Hello Everyone! I am so excited to be apart of this amazing forum!
I do hate that my first post is not something so exciting though.
I have a 9 year old Yorkie named Mollie AKA "Punky"
So for the past 4 years I lived with room mates that had cats, and another dog. (Mollie, until then, had been on her own since she was born.) At this time she was 5 and bam! living in a small space with 6 other animals...she was not happy to say the least. She was around my mother's basset hound though from day 1. They got along until Mollie was around 8months old, then she became very territorial, and decided she didn't want to be friends anymore. IDK how or why that happened.
Anyways just a little background.
So Mollie after about a year of living with the other animals, apart from her seeming slightly more aggressive and withdrawn, she started to develop serious skin problems. She was red and crusty all over and itched non-stop it was horrible! We went to the vet and found out she has a flea, and an environmental allergy. Well, I got real strict with her flea medicine thinking that would help, but since our room mates didn't believe that flea medicine, for there animals was safe... this ended up being a never- ever- ending cycle.
So Mollie just kept getting worse. I took her to the vet again after giving her a bath one night. As soon as the shampoo touched her skin she yelped, snapped at me, and made an accident in the tub from pain.
Come to find out she had developed a yeast infection, along with a secondary bacterial infection from the constant biting and licking from the fleas. They sent us home with Melasob shampoo, antibiotics, antihistamines, steroids (because she was wheezing sooooo bad from the constant scratching and the allergy to the fleas, it was so scary) and eye medication too.
Well it started to get better, but no...after about 2 months back to the vet she went.
When we took her this time (3rd time) the vet did all the blood work again everything seemed fine but one...well two things....they found a mass in her breast, and she had a pretty bad UTI. Mollie is 9 yr old and I never had her spayed, always thinking I would have a litter of pups and never did. Now I had waited too long and she could have something seriously wrong, on top of all this misery she had been through. Since those two things go hand in hand (Not being spayed and breast cancer) I was terrified. We took her in for her surgery to have the mass removed and have her spayed at the same time and the vet warned me, that she would be surprised if it was benign. I was physically sick for weeks worried.
After her surgery that day she was so strange...I know they are, but it was still a little unsettling for me to see her like this. She wouldn't lay down or sit she would stand on all fours and just boom! hit the floor falling asleep. She did this over and over all night. I felt so bad, I couldn't sleep worried about her, but She did perk up the next day a little though, and eventually was her normal, happy, playful, bossy self.
In just 1 day I had to force her not to jump and run!
Well, before her surgery we HAD to move because of the flea infestation...mainly, and the last year that we lived there she started (out of nowhere) eating out of the litter box, AND I would catch her chewing on strange things, like smalls screws, necklace chains, anything metal... it was shocking, and the fleas were absolutely unbearable. But her skin is doing so so so good now, and the Mass that was removed the results came back that it was in fact Benign!!!
) So everything seems to be going good! Except for the fact that I still catch her chewing on metal screws, and necklace chains every now and then. (I swear I don't know where she finds them either! And it's sooo not like her..)
Anyways, after her surgery her upper tummy looked real big, swollen looking, and the lower part seemed kinda normal, smaller though. I thought this would go away quickly after she had some time to heal.
Well now it's been a few months and still the swelling never seemed to fully go down on her upper abdomen. Like she was bloated. But she is so hungry all the time!!!!! She drives me crazy always wanting her food. She get's mad and barks non-stop and slaps her water bowl over. I feel bad like...she's gonna starve! LOL. So I started feeding her 4 small portions a day, and try to keep her occupied. Sometimes it works, others...no. But she has gained so much weight in the past 2-3 months, so I can't really tell if she is still swollen or if she is bloated, or just plain pudgier.
( And because I felt so guilty about everything going on with her, I started mixing soft canned food with her dry kibble. LOL I know that sounds silly but it made us both feel better.
Partly because she didn't have much of an appetite after surgery. And, I think I messed up doing this because she doesn't really like it any other way now!)
Okay, so now when she was at the vet they tested her for worms and it came back negative. For the longest time though she had been butt scooting and I was told it was from the yeast, because her worm test was negative. She had done it for so long and along with biting that area too, I figured she was just scratching the yeast. After surgery, and still to this day she can't reach back to bite at her tail from her tummy being swollen, so she had been scooting more and more. One day after she pottied I noticed she did in fact have a little something in there. I called the vet and they gave her some meds. I haven't seen anything since, but the scooting still goes on.
I have never had any problems with glands before, so I don't suspect that ...really... but I don't rule it out. Also all the crusty yeast on her body is gone but finally after having enough of the scooting and grunting one day, I told her to let me rub her belly so she would stop. When she rolled over I saw her female area was red from scooting so much, so... I had to inspect. What I noticed was that She has a remainder of yeast on the underside of her tail. (It was pretty bad too..
) I spray it with Keto-c spray and give her allergy meds and she seems a little better. I am still doing it though, trying to keep her comfortable, and it's almost completely gone, but she still scoots...
Ok so after I have wrote a book here on our Bio, this is what I am asking for advice on.
Her tail where the yeast is, it's like a turtle kinda! She has a little fat roll over it now. She is unable to bite at it, which is a good thing but has to scoot which is not so good. She also now is having trouble with one of her back legs too, which concerns me. IDK if it's from the weight gain or possibly from all the falling after surgery, or just age...maybe all three.
But my mother stopped by to see her today and told me that Mollie wasn't acting right and looked swollen! So I am worried now. I thought she seemed ok, but was just getting fat, (especially since she now has a little fat roll on her tail!) but my mother really thinks she looks "That Swollen" and After the cost of her surgery I can't afford to go see the vet again. (I will if I have to, but hoping I don't need to). She will be going back in the next couple months though, but I don't want to have to do an emergency visit.
Up to the day of her surgery she WAS able to bend back far enough to bite at her tail from what I remember. Then afterwards, understandably, she couldn't bend back for awhile because her belly was swollen but it's been four months now. I would think she would be healed enough to be able to bend the same way by now. (That's what got me thinking my mom could be right.) Unless it's the weight gain, or is the swelling on her belly to painful for her to reach back and bite, and thats why she has to scoot? I also thought that since it's her hind leg that seems to be bothering her she might be a little stiff, because she does, when it's real cold have a hard time jumping up the small step to get on the porch outside. Also she is drinking a lot of water and potties a lot, but always has really. Could she be scooting because she has another UTI and she is putting pressure on her female area for relief? It was pretty bad apparently, but after 3 rounds of antibiotics you would think that would be gone.I did change her food and her stool seems the same but different at times, I just figured that was because of her eating so much more, and the change of food that could make her stool a little different. I haven't seen anymore of the ...eewww...worms at all. I just don't understand all of this new unusual behavior. She has been playful and happy since we moved but I won't let her leave the house because I don't want her to get a flea lol. (Even though she is on flea meds) She only goes in our yard, could she be board, would that explain the screw chewing?...For attention? And I just don't understand why she is now, after surgery unable to bend the way she used to, the fact that her abdomen still looks kinda swollen, and weight gain lol, and her leg hurting, and the scooting, and starving! (By the way when she tries to bend back to bite her butt, she goes for it, grunts a little, then decides to scoot)
After this long post, if your not exhausted
. Any thoughts/advice to these new behaviors? Body changes? After being spayed? Besides the weird chewing on the screws?
Now I do have a tendency to overreact when it comes to Mollie. My Mother hasn't seen her since her weight gain, so she could just be a little..shocked lol by it, seeing her belly... My boyfriend thinks shes fine, just overweight. He does worry about her leg though. We give her Joint Supplements and when I give them on schedule they do seem to work.
Anyways I will hush now...Thanks in advance for any thoughts/advice!