Zoe By My Side- Our Journey with Cushings

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I kept telling the vets she never used to lick herself before but they poopooed me

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When the 1st vet said no UTI for the 3rd time, I asked about the gunk around Roxee's twinkie? The vet took her in the back room and shaved it and brought her back to me. :eek::mad: Well heck I could have done that but it didn't cure the cause. Last time I saw that vet!

Not saying you should give up on your vet. This all happened in my early days with this forum and one of the family team here recommended I get a urine culture about the time I was looking for a vet with some experience in cushing's. Finally found one that was a little over an hours drive each way.

Just another note...Their can be numerous reasons for the licking, pain, irritation, with my Rozee, she will start licking herself when she needs to go out and pee. Since her leg problems, she is totally dependent on us to help her relieve herself. So if she is licking, I feel like a bad daddy cuz I waited too long to take her out.:(

she licks herself after peeing, it is the only time she licks herself. sometimes she will squat once and urinate, sometimes twice, she was licking after every pee but then she stopped and only did it infrequently. Could have been around the time she was on metronidazole. She had the staining on her twinkee, paws and face but after i stopped the armor thyroid medicine and she went on metronidazole for a month, it all went away.She has just started licking herself again after her morning pee when the grass is really wet. Now 2 accidents.

Sometimes I think if i present too many problems at once to the vets, they can't focus.

Can raw diet cause crystals?

I will explore this with the IMS, I feel best with her.:)

Thanks John,
Addy

Hi Addy,

My Bear has had calcium oxalate stones removed, twice now. Each time they have showed up on his urinalyses and confirmed with x-rays and ultrasounds.

I have attached a word doc. that decribes how to avoid the risk factors of calcium oxalate stones which was sent back with Bears stone analysis. Don't know how much help this will be now and hopefully you will never need it but maybe good to have on hand?

Love and hugs,
Lori

just got back home, Zoe was left for 4.5 hrs, no accidents, went out to urinate, squatted once, came in and did not lick her twinkie. Grass is dry. She is running around the house as happy as can be:confused: and also jumped on the bed:confused::confused::confused:

Mary Strauss did a series of articles on stones for Whole Dog Journal, guess I better reread them all.

Thanks Lori for the link. I'll have to reread about the diet too.

Do any of you ever feel that people think you are like the Mom or Dad who keeps going to the doctor with her/his child for the attention? Sometimes I think my friends think I am nutzo because Zoe is forever going to the vet and their dogs never go.:eek: A couple of them have made references, I don't say anything anymore:o

Addy the Confused

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Do any of you ever feel that people think you are like the Mom or Dad who keeps going to the doctor with her/his child for the attention?

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Addy, this is so funny! :D

Squirt's new doc and staff keep referring to her "novel", meaning her file! :eek:;) I sometimes wonder if there really is such a thing as canine Munchhausen's by Proxy! :p:o:p If so, several of us here can expect to be hauled in wearing straight jackets just any day now! :p

Hugs,
Leslie and the girls :D - always

First off I am so glad to hear Zoe is having a good day.
No I don't think that. It is their problem not yours. :mad::eek:We know our dogs best and with cushing and all the other alignments we need to be vigil.:D I have seen people come the er after being ignorant about a problem their pet has when it might be to late to save them:(So just ignore them. Like my husband says, Apollo is lucky to have a mom like me, and my holistic vet says you are doing all the right things, just think how bad Apollo would be if you weren't so concerned.

Well, we have put the hind leg problem behind us, five days of really short walks and we are back to jumping on the bed and I can't see any problem with Zoe's back leg:) Sigh of relief:D

The sometimes licking her twinkie is still going on as it has been on and off though when I looked this morning, she gave her twinkie a lick and then was licking her inner thigh.

I have not been able to schedule appointment with IMS for a urine culture because I have to figure out when I can take off work to take Zoe. I've had a headache for 4 days now and am on antibiotics, they think sinus infection, arggg, I can't think when my head hurts.

This licking started when I switched her to raw and added supplements. We have gotten rid of all the supplements though I still use Culturelle probiotic, and still eat the same raw food. The 2 accidents are new, she had not done that before except on a very rare occasion (company and I did not pay attention). I am thinking out loud again, Nope, she needs the culture, hope I can get her in next week.

Leslie, what you mentioned makes alot of sense. If she had crystals would it show up in a culture?

Well, at least my leap of twitch to Oh my gosh she has diabetes now has eased somewhat since her hind leg is better.:confused:

Thanks for letting me ramble in my delirium.:eek:

Addy in Misery

Hi Addy,

I'm sorry about your headache :(Great news about Zoe's legs though :D. I'm curious, how short were your short walks?
Crystals and casts will show up in a freecatch urinalysis, too. Do you check Zoe's pee with dipstix/multistix or such? (They can be purchased from most pharmacies, in Australia anyways, for around $20-$50 depending on how many things it checks, for 100 stix). If so, white cells and leucocytes are the things that point to a UTI. If positive for white cells and/or leucos, a culture and sensitivity will need to be performed to find out the correct a/biotic for treating the particular bug if found. (It's a bugger, but not all strains of bug will grow in culturing mediums :(.)

One more thing- a raw diet can sometimes cause elevations in BUN (urea) and creatinine when having blood work done (Dr Jean Dodds has studied this). Just wanted to mention that in case it happens and your vet/IMS mentions the possibility of early stage kidney problems, you can read up on this and explain about the diet. And not freak out :eek::o (so much)
Hope some of this helps,
Jane, Franklin and Bailey xxx

Thank you for the response, Jane,:)

I knew about the elevated bun so i won't "twitch" that. I will go to the pharmacy and look for the sticks, I did not realize I could do that myself so thanks for the info on that:)

By short walks, I meant instead of 2 walks a day we went for 1 walk about 1/2 block and back, slowly. We were walking 2 times a day, a.m. walk was about 4-5 blocks, evening walk was up and down the hill in front of our house and another block.

Is it possible the raw diet changed the PH in her urine and thus she licks on and off now? I can't switch her food right now, looking at that down the road. I have been trying to cut back on it in tiny increments, while increasing the Honest Kitchen Embark. Although that is also raw it is processed somewhat (it is dehydrated) and has flax, potatoes and other ingredients in it.

I upped her lignans 1/2 capsule and she is tolerating that so that is good news:D

Thanks!!!!
Addy

Hi Addy,

I'm glad to hear that Zoe is improving. I hope she continues to improve.

I hope your sinus infection soon clears up. I just went through that a few weeks ago. The antibiotic really helped.

Give Zoe a big hug from me.