This post is about the very start of Max's cancer journey. Before my husband, Colin, and I noticed visible signs that made us start the testing for Max, we noticed he had been drinking a lot of water.
Believe it or not, there is a technical term for when dogs drink excessive amounts of water. It's called Polydipsia.
Generally, water intake will vary a little with diet. If dogs are fed wet food, they may drink less, while dogs that are fed dry food or salty snacks may drink more. There are certain diseases that could make a dog drink excessively (organ disease, Cushings Disease, Addison's Disease, Diabetes, Kidney failure, etc). For some dogs, drinking excessively can be behavioral. This is called Psychogenic Polydipsia. It is a behavioral condition with a physical manifestation of excess thirst. Bored puppies or dogs that love water may fill up on water but sorting these out for a vet can be very challenging.
We noticed Max drinking excessively about a year ago. We found ourselves constantly saying "That's enough bubbas" and sometimes we would even have to go and move him from his water bowl. Now, Max LOVES water. He loves to swim, he loves to be in the pool and he loves splashing in it. When I bring out his baby pool at the start of summer he gets SO EXCITED!!! He takes flying leaps into the pool, lies down in the freezing water, and has 'splish splash I was taking a baf' kinda fun! See pics below!
The ONLY time he doesn't like getting wet or to be in the water is when he gets a bath. He literally throws himself on the floor and we have to drag him to the tub and then hoist him inside of it. It is hilarious and ridiculous! See pics!
We took Max in to the vet to discuss the excessive drinking and it was thought that it could be behavioral. Max LOVES attention and he usually gets it if he's drinking too much because we have to move him along from his bowl, so we honestly thought it was just that. But, to be sure, we wanted tests ran.
Our vet ran tests for Cushings Disease and Addison's Disease because those were the 2 that we were concerned with the most. His labs all came back good for his kidneys and just about the only thing the vet did not do was an ultrasound. It was thought that his drinking excessively was behavioral, our vet said we had a healthy dog, so we went on with life.
It was May 1st when we first noticed that something was wrong (besides the excessive drinking). Max pee'd in the house for the first time. There was no warning at all. He didn't try to get our attention and he didn't go to the door either.
Then, on May 2nd, he did it again. Max has never had incontinence issues and he knows better so we weren't sure what was going on. On those particular days, we did have company in town visiting us and Max LOVES company! He wants to play with them, sit with them, eat with them, and be their 6am wake-up call in the mornings. Max and Sammy Lammington even try to unpack their luggage for them by digging through their bags and they both offer a turn down service by tearing apart their beds, kicking their pillows onto the floor and then demanding a snack. :) Yes. We are awesome dog trainers. :)
The 2nd time he pee'd we had set up a gate so he couldn't get into the kitchen while we ate dinner because we didn't want our guests to be bothered while trying to eat because.... well.... the dogs are spoiled rotten and this is what happens....
Max was very mad that we wouldn't let him in the kitchen and he just stood there at the gate barking at us and stomping his feet. We honestly thought he was just acting out when he pee'd.
We had a lot of changes happening around our house during this time, too. We were doing remodeling that spring and we had just finished installing all new flooring throughout the house. We were remodeling our bedroom and bathroom as well, so there were a lot of moving parts during that time and lot of new people and contractors in & out. We thought maybe this could be Max's way of "marking his territory" with the new carpet, etc.
Max had just been in for his annual exam as well. They gave him a great report and said "You have a very healthy dog". We had no reason to believe anything was physically wrong with him and chalked it up to the imbalance in the home and the new smells, flooring, company, etc.
We took him back in to our vet after those 2 pee-pee accidents bc we never want to take chances with our dog's health. We are overly cautious pet owners. If we had kids we'd be the parents taking their kid in to the doctor for every sneeze, hang nail, and burp (we are ridiculous, we know).
I took in a urine sample to have it checked for a UTI. The results came back inconclusive. There are so many reasons for this but it most likely was because it was a "free catch" sample which means I just held a container under his wanker and when you do that, it isn't sterile because there could be contaminants on the container, the lid, on the outside of his wanker, etc. It also has the chance to not give accurate info because the final product is not necessarily what started out in the bladder since the urine passed through other locations like the prostatic urethra and his wanks.
So, I wasn't happy with those results because it didn't give me any answers so I wanted a full urinalysis done. The next thing the vet suggested was to insert a catheter to get a more sterile sample, so that is what we did. Those results came back that Max had a UTI so we started him on Amoxicillin right away. This did NOT alarm us because Max and Sammy had stayed the night at daycare recently and Max tends to get UTI's when he is there because he loves to swim in their pee filled pool (you know those dogs pee in there!) and he tends to mark a lot at daycare which inflames his wanker and that irritation can cause this.
We had him on Amoxicillin for about 2 weeks (so this takes us into the middle of May). During this time, I noticed he started straining to go poopy. He had never done this before, but we chalked it up to having a bad UTI and wanted to run through the course of his meds.
After 2 weeks on the Amoxicillin, I took him back in to have them do another urinalysis (catheter insertion again). He still had a UTI. I wanted to have his anal glands expressed because I thought maybe they were full which was causing him to strain as well, so they did that for us, too (they were not near full). We also had our vet do an x-ray at this point to see if she could see anything that looked abnormal.
His x-ray came back and it showed the tip of his prostate (nearest the bladder) was a little larger than what it should be. There could be several reasons for this. At this point, we knew Max had a bad UTI so our vet thought that his infection penetrated his prostate (which is very possible with bad UTI infections). When this happens, this needs to get under control.
The prostate is a tough bird because not all medications will penetrate through the prostate lining (Amoxicillin is a good example of this as it is not a strong enough medication to do this). At this point, Max was put on Baytril (Enrofloxacin). This medication is effective against stubborn and hard to treat infections (it is effective against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacterias).
Max was on this for a few weeks. We noticed during this time that his straining seemed to be getting worse when pooping and his poop started to look different. Instead of being normal dog poopy'ish (thick'ish in nature) it was long poop (ribbon-like) in nature. With the research I was doing that could be because the prostate had inflammation due to the infection which would make the opening where the poo would travel through a bit squeezed and smaller - making his poop stretch out like stretch armstrong.
Max wasn't done with his Baytril medication but something in my gut was telling me that I needed to take him back in because he was still straining to go. I took him back in and told our vet I think we needed to do something else.
Our vet decided to do a Cystocentesis this time, which would give her more accurate information regarding his UTI. A Cystocentesis is used when you want a clean urine specimen directly from the bladder itself and it is performed by inserting a small needle through the skin directly into the bladder (much in the same way that a blood sample is obtained). This would give very clean and accurate information about the urine in the bladder.
After getting the results of his Cystocentesis, it looked like his numbers for his UTI were improving. My vet did the old "finger up the bum" salute to check to see if the inflammation in his prostate had reduced at all (it would suggest that if his UTI is starting to get under control that the prostate would return to it's normal size).
My vet said his prostate still felt enlarged on the end so she decided it would be best to go to a specialist at this point, to have an abdominal ultrasound which would give us a clear picture of what was happening with our boy.
You can read about our specialist appt on my next post.
I would like to add at this point, Max has shown ZERO signs of anything being wrong. The ONLY issue we have seen is when he goes to the bathroom. He not only is still having issues with ribbonlike poopy and straining to defecate, but, we are noticing he is now starting to strain to urinate when he is around the yard. His first peepee is great. He has a long and hard stream at first but then dribbles when he tries to urinate around the yard. Other than potty issues, he is eating like a horse (which is quite normal - Max is VERY food motivated). He is playing and is active and acting like his goofy little silly self.
What I learned going through this part of Max's journey:
-Now that I know what I know, I should have asked for an abdominal ultrasound way earlier when we were ruling out disease for Max with the excessive drinking. What a tough lesson to learn. Part of me feels like I failed him here, but, it's hind sight and can't be changed now. If I had asked them to do that test, we may have caught this earlier but I honestly just didn't know.
Even though ultrasounds are pretty expensive, in the future if we are concerned with disease and if other tests are coming back negative, we will definitely go with an ultrasound. A radiograph (x-ray) just isn't detailed enough to see what is happening if you suspect a disease.
-We are those pet owners that go out with their dogs every time they go to the bathroom. Yep. You read that right. We have an acre fenced in for the boys so they have a ton of room to run and play and we have had issues in the past from when Max was a puppy, where he'd step in his poop and me not know it. What happens then? Well thank you for asking! There is poop ALL OVER YOUR HOUSE! :) It is not pretty and I am SURE many of you are shaking your head 'yes' right now bc I am sure it has happened to you, too. We also have a poop eater (Sammy disgusting Lammington). So, to avoid the poopy kisses, poopy burps in my face, and poopy barfs inside the house, we choose to go out with our dogs every single time. We don't stay outside the entire time, but once they go peepee and poop, usually they are finished and just run and play and we go back inside. By doing this, we pick up their poop right away and it affords us to see exactly what their potty routine is and what their poop looks like. We are poop experts basically. By being so vigilant we know our dog's potty routine VERY well.
One of the very early signs of Max having issues even before the UTI, the straining, the peeing in the house was when I noticed Max changing how he pooped. He would go out and poop once and then go to another part of the yard to poop again. He started this about 3 months prior to the UTI and peeing in the house. Now that we know what we know, I wonder if this was a VERY early sign something was wrong. His poop didn't look different but that slight change in how he was pooping was different and out of his routine. We thought it was behavioral but now we wonder.
If your dog's potty routine changes in any way (this is just my opinion and not from a vet) I'd take them in to get checked. Even the slightest change.
-Always go with your gut. Be your pet's advocate. I had many gut intuitions since Max started his journey and I am so thankful I listened. One of those gut promptings I had was to get all of our summer projects done this spring. We had a TON of summer projects we wanted to get done this year and they were BIG ones. My husband and I were going to do them together but something in May was telling me to not wait and to get these projects done so I busted butt in May, not knowing what we had just around the corner for us. I am thankful I listened. I am also thankful I listened to my gut and took him back in even when his meds were not finished yet. I have no doubt these were all promptings from God bc I am just not that smart. :)
Cost of treatment so far:
I want to be very transparent with people so they know what to expect. We had extra tests ran that you may not be doing and we went through 3 different urinalysis tests, which may not be necessary for you. Once I get all my papers together I will fill this part in.
Thank you for your transparency. Hope it helps others on tneir journey. Hugs and prayers.
ReplyDeleteThanks Susanne! ((())) hugs right back to you!
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