![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
outsdrShortly after I returned, Ike started being really skittish about walking across the rugs in the kitchen. now, Ike doesn't like linoleum or hard-surfaced floors; we think they hurt his legs to walk on them (slippy surfaces requiring more muscle control for balance, which puts greater strain on his joints.) But with carpet runners down on the floor of the kitchen, he's been doing fine for the past five years.
It began with him hesitating to cross the bridge over the hot lava, requiring lots of coaxing before he'd skitter his way across. Then, he wouldn't step over the six inch gap between rugs in the middle of the floor. Finally, no amount of coaxing would get him to even step onto the rugs, even after I replaced them with new rugs so there wasn't any gap in the middle. The only way for him to get from one side of the kitchen to the other was to be carried. Not a great solution- he's an 85 pound dog. At first, I just moved his food and water into the living room so he'd have access to it during the day. But my bedroom is on the other side of the kitchen, and that's where he likes to be at night. The first night wasn't so bad; I picked him up, carried him across, and carried him back the next morning. But the second night, he had to go out twice. That was a lot of carrying back and forth.
So, I've temporarily moved into the spare bedroom off of the living room. Working out okay so far, even though the bed is lumpy.
To complicate matters, about a week ago he started urinating in the house. Not little dribbles; full fledged bladder-emptied puddles. And it smelled bad (according to Andy; for some reason, I can't detect it at all.) He'd have an accident every other day or so, but Monday he started having them every day, and yesterday he had one twice. I was convinced that he had become incontinent, possibly due to nerve damage in his hindquarters. I ordered him a doggy diaper off of amazon, and just resigned myself to cleaning up puddles and shampooing carpets until it arrived.
Then this morning, when I was getting ready for work, he gingerly stepped out onto the kitchen rugs, squatted and let lose. I told him to stop, and he looked at me with an expression that said, "Look, I'm not happy about this either, but there ain't nothing I can do about it, okay? Don't judge me!"
I called the vet today while I was at work, and she asked me to bring in a urine sample. This actually wasn't too difficult to obtain ... I came home after he'd been in the house for about two hours, let him out, and just followed him with a plastic bowl. He can't move very fast. The urine was dark, and as I noticed for the first time, remarkably pungent and odorous. I took it to the vet so she could test it for signs of infection.
She called me about an hour later. The good news was that there was no sign of infection. The bad news was that it was so dark because there was blood in it, probably caused by the crystals she found in the urine, which were probably caused by the insanely high alkaline PH level of the urine. She said it was so high, her alkaline-PH-detector-measurer wasn't able to go high enough. But no clue why.
So for starters, he's getting special canned dog food (At only $2.50 a can! He only needs at least two a day! Maybe four! He eats better than I do, lol) to correct the ph balance, and switched to a different dry dog food, which for now he's turning his nose to. But he'll eat it eventually; he's had it before. We're surmising that the crystals in his urine as well as the high alkaline level, are irritating him akin to a urinary tract infection, hence the less than desirable bladder control. Poor guy; it must burn dreadfully when he pees.
So, hopefully the food will change things for the better. I'll find out Monday when I take in a new urine sample. I'm not sure if the irritated pee-pee has anything to do with not wanting to walk across the kitchen, but I'm hoping that when one clears up, the other will as well. I miss my non-lumpy bed, and the house sounds weird from that room.
It began with him hesitating to cross the bridge over the hot lava, requiring lots of coaxing before he'd skitter his way across. Then, he wouldn't step over the six inch gap between rugs in the middle of the floor. Finally, no amount of coaxing would get him to even step onto the rugs, even after I replaced them with new rugs so there wasn't any gap in the middle. The only way for him to get from one side of the kitchen to the other was to be carried. Not a great solution- he's an 85 pound dog. At first, I just moved his food and water into the living room so he'd have access to it during the day. But my bedroom is on the other side of the kitchen, and that's where he likes to be at night. The first night wasn't so bad; I picked him up, carried him across, and carried him back the next morning. But the second night, he had to go out twice. That was a lot of carrying back and forth.
So, I've temporarily moved into the spare bedroom off of the living room. Working out okay so far, even though the bed is lumpy.
To complicate matters, about a week ago he started urinating in the house. Not little dribbles; full fledged bladder-emptied puddles. And it smelled bad (according to Andy; for some reason, I can't detect it at all.) He'd have an accident every other day or so, but Monday he started having them every day, and yesterday he had one twice. I was convinced that he had become incontinent, possibly due to nerve damage in his hindquarters. I ordered him a doggy diaper off of amazon, and just resigned myself to cleaning up puddles and shampooing carpets until it arrived.
Then this morning, when I was getting ready for work, he gingerly stepped out onto the kitchen rugs, squatted and let lose. I told him to stop, and he looked at me with an expression that said, "Look, I'm not happy about this either, but there ain't nothing I can do about it, okay? Don't judge me!"
I called the vet today while I was at work, and she asked me to bring in a urine sample. This actually wasn't too difficult to obtain ... I came home after he'd been in the house for about two hours, let him out, and just followed him with a plastic bowl. He can't move very fast. The urine was dark, and as I noticed for the first time, remarkably pungent and odorous. I took it to the vet so she could test it for signs of infection.
She called me about an hour later. The good news was that there was no sign of infection. The bad news was that it was so dark because there was blood in it, probably caused by the crystals she found in the urine, which were probably caused by the insanely high alkaline PH level of the urine. She said it was so high, her alkaline-PH-detector-measurer wasn't able to go high enough. But no clue why.
So for starters, he's getting special canned dog food (At only $2.50 a can! He only needs at least two a day! Maybe four! He eats better than I do, lol) to correct the ph balance, and switched to a different dry dog food, which for now he's turning his nose to. But he'll eat it eventually; he's had it before. We're surmising that the crystals in his urine as well as the high alkaline level, are irritating him akin to a urinary tract infection, hence the less than desirable bladder control. Poor guy; it must burn dreadfully when he pees.
So, hopefully the food will change things for the better. I'll find out Monday when I take in a new urine sample. I'm not sure if the irritated pee-pee has anything to do with not wanting to walk across the kitchen, but I'm hoping that when one clears up, the other will as well. I miss my non-lumpy bed, and the house sounds weird from that room.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-04-29 03:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-29 12:24 pm (UTC)