Vets stumped, need suggestions!!! - Page 2

It could be a simple UTI, or stones in the kidney or bladder. I had a cat that would get bladder stones every time I moved. My first GSD also developed a really bad UTI just after I rescued her. I am sure it was caused by the stress of moving from a farm to a high-rise apartment in the city.

If this was a west coast dog this would be a possibility as well.

If you are unfamiliar with foxtails, count your blessings! These pesky, bristly plant awns grow in abundance throughout California and are reported in most every state west of the Mississippi. Once the plant heads dry, they become hell-bent on finding their way into dogs’ noses, ears, eyes, mouths and just about every other orifice. They can dive deep into a dog’s nostril or ear canal (beyond sight) in the blink of an eye. And a foxtail camouflaged under a layer of hair can readily burrow through the skin (a favorite hiding place is between toes). Foxtails can wind up virtually anywhere in the body, and associated symptoms vary based on location. For example, a foxtail within the ear canal causes head shaking, under the skin a draining tract, or within the lung, labored breathing and coughing. Not only is the dog’s body incapable of degrading or decomposing foxtails, these plant awns are barbed in such a way that they can only move in a “forward” direction. Unless caught early, they, and the bacteria they carry, either become walled off to form an abscess or migrate through the body causing infection and tissue damage. Once foxtails have moved internally, they become the proverbial needle in a haystack—notoriously difficult to find and remove.
 

Depending on the location of the seed or seeds, other symptoms are compulsive licking and biting at a paw or around the groin or rectal area or whining and crying with no obvious or acute injury.

In addition to causing pain and localized infections, foxtail seeds can migrate and lodge in the spine, in the lungs and in other internal organs. They enter through the nose, ears, paws, eyes, urethra or just through the skin and travel through the body The seeds are very small, making locating them a painful, difficult and expensive procedure. Depending on where a foxtail seed has traveled to inside a dog, it can even be life threatening and will require prompt surgical removal.

An inhaled foxtail seed which has lodged in the nasal cavity may cause violent sneezing, sometimes with a bloody discharge from the nostrils. To remove it, a veterinarian may need to sedate the animal, locate the seed with a scope, and remove it with a forceps.

Swallowed foxtail seeds lodged in the throat will cause symptoms of an inflamed sore throat. A dog will swallow repeatedly, gulp, cough and gag. Even if the barbed seeds can be detected on examination, the dog will need to be sedated to relax the throat muscles so a veterinarian can grasp the seeds and remove them.

 

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art29569.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxtail_%28diaspore%29

That is excellent info on the foxtails, I see alot of dogs at a certain time of year that come in with em and I always tell my clients to keep a close eye on them, I have had those that were burrow deeply under the skin, only the tip of the tail showing

Ok, here is additional information.

The very first thing they checked was for antifreeze poisioning.

White blood count is slightly elevated, kidney and liver functions are normal.

Abdominal xray showed no stones or other oddities.

She said the vet is leaning toward nerve damage of the bladder due to a slipped disk. She said his urine is clear today, but was bloody yesterday. He cannot
relieve himself and is catheterized. He is on antibiotics, meds to relax organs (not sure which ones) and meds to assist his bladder to contract. The vet is
afraid that if it is nerve damage, that it will not get better. They are letting him go home tomorrow to "give him a chance" (this is what she stated...) and if
after all of this, he still cannot urinate, the last resort will be euth.

Melissa

This jogs my memory about a friend/client I have... we were with the spca together for several years.. let me try to contact her... she had an old gsd she brought in for a bath and I totally freaked while I was doing the sanitary, he had a hole in front of his penis! I called her in a panic because there was no blood and I had no clue how in the hell I could have caused that! She laughed after she got over feeling bad... she failed to mention to me that the dog had had a problem and they had to reroute his uretha, he didnt pee out of his penis any longer but went thru that hole. Let me try to get ahold of her and see if she has more info. I do remember her saying she had to take him to Texas A&M.

Sounds like prostatitis. One of my sled dogs had that, years ago. He had trouble urinating .... blood in his urine and would strain and cry when he peed. Meds did not clear it up completely, so had to castrate him. He then got over it, but taking his balls made him cranky and he got where he thought he needed to kick his team mates' butts ;-/ had to keep a handle on him in the team. But he never had trouble peeing any more.

He was neutered in October, so no balls.

LOL @ Shandra. Please do look into that for me. I'd like to give her as many suggestions as possible to help him..

Melissa

That sucks. Didn't you just get that dog? Why change the name? Anyways, maybe swallow somthing that doesn't show up on xrays like wood

Ok. I had a female (spayed) husky x that had bladder cancer. She would strain to pee. Hardly anything would come out, then a little blood....after meds for presumably bladder infection and meds to RELAX the bladder so she wouldn't strain all the time, nothing worked. Then a mass developed that could be felt when palpating her abdomen. My vet opened her up (I was in surgery with her) and there was a ping pong sized mass inside her bladder. We euth while she was still anesthetized. (my vet figured it'd come back if it was removed, and she was in her teens by that time).

No, this is not the Sarge I just got. It was the first Sarge that was pulled from WV.

The vet stated that he felt the bladder has been stretched and weakened and that is why he cannot urinate, ultimately due to the
aggravation of a slipped disk (prior to his rescue).

She changed his name because he gave her a chance... a chance to be happy in an utterly chaotic world, and a chance for him
to be taken care of and valued the way he was meant to be.

She told me that his prostate is fine, checked out a ok

Melissa