[nagdu] Mambo update

[Tracy Carcione]

Hi Deanna.
I'm glad they found a cause, and a treatment.  I'm sorry it's something serious.
Have you tried giving him a treat, right after you're done giving him the drops?  My boys get treats for having their nails ground, and they lie quietly while I do it, waiting for me to finish and hand over the kibble.  Same for when I clean Krokus's ears.

Is GDB going to help with the meds?  Sounds like he had the condition when they gave him to you, and, IMO, that ain't right.
Good luck.
Tracy


-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Deanna Lewis via nagdu
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2015 10:16 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users (nagdu at nfbnet.org)
Cc: Deanna Lewis
Subject: [nagdu] Mambo update

Hi all,
Well, it looks like we’ve hopefully got a definitive answer for Mambo’s ongoing urinary issues. For recap, as long as I’ve known Mambo he has been a dog who drinks his whole bowl of water within a minute. He gets 2 cups of water, 4 times per day, which is what GDB recommended. The support center suggested that I no longer add water to his food as well. His urine has also been very dilute (the trainers noticed it during training). And he pees large amounts. He also has an urgency to pee, and still pees about every 1 ½ hours. He has had a few accidents on the floor. It’s hard to tell when he does pee on the floor, because it is a wet spot, but doesn’t smell very strongly of urine. Almost every time we are out shopping, he will relieve before we enter the store, but will have to go again while we are shopping, especially if it’s more than an hour. This is a huge inconvenience, because I’ll have a cart full of groceries, have to leave it, rush outside, and then come back in. He indicates that he needs to go by pulling strongly towards the front door or getting very distracted. It takes a lot to distract him too, so it’s obvious when he needs to go. And once he’s outside, he will pee for a few minutes.
When I first brought him home, he had an accident at work, so we took him in for a urine test. He did have a UTI, but after that cleared up the problem still persisted. Several urine tests, blood work, and a few cultures didn’t provide any answers, things looked normal. But, after my Vet consulted with a specialist, we think the problem is Diabetes Insipidus. It is not like sugar diabetes, but roughly translated it means weak or watery diabetes. It is very rare in dogs. Basically, they think that his body isn’t producing enough of the ADH horomone and that is what is causing his problems. We are going to try to supplement this hormone in him and hopefully it will decrease his thirst and urgency to urinate. There are two ways to administer ADH, via injection or eyedrops. We are going to try the eyedrops. Luckily, I can get them at Walgreens, but they are expensive. I give the drops twice per day to start. I’m really hoping that they will work. It’s very difficult to give him the drops, as he doesn’t like people approaching him with anything (except food). But, we’ve managed ok. I started the drops almost a week ago, but haven’t really noticed a change. My Mom told me yesterday that his urine is still very dilute. He’ll go back to the Vet in another week or so to re-examine his urine.

Deanna and Mambo




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