Hello everyone,

I am looking for your thoughts on a problem I have with the newest addition to our house.
Wurzel is an old collie, best estimate for age is between 14-16 and has been with us for about two months now.

Anyway recently we noticed he is ravenous all the time, he has lost loads of weight and is very very thin, we can feel all his backbone and he pees a lot, and has frequent accidents.
his pee is dark brown and quite frankly stinks.

We took him to the vet and has bloods done, but they all came back as normal, in fact quite good for a dog of his age. We have not done a urine sample and that is next.
The vet suspects that he may have a low grade cancer, but he is so thin, and eating so much that I wonder if there is anything else going on.

He is not anaemic, shows no infection, his kidney and liver are normal. He does have low blood pressure but that is it.

So just to summarise, the symptoms are:
1. Rapid weight loss.
2. Ravenous appetite.
3. Drinking a lot.
4. Peeing loads everywhere, with strong color and smell, kind of like stale black tea.

Anyone got any ideas please? My vet is stumped, and I am considering a referral, as even though Wurzel is old I would love him to have a good last few weeks/months.

Thanks

Theresa

Has your vet checked the urine? He sounds very like my old diabetic Labrador was. I know it is more often in elderly bitches but it can affect dogs as well. I had to follow her to get a urine sample morning and evening, check it then inject insulin to suit. Sounds difficult but it's quite straight forward when you get use to it.

Course, it may be nothing like that but it pays to get it checked out.

Regards, John

go to the vets for tests on kidneys sorry havent much time to explain any further:) good luck

Hi,
Yup, I have to agree - he sounds like a diabetic! I'm only a practice nurse, not a vet ot even a vet nurse but if one of my patients came to me with symptoms like that, I'd test their blood sugar. Just a thought!

Ruth

I just looked up causes of Cachexia (weight loss) in older dogs:
chronic infections, diabetes mellitus, gastrointestinal parasites, heart disease, hypoadrenocorticism, kidney disease, liver disease, maldigestion of
food, neoplasia, and startvation.
Once the proper diagnosis has been made, a high energy diet, food supplements, anabolic steroids, and exercise may all be prescribed to help reverse a pet's cachexic state.
This is all I could find hope it helpd some
ttfn :)

I would doubt the heart in this one Dollface. I would have thought the vet would have picked up worms so am inclined to leave that one out. Diabetes, yes. Addisons, yes that is a distinct possibility. Known as "The Great Deceiver" because it can look like so many other diseases. A friend's Flatcoat died of that so I should have thought of it. Definitely worth mentioning to your vet.

Regards, John

I was just putting down all causes for weight loss that I found in one of my books, just thought better not leave any out. Hope u do find what is wrong with ur dog.
ttfn :)

So often Addisons is missed by vets. They missed it in my friends Flatcoat until it was too late. Found earlier it is treatable though so I would have a word with the vet and see if he can test for it.

Regards, John

Not just by vets John, I survived 5 Addinsons crisis only because I still had 1 adrenal gland not too badly damaged by my accident - it still took them over 14mths to find I had it by which time my remaning gland was compensating.

Hi John

I went through the very same with one of my Sharpei, the vets had been trying everything to find out what was wrong with her to no-avail :-( Then suddenly my girl took a turn for the worst and I rushed her into the vets, where a locum was filling in, just outta vet college, and he asked "had I had her tested for Addisons", I replied no- as nobody had ever thought of it, and lo & behold the test came back positive for Addisons but was far to late (to far gone) :-( she had been hospitalised for 5 days whilst the results came back, and she had lost practically half her bodyweight in this time, I was so upset, it was horrendous, the kindest thing I could do for her by this time was under the vets advise was to stop the potential suffering as the vet suspected a secondary problem of adrenal cancer :-( which was sadly confirmed after her death. I beat myself up daily about this and its two years ago now, but as you say this problem masks itself into many forms.
Thanks for listening guys
Karen
x

Thanks for that.

No infection showed up in the blood tests, the liver and kidney blood results are normal, he has been treated for worms about two months ago, his heart is healthy tho blood pressure is low. Hypoadrenocorticism as far as I know would have shown up in the bloods for the endocrine system?
He is well fed too :)
Am off to the vets this week to do the urine, the vet is convinced he has cancer and is on a one track opinion with this.

As well he has the funny colored pee, which is very dark and smelly

Theresa

Has he been checked for Kidney stones? That diagnoses keeps appearing when I'm looking around the internet with your dog's symptoms. Cushing's Disease is another one which consistently shows up.
I hope he gets better soon.
toodles

Cushings increases the appetite due to the excess steroids in the system hence weight gain is very quick causing stretch marks and a pot bellied look.

It's almost a direct opposite to Addisons. One’s Hypo and the other is Hyper

John

Good Luck Theresa :(
I hope you find an answer soon!
Ali :)

Hope your doggie feels better soon Julieann xxxx

Hope Wurzel is fine. Sounds just like my cat who developed diabetes. It happened VERY quickly over the 2 days of xmas. Can easily be spotted I would have thought by a vet if it is diabetes.
Best wishes and am thinking of you.
Gina

PS This site can be pretty amazing cant it? I mean even though we take our animals to the vets people on here can still be of such help on something that can be missed even by vets!!

Thanks again everyone, will check out everything esp diabetes and addisions

Don't think it is Cushings, there is no hair loss or pot belly which is symptomatic as far as i know

Theresa