seeh2o

I'm so sorry, what a sweet and well loved boy. I love Wallace's sausages on trees.

I'm so sorry. It seems like there is never enough time with them.

I'm just now seeing this thread, Paula. I'm very sorry to hear that Phaelin had another seizure. I hope your vet can help you get a handle on this and get them under control.

Claudia, that is good news. Are you going talk to or go to the vet today? I hope it's something that can be fixed with an adjustment of the dosage of her medication.

Come on Misty, you really need to eat...it's going to make your mom feel LOTS better (and you, too!). Carl says....EAT, GIRL DOG, EAT!

Well, before this gets locked (I had offered some of Carl's eye medication for free and it got locked because medication should only be used for the entity it is prescribed to), I donated his eye medication to my local group.

I'm thinking of switching Carl to Petplan US, once insured they can be insured for life even if a chronic condition develops during the course of the policy. They cost a bit more, but I like their business practice better.

I have had PetFirst for almost a year, they are great at paying claims. HOWEVER, please note that if your dog develops a chronic condition when it comes time to renew the policy the next year they look at it as a brand new policy rather than a renewing policy and will exclude any claims for that condition from that point on. Excerpted from their paperwork: Exclusions include: "Continuous coverage of chronic and long term conditions that manifest in a previous policy year". When I read that initially, I thought no big deal, I've not had any dogs ever with a chronic condition. Well, now I do. Come next February they exclude any claims for Carl that are thyroid related - I believe this includes his eye condition. That's one of the reasons why I'm on a tear to get him to all the specialists (of course to get the condition diagnosed correctly and get him on the path to being ok is the #1 reason) before his policy expires in Feb. I'm just glad that I started way early as we've been to 2 vets and one eye specialist...2 incorrect diagnosis later and we're headed to a REAL veterinarian ophthalmologist at the beginning of December.

No advice here, just writing to say that after I read your post I dreamed that my soon-to-be girl (Carl's sister Doodles) arrived at my doorstep in heat. Ugh!!!

It would be helpful to have a None button under "What brands of canned food do you buy for mix-ins?" I never use canned food as a mix in. Mix in is Grizzly Salmon oil and/or pumpkin. Right now Carl is getting CA Natural Herring and Sweet Potato, but since they just reduced the bag size from 36 lbs to 30 lbs for the same price (a 16% increase) I think I will be switching him back to Kirkland. Treats vary, sometimes Wellness, sometimes baked Health Bars, also they sometimes get beef tendons. Eagle Pack, Eagle Pack Holistic & California Natural are kibbles that many here use and are missing from the list.

Oh, Judy, I am so so very sorry to read this. It's nearly incomprehensible that you've lost him so suddenly. He missed her so much, he was so heartbroken when he lost her, it seems like it's the same for them as it is for us. Rest assured they are together now, sweet Andy is with his girl Emmy. Edited to say that after reading all your posts about Emmy's journey and how Andy was by her side through all of it, though I never met him, in learning that he is gone it makes me feel like I've somehow suffered a loss, too. He and his story, through you, touched so many of us. Such a gentle and tender soul, that Andy.

That cuts both ways, it's a comfort to know his labs are all good, but so frustrating that there's nothing to point to that can be "fixed".

Good news!!! Yeah, Misty and Claudia!

I really hope you can get this figured out soon and Rudy will be on the mend. The not knowing is so incredibly frustrating.

How's Rudy doing today?

That's good information. My post suggesting a full thyroid panel was based on the symptoms listed in OP (not merely what Rudy's T4 results were), which, collectively, are classic symptoms or hypothyroid: Aside from that, it's sure not going to do any harm to run the full panel, the cost isn't that much more, even sending to U of M, the cost of the test (not including shipping) is listed as $41.00. I'm also responding based on my very recent (last week!) experience with Carl. He has only 1 classic symptom of hypothyroid, patterned balding. His non-classic symptom, which we are trying to determine if it is related to being hypothyroid, are corneal rings. When he started losing his fur last June the vet ran a full blood panel (not a full thyroid panel) on him and his T 4 was well within normal range, but the symptom(s) continued to get worse, so I followed up with an eye specialist. His diagnosis felt very tentative and unsure, so I went to vet #3 who ran the thyroid panel and we discovered that his T4 and free T4 values were low.

I agree, I would insist on a FULL thyroid panel, there should be no disagreement as he is your dog and you are paying the bill for the test. If your vet balks or refuses I would start looking for another vet. I had to do that with Carl. Here is an excerpt and a link to Jean Dodd's page about thyroid testing. We sent Carl's blood there for testing, Dr. Dodd's does the diagnostic analysis as well. "Note, Regarding Thyroid testing: The COMPLETE Thyroid Panel is needed for an ACCURATE diagnosis and assessment of Thyroid Function. Dr. Dodds' Thyroid Panel # D8T provides the values for: T3, T4, free T3, free T4, T3 Autoantibodies and T4 Autoantibodies. The fee for that testing is $65., which includes Dr. Dodds' expert interpretation." Website link

I'm so sorry for Waldo and all of you. This is always a heartbreaking situation. Waldo knows he is deeply loved.

I've had two dogs, non-greys, with lipomas. They usually don't take them out as they may grow back. Sheila has had one for years, it gets smaller, then back to the size it was when I noticed it, then smaller again. They did a needle aspiration to determine what it was. It will stay put unless it starts to limit her mobility - it's on the side of her rib cage, close to her front elbow. My fingers are crossed for it being a mere swollen bruise from playing or, second best news - a lipoma.

Good luck to you and Rudy. Please keep us posted. Carl and I just started traveling down that road last Tues., got the results that afternoon, started Soloxine that night. He only had two symptoms of thyroid and only one of them was common - patterned fur loss. The other odd symptom has been clouding on his corneas (misdiagnosed once, maybe twice).

I'd like to hear more about that, too. I've been searching on Google, but have found no contraindications for Soloxine and Metamucil yet.

If I look at Carl too hard he will get scratched, Kobie was like that, too. I have learned to keep lots of triple antibiotic ointment, triple antibiotic spray and peroxide on hand.

Was that thrush? If so, an anti fungal would be prescribed for that.

How's THE girl doing? I think today is her medicine day, so I'm checking in (well, I check in more frequently than just Mondays ).

How is Phaelin doing today? I'm sending good thoughts your way, you had a plateful the last few days. Have you been to the vet with him since it happened?