Just days after I had thought we were finished with the vet visits for the year, and sent a Christmas/Holiday card to the vet thanking them for all they have done for us in 2010, we started a series of vet visits.
December 12:On December 12th I took Dingle out for a pee in the morning. Dingle's hair was really long and I was looking forward to him being groomed on the 14th. Since his hair was long he sometimes got urine in it. So after going out to pee I used a Pampers wipe to clean off his belly fur. While wiping him off I noticed that his 'thing' appeared to be swollen.
At least I thought it was swollen - I barely ever look at his crotch and even though I wasn't totally sure there was something going on I made an appointment (for that day) at Downtown Animal Hospital. I figured that if they told me there wasn't anything wrong maybe we could do his shots/check-up a month early.
We got to the vet and it was confirmed that Dingle's penis and 'sheath' was swollen and irritated. The vet wondered if perhaps Dingle had a urinary tract infection that was causing the redness and irritation and so she wanted to get a urine sample. That meant he would need to be catheterized. Poor Dingle.
I waited about 40 minutes while they got a urine sample and tested it and the results showed that there was no UTI. We have two other dogs in the house and on occasion Dingle likes to try and hump the other dogs to try and establish some sort of dominance. Yeah, sure Dingle - you the dominant one? We *think* that the humping could have irritated him... and I also think that the long hair may have meant that urine stayed on his penis, irritating it. In the end we don't really know for sure.
The vet trimmed the hair around his crotch area, gave him a shot of Metacam for the inflammation, and sent us on our way.
Diagnosis on the pet insurance form: "Penile Inflammation"
We had talked about going home with Metacam, but I mentioned that I was concerned about him having anything that could harm his liver, seeing as we had just gotten over liver issues. The vet decided that we'd stick with him receiving 1 injection of it and then re-evaluate things the next day - if I thought he needed Metacam at home I could pick it up.
When I got home Dingle was mighty pissed off. He didn't want to walk - he would take a few steps and sit right down and stare at me. If he did take more than a few steps it was on 3 legs - and he used one of the rear legs to scratch his crotch. I figured maybe they had shaved (as opposed to trimmed) his crotch hair and that's why the area was itchy...
Do you know how dogs go crazy after a bath - rolling around on furniture, making crazy noises? Well Dingle was doing that most of the night - you could tell he was frustrated... probably from having a tube shoved up his penis into his bladder.
About 4 hours after we got home Dingle needed to pee. I was initially shocked to see that he had urinated blood. I could see it in the snow and on the Pampers wipe when I wiped his fur.
By this time the vet clinic was closed and I made the decision to call the Veterinary Emergency Clinic. I figured the blood was probably from being catherized, but wanted to get some reassurance. By reassurance I meant have someone besides my boyfriend tell me that I didn't need to go to the emergency clinic and drop $500 at the door.
I was glad I called the VEC and shocked as the receptionist was nice. We've been to the VEC several times over the last 5 years - for both ER appointments and for all of his luxating patella surgeries. 99% of the time the receptionists (one in particular) have been awful. The lady that ngiht was very nice and said that it didn't sound like I needed to bring him in - that the bleeding could have been from being catheterized and to watch him and follow-up with our clinic in the morning if there was still blood in his urine.
December 13thThe next day there was no blood in his urine. However Dingle was still extremely pissed.
In addition to scratching his crotch he was trying to chew "it" off. He was making it even more red and swollen than before.
I called the Downtown Animal Hospital and the vet said to bring him in. Now he was scheduled to be groomed the next day and so we arranged for him to be boarded after the visit until his grooming - so I didn't have to make 4 trips in a 3 day period.
When we went in the vet checked Dingle's 'dingle' and agreed that he seemed frustrated and that he was making things worse. She said she'd give Dingle an injection to help calm things down. Not Metacam, but Dexamethasone.
December 14thI picked Dinglehopper up the following day, the 14th, after his grooming... and he had an E-Collar on. Story of his life.
The vet techs said that he hadn't been scratching himself, but he was trying to lick it - hence the need for the E-Collar. I thought that we had made progress, seeing as he apparently wasn't scratching himself, but as soon as we got home (and I set him down) his foot seemed to be glued to his 'thing'... unless he was sleeping:
Then the next issue started...
December 15thThat night Dingle pooped around midnight. I noticed it was a bit runny, but chalked that up to the fact that he had been given canned food while at the vet. I told them to give him wet food because I knew he'd eat it - and he needed to eat because he wouldn't eat the night before.
Well didn't I wake up at 5:55am, after going to bed at 4am, to the smell of poop. Before climbing out of bed I used my Blackberry to light up the room and saw diarrhea all over the floor. My boyfriend was sleeping and so I didn't turn on the light - I cleaned it up in the dark.
Dingle got a brand new bed at Woofstock:
When cleaning up the floor I discovered that the bed was covered in crap.
Which meant that Dingle had stepped in it and tracked it into his bed.
Which also meant that Dingle had laid in the crap that he tracked into his bed... like 12 hours after I picked him up from his grooming appointment that set me back $50 plus HST. FML!
But wait that's not it...
At 7:35am Dingle starts whining to go out.
We made it downstairs to our livingroom and Dingle had explosive diarrhea all over the place.
But wait again, it wasn't just diarrhea - it was BLOODY diarrhea.
I just about had a heart attack.
I cleaned him and the floor up and waited 30 minutes until the vet opened and instantly called them. The vet returned my call at 10:49am. He said that it was possible that the bloody diarrhea was a reaction to the meds he received the day before. After reading up on the Dexamethasone I learned that Cyclosporine can make the side effects worse. I figured that they probably meant oral Cyclo and not the eye medication Dingle gets, but I suppose the bloody diarrhea could be attributed to a reaction? *shrug* I don't know.
The vet told me to hold off on feeding Dingle for the whole day and to give him a dose (1/4 of a tablet) of Pepcid AC. That wouldn't help the diarrhea, but it would help his tummy seeing as he wasn't going to have anything in it. He said based on my description he didn't need to come in right away, that we'd hope he was done with the diarrhea. I would later learn that he was no finished with the diarrhea.
As for the penis - he asked if I had any Surolan. I did - because Dingle has had many ear infections. He said to put the Surolan on his crotch as it is also a topical anti-inflammatory. So I think "Hm... okay".
After getting off the phone at 11am Dingle got his Pepcid AC and at 11:20am he got his crotch Surolan-ed up. Then I laid down on the couch.
I managed to go back to sleep (with Dingle on the floor by me) until 12:14pm and then Dingle got bloody diarrhea again. By this point I'd given up on trying to get him outside and put puppy pads down.
At 5:35pm, long after I had given up trying to sleep, he had a really bad episode.
It was more solid than earlier, but at the end it was straight blood. It was all over his bum (again, after the grooming, but that was not my concern at the time) and when I wiped him with the Pampers wipes they were covered in blood. I had to go to work and I was so scared to leave him alone - my boyfriend was at his staff Christmas party. Luckily the neighbour agreed to check in on him.
Dingle got more Pepcid AC at 5:45pm and more Surolan at 6:05pm. I left at 7pm for work.
Dingle made it through the night and into the next day with no more diarrhea.
December 16thHe was very hungry when I got home from work at 6:30am and he was ready for breakfast.
I fed him a small amount - 1/4 of a cup - with the Pepcid AC.
I took him outside wondering if there'd be diarrhea - there wasn't. While out there I saw the area/snow pile that he had pooped on at midnight on the 15th. Lo' and behold there were signs (remember it wasn't totally solid, so there was a bit of a mess left behind) of blood in that poop. That meant the blood didn't start at 7:35am on the 15th - it started the night before. The diarrhea I cleaned up in the dark at 5:55am on the 15th was also likely bloody - I just didn't see it.
At 7:26am he got Surolan on his crotch and I headed for bed... expecting to be woken up to diarrhea.
I was not woken up by Dingle...
All that day (when I was awake) I waited and hoped for a normal poop.
Nothing... but at least there was no diarrhea.
I continued with the small meals and Pepcid AC for the rest of the day
At this point it had been 5 days after our initial crotch vet visit.
Dingle still had not crapped. I thought about being worried, but figured he hadn't eaten for a 36 hour period and so of course his pooping would be off.
I spoke to the vet (not the original female vet, but the male that we usually see) and said Dingle's crotch still looked irritated. We decided that Dingle would be given Vanectyl-P - to help with the itchy crotch.
The vet said it *shouldn't* (and it didn't) contribute to bloody diarrhea.
The vet said when I came to pick up the meds the following day I could bring Dingle and he's take a peek at his crotch free of charge. Yay.
There were no poop episodes - irregular or regular, that night.
December 17th On the way down to the vet Dingle started turning in circles - doing his 'pooh dance' and I was relieved to see a firm, poop, free of blood.
When we got in the vet saw that Dingle was preoccupied with his penis and agreed that the Vanectyl-P would be a good option. Sasso, my boyfriend's pug/beagle, was on Vanectyl-P - and one of the side effects is excessive thirst and urination. I knew the puppy pads would be sticking around for a while.
While at that appointment the vet pointed out that Dingle's penis was sticking out (of the sheath) a bit. The vet said I was to go to the drug store, buy "lube" (yeah, that kind of lube) and lube 'it' up. (Awkward). If 'it' was dry and sticking to the sheath that could contribute to the irritation.
December 18thOn December 18th we started the lube and the Vanectyl-P... he got 1/2 a pill twice a day on the 18th, 19th and 20th. On the 21st he got 1/2 a pill once a day... same with the 22nd and yesterday. Today he doesn't get any - he will get 1/2 a pill every other day until we are finished.
December 18th was also the day when my mom came to Toronto to celebrate Christmas with me - as once again this year I work all the holidays because they fall on my scheduled days of the week.
We decided to make Dingle's E-Collar a little more festive... we have a million E-Collars and this one will remain his winter themed ones:
December 19th until today, the 24thDingle was using the puppy pads for the diarrhea - probably because I ran him over and planted him on them. Do you think Dingle seemed to remember what they were for when he started peeing every few hours? Nope. I'd bring him over to it and he'd lay on it, thinking he was supposed to sleep there. Finally after several attempts and lots of "Dingle go pee on your pad" (with me tapping it) he peed on it. He won't do it on his own... only with coaching, but at least I don't have to go outside every 2 hours, which is a relief when I'm sleeping.
Dingle has been free of the E-Collar since Monday and is less occupied with his crotch - likely because the meds are reducing the itchiness.
Dingle's 'thing' is no longer as red and swollen as it was. I think it still looks a bit abnormal, but I'm not sure if it is - I feel like I've spent the last 6 days with my eyes glued to his crotch area and don't even remember (or know) what it used to look like before all of this. I guess we will wait until he's off the Vanectyl-P and see if it still causes him irritation. If it does, we'll go back to the vet and have them decide if Dingle is back to normal.
Oh the life of Dingle...
