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Originally Posted by stedmansmommy  OMG, Ann...I am sooo sorry to hear about Wylie!! I tell you girl, our babies are always going through something! You know that Tatum has TERRIBLE allergies as well as skin issues...although the skin issues have not been addressed yet - that is next on my list after she has gotten through all her LP stuff (still 2 more weeks of confinement  ). Anyway, now I am getting a little worried because as I was reading your thread, my eyes got bigger and bigger  Over the past 3 or 4 days or so, Tatum has been peeing ALOT more than normal. In fact, about 3 days ago she had an accident (pee'd) in her house and that has NEVER EVER happened, not ONCE since she's been confined to it and she has been in there for just over a month. It was strange too, because I had JUST taken her out not too long before the peeing accident happened - and normally she would have NEVER had to pee that soon after just being let out not long ago. Another thing is that Tatum has extremely dry, flaky skin. I brush her and there are just white flakes. The top of her nose is so dry, almost scab like - that is where she itches THE MOST. There, and on the side of her mouth (her "cheeks"). And sometimes her ears when she gets recurring ear infections. And I don't know if you remember me posting about it or not, but over the last few months I have noticed that Tatum has started shedding. In fact, today we went back for more physical therapy and I was wearing a pair of white capris and they were just FULL of her hair, just from her laying in my lap in the car And when they put her in the tank for Aquatic Therapy there were a few gobs of hair floating around in the water I just don't understand this! I had a Thyroid test done right before she had her LP surgery and it came back perfectly fine. I am just so confused. I am so sick of all the dry/flaky skin, allergies and now hair shedding Ughhhh! When will it all end? Oh, and I also (JUST YESTERDAY) started reading up about Atopica online and I desperately want to start Tatum on this! She is currently on Hydroxyzine and has been on it for a LONG time now, but I am thinking that the Atopica will be better. I guess the first step is getting an allergy test done on her - I REALLY want to *try* and find out what all she is allergic too...cause these darn allergies are just kicking her butt!!
Anyway - I just realised that I sat here and typed all this in WYLIE'S thread....how totally rude of me!!!!!! I DO NOT want to take over your thread...but it just seems like our babies always have alot of similar things going on between them so I thought I would post about it. I hope and PRAY that sweet little Wylie will be ok!  I wish I had more advice but heck, Tatum is having alot of these same issues and I am just totally clueless
Give them both huge hugs for me and I will be checking back for updates on Wylie...I will pray for him and will keep him in my prayers as well! Hugs to you all, we love you guys! |
First, thanks to everyone for such support and kindness - I even showed Wylie (lol) and said SEE? Everyone is pulling for you and praying for you, so let's take it all into that little body of yours.
Brooke - don't feel bad at *all* - I'm so glad you posted this bc I was actually going to PM you about this very thing. When I found out about Wy and learned more after the research, I TOO thought of the issues you've been having w/ Tatum! So, you might want to (for now) just rule out Cushings and it's very simple -- you want to catch a urine sample
at home; Wylie has been peeing tons inside lately on/near the pads - lucky for me (
) he sometimes just puts his front paws on the pad, and then goes - so his pee ends up on the tile floor - I took a clean, empty syringe (clean it w/ hyd. peroxide or alcohol, if needed) and sucked up the pee (about a small syringe full), put it in a plastic baggy, wrote the time on it, and put in fridge until it was time for the vet. The reason you want an at-home urine is bc if they collect the urine at the vet, when they're stressed, there will be cortisol in the urine from being stressed - so it's not accurate.
The cortisol/cortisol-creatinine test is just a screening test - sooo, if the dog does not show high cortisol or ratio - Cushings can basically be ruled out. If there is high cortisol (normal is <13 - Wylie's was 23), then you'd definitely want to proceed to the ACTH test or Low Dose Dexamethasone Test. Now, I have read here and there (but not much really) that SOMEtimes in a negative urine cortisol test -- they *may* still want to do the diagnostic type tests I just named --
if the dog is showing too many signs of Cushing's. Dogs w/ cushings are very prone to recurrent infections, skin issues, fur loss, UTIs etc -- so it make me wonder a little about Tate.
Here are a couple of links so you can read more and see what you think:
Pet Owner's Crash Course in Canine Cushing's Disease Cushings
I hope she doesn't have it
- it really could be something else...I'm going to keep thinking about her symptoms and see if I can think of anything. Does she have signs of diabetes at all? Is her tummy skin "thin", any red patchy/weird areas (another skin infection related to cushings or hypothyroid)?