Harry's Medical Woes

[Guest Harry702]

He's fine as long as we take him out every 5-6 hours or so. He just really seems to have trouble holding it the way he did only a few months ago.

 

He's able to hold it, consistently, for over 6 hours. He's had no accidents in over three weeks. None of this indicates a medical issue.

 

I'm confused. Is he able to hold it for longer than 6 hours and has he not had any accidents since around Christmas? I understood from your first post that he was still having accidents if left for his usual amount of time. If he's truly been symptom free for 3+ weeks, then I would agree with your vet, but that wasn't the way it sounded to me especially since you mentioned taking steps to address it behaviorally. What is there to address if he isn't having any symptoms?

 

Sorry for the confusion... when I first posted, we hadn't tried leaving him for more than 6 hours since his last accident in the beginning of January. We left him for a full workday on Thursday (day after the first post) to see if he'd be okay. He was fine. He's never had trouble holding it overnight. We have been taking steps to address it behaviorally (as our early read on the situation was behavioral). We've made it less likely that he'll go inside by taking him outside more frequently, and we've been keeping a belly band on him when we're gone as a negative reinforcement. He's doing better, it seems, but I'm a ways from trusting him completely in the house. I suppose the fact that he's doing better after some work on behavior should be explanation enough, but I guess I just didn't feel like the accidents added up exactly. And it's hard to accept that our formally perfectly housetrained dog -- who we've seen go 16 hours without a turnout -- would relapse into randomly peeing on the rug... even sporadically. I really think it was stress-related. Each instance can be tied to a stressful situation happening to him directly, or to him indirectly through us. That, and perhaps he really is drinking more than usual because of the cold, dry weather.

 

Truth be told, we're pretty confused by the whole thing. Bottom line is that things are looking good health-wise.

[Guest LindsaySF]

I know this is not the place to post this but I am having some computer problems (and I mean the user, not the machine!). Lindsay from WAG I have a question for you about DI and I can't get my email to you. Sam's specific gravity was 1.015 on Dece. 11, 2008. How does that sound for an almost four year old male greyhound? You can email me at beckylpa@yahoo.com if you prefer. Thanks! Becky

I just sent you an email. You might want to start your own thread on Sam to get more advice.

 

 

Katie, I'm glad that Harry seems better. Hopefully he continues on that path.

 

[NeylasMom]

He's fine as long as we take him out every 5-6 hours or so. He just really seems to have trouble holding it the way he did only a few months ago.

 

He's able to hold it, consistently, for over 6 hours. He's had no accidents in over three weeks. None of this indicates a medical issue.

 

I'm confused. Is he able to hold it for longer than 6 hours and has he not had any accidents since around Christmas? I understood from your first post that he was still having accidents if left for his usual amount of time. If he's truly been symptom free for 3+ weeks, then I would agree with your vet, but that wasn't the way it sounded to me especially since you mentioned taking steps to address it behaviorally. What is there to address if he isn't having any symptoms?

 

Sorry for the confusion... when I first posted, we hadn't tried leaving him for more than 6 hours since his last accident in the beginning of January. We left him for a full workday on Thursday (day after the first post) to see if he'd be okay. He was fine. He's never had trouble holding it overnight. We have been taking steps to address it behaviorally (as our early read on the situation was behavioral). We've made it less likely that he'll go inside by taking him outside more frequently, and we've been keeping a belly band on him when we're gone as a negative reinforcement. He's doing better, it seems, but I'm a ways from trusting him completely in the house. I suppose the fact that he's doing better after some work on behavior should be explanation enough, but I guess I just didn't feel like the accidents added up exactly. And it's hard to accept that our formally perfectly housetrained dog -- who we've seen go 16 hours without a turnout -- would relapse into randomly peeing on the rug... even sporadically. I really think it was stress-related. Each instance can be tied to a stressful situation happening to him directly, or to him indirectly through us. That, and perhaps he really is drinking more than usual because of the cold, dry weather.

 

Truth be told, we're pretty confused by the whole thing. Bottom line is that things are looking good health-wise.

 

Gotcha, well that makes more sense. I still agree it's a bit odd, but the holidays are a stressful time in and of themselves on top of anything else that may have been going on so if the accidents don't come back and the blood work is clean, I wouldn't worry. Tell your vet we were confused so she doesn't think us greyhound people are crazy.