I have a 6 (will be 7 in March) year old Papillion mix. A few months ago, he started shedding his coat in clumps. I started worrying, but my vet said as long as there were no bald spots (which there weren't) he was fine; my dad suggested it was with the stress of moving (he lived with my parents his whole life and moved into my apartment a few months prior, but this didn't start until a few months later), and with the changing seasons (it was cold then hot then cold then hot). A few days later, I saw a bald spot near his haunches, and then a bald spot right on his butt. He gained a lot of weight, even though his diet didn't change (other than not getting nearly as many treats/extra scrap food) and his exercise stayed the same. He's always had really bad allergies, and they got a lot worse recently, which they normally do in the fall. I had been giving him one Benedryl every morning, then I upped it to two, and then he got a cortisone shot almost a week ago(no fleas). He's still itching. The shot normally does the trick, but it is a new environment and I embarrassingly enough don't keep my apartment as clean as my mom keeps her house, and the outside isn't as clean, so it could be different environmental allergies with all the dust, etc. His coat is really drab now; it used to be really fluffy and full, but his tail is about 1/3 the thickness, and his whole coat is just...icky now. But that could be the allergies; I haven't been around for the past couple of falls, but according to my parents his tail normally thins in the fall and thickens in the spring. He wont' go up the stairs anymore (but he'll go down), and he doesn't jump nearly as much, but he has gained weight and he is slowing down big time, so that could be a cause of that. He doesn't play, run, or walk as fast as he used to. He sleeps a lot more.
To top it off, over Thanksgiving he peed in both of my grandparents' houses (which he's been to dozens of times before and never done), and the first time he had just been out 20 minutes prior. He hasn't peed in the house in years.
As far as the increased appetite, that's hard to tell because he's always been a pig. His skull and muscles look the same.
My parents and fiancée keep telling me that I'm reading into it too much and that he's just getting old and fat and not to worry about it. I keep worried that if I let it go too long that it'll turn out to be Cushing's, but I don't want to jump the gun.
If he were yours, would you take him? I suppose since I'm the only one I know who wants to take him that I'm starting to doubt myself, and I just need someone else to say "take him now" to give me that extra shove.
To top it off, over Thanksgiving he peed in both of my grandparents' houses (which he's been to dozens of times before and never done), and the first time he had just been out 20 minutes prior. He hasn't peed in the house in years.
As far as the increased appetite, that's hard to tell because he's always been a pig. His skull and muscles look the same.
My parents and fiancée keep telling me that I'm reading into it too much and that he's just getting old and fat and not to worry about it. I keep worried that if I let it go too long that it'll turn out to be Cushing's, but I don't want to jump the gun.
If he were yours, would you take him? I suppose since I'm the only one I know who wants to take him that I'm starting to doubt myself, and I just need someone else to say "take him now" to give me that extra shove.
