis via lab confirmed the protein is there. If I'm right about the rhabdo, there's really nothing to do and if there isn't permanent kidney damage the protein should clear out. Otherwise, vet suggested the possibility of Enalapril if we suspect early kidney issues, or she said we could go the full ultrasound route if I wanted to be really thorough. My plan right now is just to retest her urine in the lab in a few weeks and if there is protein again, especially if there is more, I may take her back to the internal medicine specialist. Any info on whether I should be concerned and what, if any treatment or testing to pursue? Violet is raw fed so I wondered about that, but while she has had protein her urine after previous rhabdo incidents or when infection was present, the other urinalyses we've run just to do follow-up after she recovered had no protein (those were in 2014). ETA: Here are the renal values from her blood work: BUN 20 (9 - 31 mg/dL) Creatinine 1.5 (0.5 - 1.5 mg/dL) IDEXX SDMA 13 (0 - 14 µg/dL) That creatinine is normal for her. I don't have SDMA from previous blood work for comparison, at least not on the 2 sets from 2014 I have from our vet. It is on the high end of normal. I'll also just add that the other thing I've noticed recently - that could be nothing or could be something - is that she seems to be panting harder after exercise than normal. She is 7 btw, and the vet didn't hear anything unusual when listening to her heart and lungs. The panting was first noticeable the night I thought she had the rhabdo incident, but has continued at times since then.

I'm so so sorry. Do they have any idea what was going on?

I have absolutely no clue. Don't really know anything about the issues you're talking about. Having said that, the only thing that came to mind was to ask them if there are any infectious diseases that might cause these symptoms, even less common ones. There is such weird crap out there these days. Really sorry you're going through this and hope you get some answers. Sending good thoughts your way.

First of all, I'm very sorry this happened to you. I can imagine it must have been very traumatic for all involved. I do disagree with your statement above as there clearly were quite a few signs of aggression that went for the most part unaddressed (with the exception of you and your husband adjusting how you interact with her on her bed). The article that 3greytjoys linked to above is a good one to understand how stressors can build in a dog's life, pushing them to aggress or aggress more seriously in a situation they might not otherwise. Having said that, degree of bite is an important factor when considering whether the dogs are likely going to be able reintegrate and live safely together moving forward. Given the severity of these bites, I would say you need to rehome or euthanize her. If the group is willing to rehome her as an only dog then that seems reasonable to consider, but honestly I would be having a heart to heart with my group about whether they will have the dog evaluated before placement, provide any training resources to a new adopter, etc. Even though she has only directed the more serious aggression toward the other dogs, she has snapped at you and your husband so the potential for more serious aggression toward people is there imo. When weighing euthanasia vs rehoming people really need to consider the potential risk. I would certainly hope the group wouldn't place this dog in a home with kids either for instance, or in a home where children are guests frequently. If the group doesn't seem concerned about weighing these factors or seems to be blowing you off (I know many an adoption rep who are happy to blame it on the adopter not providing a structured enough environment when they don't immediately see the problem in their own home or a foster home) then I would be concerned. Having said all of that, in the meantime, I would keep the dogs separated. People are quick to suggest muzzles here because these guys are so acclimated to them and they're quite useful in many situations, but you really shouldn't use a muzzle to put dogs into a situation you wouldn't without the muzzle because you haven't addressed the underlying issues. The dogs can still attack, become traumatized, etc. even if major damage isn't done. Much safer to keep them separate and then if you were working with a trainer and were at the point where you wanted to start to have the dogs together for short supervised periods or training sessions, you would use the muzzles, for additional safety. Also, and this would I hope seem like a given at this point, but make sure the dogs are separated for any food related activities especially. This includes not just while they're eating, but while food is being prepared and until bowls have been picked up, washed and put away. Always best to make sure no stray food is on the ground or just keep the feeding areas in places the dogs don't otherwise have access to.

Dental scheduled. Consult 2 weeks from today, dental one week and a day after that. I'm going to be in a panic as I'm just not hopeful we'll get through it without another emergency situation, but one can hope.