Desperate to find answers to health problem.

Hi All,

I'm new to this forum. I have a 6.5 year old mutt named Daisy. She is 11 pounds and she is having so many problems and the vets are stumped.

This started when she got a scratch on her cornea. I took her in and got drops for her eye and took her in a week later to see if it was healing. It wasn't. Added another prescription drops, back a week later her eye was worse.

Daisy had a rough start to life. She was abandoned when her owners moved off and left her. I don't know how old she was but she was a year and a half when my husband found her hanging around a subdivision where he was property manager. He bought her home and we decided to keep her. She has a number of issues, one of them is submissive urination. If you come up on her too quickly, or raise a voice, she squats and pees.

We have her on an anti-anxiety medication and it has helped but has not stopped it completely. The reason I'm giving this much detail is because when I try to treat her eye she immediately squats and pees all over. No matter how gentle I try to be it's been a nightmare trying to get these drops in her eye regularly.

After three weeks of her eye getting worse and the battle of wills over these drops I boarded her at the vet for them to do the drops.

Because she wasn't healing and she was drinking a lot of water they tested her for diabetes. It was negative, they also tested her for Cushing's which was also negative. I took her in there weighing 14 pounds and got a dog back that was 11 pounds and not healing. There is something wrong, she is thirsty, she is not gaining weight even though I'm feeding her three times her normal food. She is now so bony. Her eye isn't much better and I've consulted with three different vets.

I'm worried, frustrated and feel so bad for her. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing the weight loss, excessive drinking, listlessness and eye not healing?

Help.


Loni

Hi and welcome to the forum

Sorry to hear your dog has an eye problem. Ulcers can be very hard to heal. I had a dog which suffered from repetitive corneal ulcers but she was autoimmune with hypothyroidism and eventually lost one eye and had to have a graft on the remaining one. I really feel for you as she needs the drops so please try to give them to her.

Corneal ulceration can be difficult and stubborn to treat. A dog belonging to a neighbour of mine had to have her eye stitched closed to give it the best chance of healing. This didn't work, and she ended up having to have the eye removed. The result was a wonky look, but a much happier dog.
I would stress that I am not qualified to diagnose, this is just a thought. Did your vet do a full blood profile on Daisy, and did they test all of her thyroid levels? If not, you have a renowned blood lab in the US called Hemopet. It is run by Jean Dodds DVM, a world expert in canine endocrine diseases.
Have a Google around, The Canine Thyroid Epidemic, and see what you think.

Thyroid problems sprang to mind with me too, but, of course, we are not vets.

Have you mentioned the weight problem to your vet? Write everything down - even the smallest symptom because the more information you give your vet, the more likely they are to spot the problem quickly

Good luck. I hope Daisy is soon on the mend xx

I agree with @Chris. Note down every little detail and tell it to the vet. She'll be fine soon. Good luck and be safe.

Hi. Sorry to hear about your dog's problems and your dilemma. The cornea usually responds well to treatment unless: the treatment is not correct or the dog continues to cause problems with self-trauma to the eye. If a cornea does not heal and the dog is not making it worse, then the vet usually will opt for a more aggressive approach such as debriding the lesion to re-activate healing or to put a collagenous contact lens over the lesion. Boxers are notorious for having corneal ulcers that are slow to heal. You might Google: indolent corneal ulcers in dogs and read more about this.

In regards to the fearful response when approached, there are many ways to help re-condition her. As a holistic vet, I usually try to find a more natural method of dealing with this than using pharmaceutical anti-depressants that cause chemical brain changes that are hard to restore once off the drug.

You might start with something simple like Kava, which works well as an anti-anxiety for dogs. Essential oils such as Lavender or Peppermint diffused work well. There are some nice blends such as Young Living's Peace and Calm blend that also works well with dogs with anxiety. Another approach is to use Chinese medicine. Fear is the emotion associated with kidney imbalance. This is also the reason she urinates with her fearful response. Strengthening the energetic kidney and restoring balance will often help with fearful behavior. Last and not least, many dogs that had stressful times during early puppy life have chakra imbalances that lead to this type of behavior. The root chakra, which gives them a sense of security, is developed between pre-birth and one year of age. If there is a lot of stress during that period, the chakra will not develop properly and the result will be fearful, insecure behavior patterns. There are people out there that are good at evaluating chakra function and determining if they are out of balance and correct them if so. Hope some of this helps.