rubber pee pee a mystery

[racegirlrandi]

I have allready posted this in "Other Problems"but for fear of someone knoweledgeable about kidneys and dogs may not see it so here it is in brief. I have a female doxie 7yrs old with two calcified disks in her neck. Not knowing this and only trying to help "PRINCESS" her daughter she was on top of going to kill, I grabed her by the scruff of her neck and aparently caused swelling and ultimately led to her being unable to walk now the wierd thing is this neck thing i had noticed some swelling over about a weeks timeand early one morning it seemed real bad so i took her to the vet, however the fight was 1-2 days prior to the day i took her in<I kid u not we walked in the vets and literally could NOT walk out! totally paralyzed!! The other wierd thing is at home the evening prior to taking her in i gave her a benedryl and the swelling in her neck went down. ALL her blood work at that point was totally normal, NOw heres the problem or rather the mystery Her pee pee smells so strongly like RUBBER it is very strong and she is not dehydrated yet it apears her intake is less than her output she pees more i believe than she takes in. Im a struggling student(NURSING go figure) and can not afford bill after bill. I might add that she has gone in less than a month from totally unable to move or feel to she now gets herself upright and a=is starting to try to walk and she has done nothing but progress. I from my nursing know this needs to be adressed it almost smells as if she was poisened or a toxic reaction cuz also in the very first days she was rigid and her neck and body distended as if it was a toxin . we live in the country and are infested with black widows along withj all sorts of crap and being a farming community there are alot of chemicals being used around here i just cant imagine when she may have gotten out to get into anything So ever heard of this type of hideous smell? Please help these are my kids i dont have any two legged kids only ones with four legs.[/b]

[CarolC]

Hi Randi,

I transferred the questions from your PM to here so others with experience can answer, too. That way you'll get more good ideas. There are a bunch of people here with paralyzed pets, included dachshunds.

Im gonna go ahead and put her back on her antibiotics and get her to the vet again.

That sounds like a good idea. You might ask the vet how many days she should be on the antibiotics and be sure you have enough pills. I always heard it is important to finish up every pill when you have antibiotics, or else the medicine kills off the easy germs but leaves the tough germs, and then you have a tougher infection that is harder to treat because it's resistant to antibiotics. So you have to finish the whole prescription. If you finish it and the infection isn't cleared up, then you may need the antibiotics longer, or a different kind of antibiotics.

About sobriety at the onset she had absolutely no feeling anywhere and coulnt even pee or poop and id have to do both of them .I never thought about her not emptieng her bladder completel. being the KEY point COMPLETELY i just figured well i didnt even figure i just never evden thought about her not going all the way. I guess i was just so happy she was GOING.

Wow! I didn't realize you had been expressing her. So you already know how to do that. Good deal! Join the club with the rest of us who express!

BUt ive done it but maybe you or someone could tell me exactly how to get it totally empty because i think this needs to be started stat not tomorrow when i take her in.

OK, well, there are several tips. They are listed on this article in the section Expressing completely:

http://www.handicappedpets.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Express_a_dog_or_cat

To me, the most important tip is Express, Rest, Express. That is, you express her the best you can, then wait a while (maybe a minute, or 10 minutes, or whatever works best with your dog) and then express her again. You'll probably find you get more out. That's because after the first express, the bladder kind of shrinks and gets round again, so it is firmer and easier to express the second time. So express, then wait, then repeat.

Also, there are a lot of ways to squeeze, and if you have a full-sized dachshund, you might want to try a method that gives firmer pressure. Take a minute to read this link, it is short and tells you how to squeeze better.

http://www.handicappedpets.com/cgi-bin/msg/webbbs_config.pl?read=15230

Ok now she had no feeling at first but with every day she gets better and better.She now has total feeling everywhere from the tip of her tail to the tip of her nose. She now has total movement but sometimes it seems like it just isnt "CLICKING" than all of a sudden she uprights herself and is ready to go.

This sounds a little like Paul's dachshund, Riley. I hope he will be along soon.

She has now take somre sort of steps i dont know wht crating means but i did keep her still on a recliner chair for about 3 weeks she on her own just started to upright herself one day. I also want to tell you she at first could oinly eat lying on her side now she eats normal on her own she has lost her voice allmost completely and that hasnt changed. She if im correct seemed to have been cloudy eyed that is now gone her eyes sre bright and alert and i also want to say that we have not gone backwards at all only up except now for this you know this smell of rubber was there whrn this first happened and went away but again she was on antibiotics in the beginning

Bless her heart. Well, 3 weeks is pretty good, but crating is usually longer than that. Disks just take a really long time to heal. Crate rest is where you keep them in a carrier or wire crate or whatever you have that is just big enough for a bed and a water bowl. During crate rest, they stay in their crate 24/7 except to come out to potty. Now that you know she has spinal problems, chairs are probably going to have to be off limits for her. If she strains her neck again and the disks swell again, it could be very serious. One person here who has a dog with a neck injury had to give her dog mouth-to-mouth on the way to the hospital because it couldn't breathe.

Other people with dachshunds will be along soon to tell you more. Here is an article about doing crate rest for a dachshund. It actually says 6-10 weeks. It sounds like a long time, but 6 or 10 weeks in a crate is a small price to pay for a lifetime of walking.

http://www.dodgerslist.com/lit/After_Surgery.htm

Hope this helps a little.

[CarolC]

Apologies to everybody. I wrote an answer to Randi's message this afternoon and accidentally deleted it, so this is a rewrite as close as I can come. So now my messages will be out of order. Sorry again!

Im randi and my OWNER and best friend "Sobriety"s Angel" has a unique,to say the least, odor to her urine. She has recently become, and this is my second question as to what to "LABEL" her ilness as paralyzed or not. But well get to that later.

If she has hind limb weakness but is not fully paralyzed, you could call it posterior paresis. You might ask your vet if that description fits your baby.

My Phat girl momma dog(Sobrietys nick name) has a very no VERY strong smell of rubber to her urine I mean to tell you it fills the whole room!!!! Ive asked my vet but because of the other problems and the urgency of them at the time he pretty much wasnt too worried WELL IAM what the heck is that smell?

It sounds like a urinary tract infection. A foul odor is one of the signs of UTI. You could get a culture done like Critters said, that's a good idea, but I would also start her on antibiotics right away. You don't want the bladder infection to turn into a kidney infecition, and it may take several days before you have the results of the culture.

She has 2 calcified disks in he neck and due to a trauma they began to swell which has put pressure on her spinal cord, she has donew remarkably well and only goes forward but this smell is hideous! HElp.

OK, well I'm going to give you even more info than you asked for, in case it helps. The thing about disks is, when they put pressure on the spinal cord, they interefere with the messages that are going from the brain to the rest of the body. Therefore, they interfere with messages going to the bladder. So even though your dog might be able to urinate, if the disks are causing swelling, she may not be emptying her bladder completely. That is because either she doesn't have the muscle control to empty all the way, or else she doesn't have complete feeling and does not realize she didn't empty completely. Either way, the answer is to help her pee by squeezing her tummy--express her bladder. Here is a link with information on expressing:

http://www.handicappedpets.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Express_a_dog_or_cat

Also, your dog's condition sounds like the story of another dachshund with a cervical (neck) disk problem. Here is the website called Nyssa's Gift:

http://dreamemporium.com/Nyssas_Gift.html

Here is another website, dedicated specially to dachshunds with disk problems. They also have a group you can join:

http://www.dodgerslist.com

If your dog is recovering from paralysis, here is some information on doing crate rest (to let the disks heal).

http://www.dodgerslist.com/lit/After_Surgery.htm

I think your dog sounds like a classic case of disk problems, with a classic urinary infection. I think that is more likely than spider bites or toxins. It's good to hear she is doing so well!

[Paul Coover]

Well, the smelly urine thing has got to be a UTI. That is almost always the case there.

Yes, it does sound like our Riley. First of all, hello!
We have 6 dachshunds, 2 of which are handicapped. Riley is one that we adopted almost 4 yeasr ago as a downed dog. But he recovered, and you can read about him and his recovery here:
www.handicappedpets.com/gallery/riley11/

We have the 2 others that are handicapped, including Johanna and Pork Chop. You can see more about them here:

Johanna www.dogster.com/?379378.
Pork Chop www.dogster.com/?379380.

I want to tell you that it seems very difficult and overwhelming now, but it does get easier! If you have any questions or concerns or just need to talk, that is why we are here!
Good luck and take care.

[Dianne]

Welcome Randi,

I agree with the others that the rubber smell would likely be a UTI. What color is the urine? Does it appear darker, or concentrated?

Good idea about antibiotics. Clavamox is one of the UTI antibiotics of choice. Paul, Cindi, CarolC, may have used other meds, too.

Did your vet prescribe prednisone/steroids to reduce the swelling in the neck? Steroids and crate rest are the usual treatment either with or without surgery. Since your dog is showing signs of recovery, you may have "dodged the bullet" and she may recover without the surgery.

Even though she is showing recovery, please do NOT allow her out of the crate to walk, or drag around the house. This could cause worse injury in the spine.

There are several of us with paralyzed IVDD (invertebrate disk disease) doxies on this bb. Some have had surgery, and some not. Some have completely recovered with crate rest, and others required surgery. My standard, 22 lb., male, red doxie was 7 when he had a single incident of IVDD, and did not recover. Long bodied dogs are prone to this type of injury.

When you complete the crate resting period, be watchful that your doxie NO longer jumps off furniture/beds, or prevent him from going up or down stairs. Anything where a long bodied dog would flex the spine could cause damage in another spinal area.

Where did you learn how to express? Did you teach yourself?

Dianne

[Cindidoxiemom]

Sounds like a UTI to me. I agree with the others that your pup needs to have a culture of the urine done.

I also agree that at this point, your pup should be on complete crate rest. Cervical injury takes a long time to heal, and though your pup is showing improvement, allowing too much movement could cause a big set back.

Cindi

[Dianne]

Randi,

Because Princess is the daughter of Phat girl (Sobriety's Angel), you should know that IVDD could also be a problem/genetic link, with her spine. Take care to prevent her from jumping off chairs, beds, etc, so that her long body is protected from spinal injuries.

We're hoping you can update us about the Phat girl's urine smell. Did you start her on antibiotics?

Dianne

[SilviaGTO]

Highly concentrated urine can also smell, which could also be the case since your pet isnt putting out as much urine either..

but like the others said it could also be a UTI, better to be safe than sorry.


and coincidence of the benadryl and the neck swelling going down has to be just that. benadryl is an anti-histamine, it has no anti-inflammatory components


edit: i just noticed the date on this. im an idiot sorry.