Oh, the challenges of having an old dog!! In September, I took Martin in for his annual physical exam. Based on his temperature, heartbeat, ears, eyes, joints/flexibility, and other exterior clues, he was given a clean bill of health. Yay! Of course, as luck would have it, that’s probably what jinxed us.
He first stared displaying mild anxiety in August (randomly getting spooked at night)… I had attributed it to the Sonoma earthquake and such, but then the nervousness started getting worse. I tried calming sprays, calming collars, treats, the Thunder shirt, etc. Nothing really helped. A few days later, we went back to the vet for blood work. Holy shit, high kidney values. Given Marty’s age, the doctor now suspects kidney failure. WTF??? From one extreme to the other. A urine sample was needed to confirm, so we went back a third time for blood pressure and a sterile urine sample. I won’t go into the details, but shit, the protocols for these medical procedures are super rudimentary and old school. In one night, Martin got cow-tipped onto his side to get a blood pressure reading; he got thrown onto his back into a metal, v-shaped channel, where a cold ultrasound scanner was rubbed over his belly and then the techs sucked a sterile urine sample from his abdomen; and later, he was stabbed between the shoulder blades with a huge-gauge needle for subcutaneous hydration. Yelping, crying, squirming. The whole works. So stressful.
That night, he went from taking zero meds to being prescribed antibiotics for the kidney infection, pepcid for nausea and loss of appetite, and xanax for this still unexplained anxiety. A few days later, the urinalysis showed super high E. coli infection in the bladder, so now, he has a bladder infection, a kidney infection, little to no appetite, and anxiety. See how this drama builds?
The treatment is a month of antibiotics for both infections. Meanwhile, I started trying all sorts of foods to get him to eat: baby food, chicken and rice, broth… to complicate matters, dogs with kidney issues are supposed to eat low sodium, low protein diets. Then I tried the special kidney diet kibble. He hated it. Spit that shit out all over the kitchen floor. This week, I finally found some canned kidney diet food that he eats rather happily. Because he’s lost 10% of his weight, now I’m feeding him double: two cans/day.
I had also noticed some other strange behavior. For instance, he kept going outside and moving a shit ton of mulch around with his nose. His nose was all dry and cracked and muddy. Well last weekend, J & J mentioned maybe putting some Vaseline on his nose to moisturize. I have no idea why I never thought of this myself. I slathered that shit on last night and wow!! His nose is wet and moist again. So now I’m thinking maybe he was moving mulch around because his nose was itchy? I dunno.
Update on the flea problem: I am giving him the topical treatment twice a month now (instead of once/month), and he is better. He still itches occasionally, but he’s so much better now. His skin is still flaky near the base of his tail, but I’m hoping it will get better soon. Yup, we’re in full-on recovery mode. I’m determined to bring Martin back to his former state of glory! 😉