Watson still acting strangely.

[dhollister]

Hi guys -

My Watson has still been acting up. As I posted before, he loves eating his own feces. You guys said this is normal, but you must understand that he is 11 years old and has never done this until now. Now, he eats his own feces nearly every time I take him out. He's drawn to it, you pull him away from it and he won't obey. He simply will not stop eating it. And never in his entire 11 years of life has this occurred.

The second thing that he's suddenly doing is drinking tons and tons and tons of water, and then having to wake me up 3-4 times while I'm sleeping to go to the bathroom. It's getting very annoying. Now I know this can be diabetes and stuff, but he's done this in the past for a short time and then stopped. He's been doing this for about 5 days solid now, so I don't know...

I would take him to the vet, but I'm 20 and really don't have much money. I keep taking him to the vet for stuff, and he never turns out to have anything wrong with him. I've spent nearly $1000 just in the past 4 months in vet bills, and he's never actually had anything wrong with him, so I'm hesitant to take him in now. I cannot afford this. I just don't know what to do. He seems to be absolutely addicted to both water and his own feces, and he stops me from sleeping every night. I have no idea what to do.

 

[bubbatd]

Please have him checked out . My IB was that age when ,because of a brain tumor , she began to do many strange things. But, she also started to have seizures. Start making daily notes so you can try to find a pattern. I hope Mordy can help here . I know it's a horrible worry for you .

 

[dhollister]

It really is. Last time I took him into get some x-rays and the whole thing cost me almost $500, and it's tough. I love him so much, I'd take him in and get every test he needed, but it's hard to make that happen. It's not even a matter of me thinking it's too much, it's that I literally don't even have that amount of money in my bank account at all right now. (I'm 20 and in school and am not supported by my family) I'll have to do some fancy footwork to get him his tests, so I think I'll give it a few days to see if he mellows out or if it continues... I'll definitely bring him in to get checked if nothing changes soon...

 

[GlassOnion]

Have you changed foods recently?

Could be the new food makes his feces taste sweeter. That's why dogs eat cat crap, because cat food is a lot sweeter than dog food and that transfers over to their feces as well.


Or, perhaps he simply has never tried it in the past, decided to try it one day, and liked it. Who knows.

 

[dhollister]

Nope, he's been eating the same food for years. Perhaps he just never tried it before. I'm still concerned about the water-drinking part... he's still at it, he still woke me up 3 times last night to go to the bathroom and then immediately went for the water bowl.

 

[Delisay]

Yikes, that is a worry for you. It does sound like blood sugar symptoms, or it could relate to an infection, tumor or obstruction of the kidneys, or perhaps a thyroid problem... or something simpler.

Something that I've learned - mostly from 'human' doctors - is that "test are negative" is NOT the same as saying "there's nothing wrong". It really means "I don't yet know what's causing the symptoms". If you are seeing symptoms, you are seeing what you are seeing, so by definition something IS wrong (although not necessarily serious). It sometimes just takes a few attempts to understand what.

I have some suggesions for you:

- Polyuria usually means 'something wrong with the kidneys'. However, in Diabetes the animal is trying to offload excess sugar via the kidneys; he might equally be trying to offload something else. Check for any low grade poisoning possibilities.

- Because thirst/urination is so often a Diabetic symptom, make sure that your dog is not consuming any significant quantity of carbohydrates, because dogs don't naturally eat them. That means check food labels for grains etc - little or none of that. Consider slowly changing to a natural diet of primarily raw meats (i.e. natural protein) and small amounts of 'low GI' vegetables. (Humans can eat high sugar diets for years before their body finally crashes and shows symptoms.)
(However, it's still best to get a good vet's advice because protein has kidney implications too. A tip: Any vet who claims that there's nothing wrong with feeding a carnivorous animal commercial dried food made mosty from cooked grains is ignorant about health fundamentals IMHO!)

- Eating poop strongly suggests a craving for certain nutrients. The nocturia suggest potassium may be one of those. Having some vegetables (e.g. chopped cabbage mixed in) and raw bones in the diet should help if that's what it's about.

- Go into a couple of local animal shelters and ask their advice. They tend to be sympathetic kinds of people, especially toward a young animal lover short of cash. They may also have good relationships with local vets, or have other ideas for you.

- When you get the cash together, choose a different vet next time to get a different view. Ask people with healthy looking dogs who their vet is and what they think of them.

Hope that helps!! Good luck.

Delisay

 

[bubbatd]

Did they do a complete blood work up ?? Why did they take the X Rays ??

 

[moxiegrl]

Just wanted to say Delisay that was a very nice post

 

[Delisay]

Aw thanks TD

 

[dhollister]

bubbatd - The X-Rays were not related at all. He had no blood work done. I have never had him checked out for this before, I just mean that I keep taking him in for other things and am always paranoid and he never has anything wrong, so I'm just skeptical in general to be too quick to take him to the vet. Hell, he was only there 2 weeks ago.

Delisay, wow, what an informative post. I will definitely take this to heart. I'm skeptical of any poison or any nutrient lacking; he's been on the same dog food for about 8 of the 11 years of his life. Not only has he always been very well-nourished, but our vet even said that our choice of food and whatnot is probably what has kept him living as well as he has to this age.

Regardless, this was a very, very useful post. I'm going to have a chance to talk to the vet tomorrow, so I'll bring all this up and find out what he things is best. Thank you all.

 

[bubbatd]

Keep us posted !! Good luck !

 

[dhollister]

I took Watson to the vet today and he pretty much had the some hypothesis - probably diabetes, or possibly some sort of liver or kidney disease. They drew blood and are going to do a urine culture and stuff, and should know by tomorrow what's up with him. They're going to call me. The way my vet was talking, it sounded like diabetes would almost be the preferred thing at this point... didn't sound like kidney/liver disease was anything that could really be dealt with very well. I certainly hope he is OK!

 

[Lizmo]

Sending prayers to you and yuor sweet Watson!!!!

May everything be OKAY!!!!!