jesjoh123
07-25-2013, 12:40 PM
I'm new to the forum, but I have a dog that I'm not sure what to do. Taz is a 12 year old (will be 13 in August) miniature pinscher. At least he looks like one, he was adopted about 8 years ago. He has various health problems which I will try to sum some of them up to help with the diagnosis.
He was diagnosed with Wolff Parkinson White syndrome about 4-5 years ago. He is currently on Sotalol 2x a day to control this and hasn't had an episode in over a year. (this is a heart condition that can cause episodes of tachycardia)
He has had 2 surgeries to remove bladder stones and is currently on Royal Canine Urinary SO dog food for the past 3-4 years to try to help with the stones. The last 2 urinalysis we had done said his ph was 5.0 which is low for dogs with oxalate stones. I asked about changing his dog food, but vet didn't want to. With a ph of 5 he will probably get another stone and vet is scared to had supplements because of current medications and conditions.
He started chewing and licking his paws around February (during pollen season) and still haven't figured out what's wrong. Have been on several rounds of antibiotics for possible bacterial infection, tried fungal wipes, and even was on prednisone for a few weeks to help inflammation. We started him on Tuesday with Zinc supplements thinking it was a possible zinc deficiency, but it will take several weeks to see if this works.
It's the prednisone we think which caused his next problem-diabetes. He was diagnosed on April 15th with diabetes when his sugar was over 500 and he was drinking and peeing all the time. He acted normal when he started the prednisone, but started showing symptoms when we were weaning him off of it. We were hoping the diabetes would reverse itself, but not yet. He started out on 4 units of Novolin-N 2x a day and that wasn't enough so bumped him up to 6 units. Was doing good on that, but then his sugar dropped to 58 so we reduced it to 5 units which was good for over a month. Then about 4 weeks ago he started leaking urine around 2 hours before he got his insulin. Took him to the vet. No UTI, but sugar was 447. Sent urine sample for cortisol/creatnine ratio. The ratio came back high. I think the vet said 41 which could mean Cushing's disease. The vet had us reduce his insulin last Tuesday to 4 units thinking maybe his sugar was getting low during the day and his body was reacting and making his sugar go high. I thought he was crazy, but after a few days he didn't get worse. We had his sugar checked again on Friday and his sugar was 407 which was lower than on the 5 units. Starting Sunday, he started drinking and peeing a lot again so I'm not sure what's going on. He's been sleeping most of the day for about 4 weeks now. I don't know if this is due to age, cushing's, or low sugar. We currently don't test sugar at home because he's an aggressive dog when it comes to needles.
The vet wants us to do a low dose dexamethasone test which costs around $200, but I'm afraid he will get a false positive result because his diabetes isn't controlled right now and I've read that it is common to get false positives with diabetic dogs. He does have a few symptoms of Cushings-pot belly (which he's had for a long time), thinning coat, some panting, and lethargy. He had his annual exam on 7/16 and his bloodwork looked good except for his liver enzymes. His ALT was 302, ALKP was 342, GGT 14, cholesterol >520. I know this can indicate Cushings, but they could also be due to his diabetes. I'm just so tired of seeing him sleep all day long. The only exercise he gets is going out every few hours to pee or get water. He's eating good and is going 6 hours during the day and night without drinking any water, but is drinking excessive outside that window. I'm not sure what to do and we still have the paw problems. We have to put a cone on him everytime we leave the house. I want to increase his insulin, but I'm not sure since his last sugar check was better at 4 units than 5 units and he's going several hours during the day without drinking water. He's got the start of cataracts and I don't want him to get full blown cataracts so I want to get this under control quickly. Sorry for the long post, but any advice would be helpful. We are willing to spend the money to treat the cushings if we are absolutely sure that's what it is. We have spent a lot of money on him and have 2 children to provide for as well. We also have a 10 year old miniature schnauzer which has diabetes and had cataract removal surgery in May, so I don't want to spend a lot more unless I'm sure of the diagnosis.
He is a male miniature pinscher that weighs 15.7 lbs.
He was diagnosed with Wolff Parkinson White syndrome about 4-5 years ago. He is currently on Sotalol 2x a day to control this and hasn't had an episode in over a year. (this is a heart condition that can cause episodes of tachycardia)
He has had 2 surgeries to remove bladder stones and is currently on Royal Canine Urinary SO dog food for the past 3-4 years to try to help with the stones. The last 2 urinalysis we had done said his ph was 5.0 which is low for dogs with oxalate stones. I asked about changing his dog food, but vet didn't want to. With a ph of 5 he will probably get another stone and vet is scared to had supplements because of current medications and conditions.
He started chewing and licking his paws around February (during pollen season) and still haven't figured out what's wrong. Have been on several rounds of antibiotics for possible bacterial infection, tried fungal wipes, and even was on prednisone for a few weeks to help inflammation. We started him on Tuesday with Zinc supplements thinking it was a possible zinc deficiency, but it will take several weeks to see if this works.
It's the prednisone we think which caused his next problem-diabetes. He was diagnosed on April 15th with diabetes when his sugar was over 500 and he was drinking and peeing all the time. He acted normal when he started the prednisone, but started showing symptoms when we were weaning him off of it. We were hoping the diabetes would reverse itself, but not yet. He started out on 4 units of Novolin-N 2x a day and that wasn't enough so bumped him up to 6 units. Was doing good on that, but then his sugar dropped to 58 so we reduced it to 5 units which was good for over a month. Then about 4 weeks ago he started leaking urine around 2 hours before he got his insulin. Took him to the vet. No UTI, but sugar was 447. Sent urine sample for cortisol/creatnine ratio. The ratio came back high. I think the vet said 41 which could mean Cushing's disease. The vet had us reduce his insulin last Tuesday to 4 units thinking maybe his sugar was getting low during the day and his body was reacting and making his sugar go high. I thought he was crazy, but after a few days he didn't get worse. We had his sugar checked again on Friday and his sugar was 407 which was lower than on the 5 units. Starting Sunday, he started drinking and peeing a lot again so I'm not sure what's going on. He's been sleeping most of the day for about 4 weeks now. I don't know if this is due to age, cushing's, or low sugar. We currently don't test sugar at home because he's an aggressive dog when it comes to needles.
The vet wants us to do a low dose dexamethasone test which costs around $200, but I'm afraid he will get a false positive result because his diabetes isn't controlled right now and I've read that it is common to get false positives with diabetic dogs. He does have a few symptoms of Cushings-pot belly (which he's had for a long time), thinning coat, some panting, and lethargy. He had his annual exam on 7/16 and his bloodwork looked good except for his liver enzymes. His ALT was 302, ALKP was 342, GGT 14, cholesterol >520. I know this can indicate Cushings, but they could also be due to his diabetes. I'm just so tired of seeing him sleep all day long. The only exercise he gets is going out every few hours to pee or get water. He's eating good and is going 6 hours during the day and night without drinking any water, but is drinking excessive outside that window. I'm not sure what to do and we still have the paw problems. We have to put a cone on him everytime we leave the house. I want to increase his insulin, but I'm not sure since his last sugar check was better at 4 units than 5 units and he's going several hours during the day without drinking water. He's got the start of cataracts and I don't want him to get full blown cataracts so I want to get this under control quickly. Sorry for the long post, but any advice would be helpful. We are willing to spend the money to treat the cushings if we are absolutely sure that's what it is. We have spent a lot of money on him and have 2 children to provide for as well. We also have a 10 year old miniature schnauzer which has diabetes and had cataract removal surgery in May, so I don't want to spend a lot more unless I'm sure of the diagnosis.
He is a male miniature pinscher that weighs 15.7 lbs.