Anna's armpits/thyroid

[Wylie's Mom]

Originally Posted by barneysmommmy

So far she is just losing hair on her belly and under her arm pits. She does have a big belly. She is always hungry. I'm not sure about the activity intolerance. When we walk at the park, she will walk for a few minutes and then sit and refuse to move. But she is a little spoiled. I can usually get about 5-10 good minutes of activity out of her a day, like running and playing. It takes us 25 minutes to walk 3/4 of a mile. So she is obviously not winning any activity metals. She does have dry weepy eyes. But she also has a drippy nose. I attribute these to allergies. I'm sure walking that close to the ground, she takes in every allergen around. I've never noticed excessive drinking or peeing. She can still jump on the furniture so I think her back legs are fine.

It's hard to say what's going on, but I would def keep Cushings tucked away in the back of your mind, if nothing else. Keep in mind that Cushings dogs may have only 1 or 2 symptoms...they really don't have all of them, ever...which is partly why it's so tough to diagnose and OFTEN missed by even the best vets. To me, it does sound like she has some activity intolerance.

If she does have allergies, then her inflamed skin and fur loss could be related to that. Does she chew/lick her paws? Bc that's a cardinal sign of allergies in dogs.

[barneysmommmy]

Just got back from the vet. He said her armpit and belly are both normal pigmenting in an older dog. He thinks this is a result of her poor diet before we got her. He said that years of scratching and sores damages the skin. When we first got her, she had oily, scaly patches all over and she scratched non stop. He suspects that she is older than 7 years. The shelter that took her in last year made a guesstimate of her age at around 6 years.


He also suspects she is getting arthritis which is why she is less active. He put her on meds for that for 1 week. We go back in a week to check her again. Thanks for everyone's advice. It helped me to be able to go in with the right questions and concerns.