Confused and Overwhelmed-Diagnosed Anal Sac Carcinoma (Woody has passed)

Typical wait in all day for the IMS then blinking missed his call by the time I got his message and rung back he had left for the evening. In his message he said his name was Richard he sounds about 20 years old ha. He said he has had a quick look over Woodys test and although he has agreed Woody had presented with cushings symptoms he needs to look at them more in depth so will call me on Monday so more waiting. In other news Woody,s back to normal and over his viral infection but his hunger is driving me insane today he has constantly wanted food, raiding the bin, throwing his food bowl at me and trying to open the cupboard door lol. I'm hoping that it is just because he hasn't eaten much this week but will keep an eye on it.

I,ve now started a journal of how much he drinks daily how often he pees, the colour of his urine, exercise and see if there,s any pattern

Hope everyone has a good weekend

Tracy

Sorry to hear about Woody's hunger. I know it is really hard not to keep giving them food especially when they are begging for it. When Tipper would start way before her meal time it would make me crazy too. I had to end up getting away from her to another room, and she couldn't see me to beg any more. I think that is one of the hardest things to get thru. Thank God that stopped when her Cortisol got under control. The journal is a great thing. I put Tipper's behavior down, and the weather also, as she gets scared from storms, and I can keep track of why she is acting funny that day. Hope you get this all resolved and that Woody can start feeling better. Blessings
Patti

I,ve started Woody,s journal and in the first 10 mins of us being awake he had drank half a pint of water, he has had 2 pints of water so far, also his hunger has continued today, so I decided to feed him little and often throughout the day to see if that would help, and it hasn,t. As I type this he is currently pawing his dish, barking and whining for food I,m doing my best to ignore him, but god its hard. I,ve tried to distract him by letting him out in garden didn,t work, playing with him worked for oh a nano second then back to the dish.

Why do they look at you like you are starving them :( I will need to speak with the vet about this.

Do you think that Woody would snack on some carrots and/or frozen green beans? If so, they could help with his hunger.

Be careful with carrots as they have quite a bit of sugar in them. Frozen green beans are a great option.

I don't know if this would help you, but I add some cooked lentils to Tipper's food in place of some of her nuggets every time I feed her. It seems to fill her up more from the fiber, but low on calories, and not gassy, helps maintain her weight. I buy the dried ones and cook them, it doesn't take long and I keep some in the freezer. This was told to me by a highly regarded vet. Blessings
Patti

Well finally spoke with the IMS tonight, didn,t get a chance to write much down as I was at work (on the backshift) this week. He has discussed Woody,s results and case with my own vet and the head of the department, its a teaching hospital.

His first question which I thought was a bit strange was "you will no doubt be testing Woody for cushings in the future" I asked him why would I if he was adamant Woody didn't have cushings, he said at this point he was sure he didn't have it. He asked me a lot of questions like his eating, drinking, peeing, was woody a sick dog, his tempremant, his moods, his stools, did he eat grass, his weight, his past history, and much more. I gave all the information asked for and he came up with some suggestions:
Re- test woody,s urine for any UTI (already tested twice) just incase there are any "bugs" not already detected in it.
DI - He doesn't think this is what Woody has as his urine is not diluted enough yet. He also thinks with Woody,s stress behaviour in a vet environment that doing the deprivation test would be too hard on him, which I agree.
Ultrasound - possible ultrasound of his bladder and kidneys to see if anything there. There is a local surgery to me which can do it.
Psychogenic poloydipsis - he doesn't think Woody has this as ususally dogs with this suffer from manic ocd behaviours and woody doesn't.

When I explained to him that only a few days ago I had found what looked like calcium deposits on Woody,s left elbow and today found some more on his right elbow, he began to talk about Thryoid problems. Now Woody has had this checked he had his T4 and T3 checked and all was ok, The IMS is going to look into this.

So I am no further forward in what is wrong with my boy, I have to think about all this and give him a ring on Monday with what I want to do. So question I will get the US done, but would you do that first or do the urine testing first. He did say if all of the above came out negative he would probably try and just treat Woody for DI and see if that "cures" the problems.

This is all I remember from the call, as I said had no chance to write it down.

Tracy & Woody x

Tracy,

ultrasounds can tell them quite a lot and may help to determine what is going on. I would do this and the urine test as well.

This can be a really long drawn out process unfortunately. I hope that an ultra sound will help get you some answers, as I know first hand how confusing and frustrating all this can be. Take care and I hope you get some good solid answers for Woody. Blessings
Patti

Just wanted to chime in and let you know that unless there is a reason for watching natural sugars in the diet, like diabetes, then carrots are a great treat. The type of sugars found in carrots and other veggies like sweet potatoes is much, much preferable to the kind of sugars found in say a piece of pizza crust or sandwich crust. In my book, everything in a carrot is preferable to commercial dog treats. So unless there is a medical reason to watch such things in the diet, carrots are just fine as a treat. ;)