Red Dog's new chem panel results

[MrSnappy]

AK Dog Doc, this one's for you.

 

We got a chem panel retest (this is his third since he got sick). I got the results today - every single one of his screens came back completely, smack dab in the middle of normal. That includes his BUN and his WBC. The only numbers that are still high (but lower than the first retest) are his creatinine. It is still higher than normal.

 

He is still not concentrating his urine, and gets another USG test on Monday. However, I am mostly curious about his creatinine levels - any insight into why they would remain high when literally every single other factor came back normal?

 

Thanks!

 

RDM

[AK dog doc]

Hi RDM

I may have some insight on this, but I'm going to have to beg your indulgence for the moment (possibly for the entire weekend) since I'm on call til Monday morning - just got home in whiteout conditions and have to go back in to see a Yorkie which was attacked by an owl (I'm sure that looked like an easy meal to the owl, which was NOT interested in giving little Mindy up, but was eventually persuaded by the owner).

 

I'll try to hammer out a decent reply when I get the chance - no promises on exactly when that'll be... (Ack!)

[AK dog doc]

Oh, yeah - and how high is "high"? Can you give me his number and the normal range from the lab? (These vary, so I need to know the normal range for that lab in order to interpret.) Also, if you can just remind me (and my evidently seive-like brain) what his previous BUN and creatinine were, that'll help me make a more meaningful reply.

[MrSnappy]

Originally posted by AK dog doc:

Oh, yeah - and how high is "high"? Can you give me his number and the normal range from the lab? (These vary, so I need to know the normal range for that lab in order to interpret.) Also, if you can just remind me (and my evidently seive-like brain) what his previous BUN and creatinine were, that'll help me make a more meaningful reply.

Sure!

 

His original Creatine was 712, with a normal range of 68-141 (umol/l).

 

His first retest was done after he'd been on IV fluids for a few days, and it had gone down to 276.

 

I don't have the numbers here, as they were telephoned to me, but I believe his last test showed the creatinine hovering around the 200+ mark.

 

His initial BUN was 57.8 (normal being 2.5-9.20 mmol/l). On the first retest it was 15.9. I again don't know what it is now, but I seem to recall it being something like 6. something.

 

The vet also said something about azotemia, but I didn't catch it because my cordless cut out

 

Thanks!

 

RDM

[AK dog doc]

Okay, let's see if I can get this in before I get paged again.

 

About having a higher than normal creatinine but a normal BUN...

 

1) You may have a falsely decreased BUN - in other words, the dog is still azotemic (has high blood levels of nitrogen compounds, like BUN and creatinine), but the BUN is dropping for reasons unrelated to the kidney function. BUN is made in the liver, so one cause of that could be liver disease. If the liver values are normal, scratch that. Another cause could be a low protein diet, which many dogs are on if they have kidney issues, even temporary ones. A third cause would be in a dog that is drinking excessively (which RD was at one point, if I recall right, but is he still?), the BUN will be washed out due to the dog self-diuresing, but the creatinine is less maleable and remains a bit higher, and may possibly be more reflective of the true condition of the kidney function.

 

2. You may have a falsely elevated creatinine. That can be caused by a variety of things... high hemoglobin in the sample (usually from hemolysis, which is where the red cells break down and dump their contents into the serum, which happens sometimes); lipemia in the sample (where the serum has a lot of fat in it, which is more common after eating and/or in a dog on a higher fat diet); ascorbic acid (vitamin C) can reportedly make the creatinine read falsely high; so can certain drugs - penecillin, cephalosporins, barbiturates, etc. Is he still on antimicrobials? and if so which one(s)?

 

Other things that can cause a falsely increased creatinine are diets high in cooked meat (though the elevations are usually pretty modest with this), and muscle injury (from any cause - trauma, infection, inflammation, etc). Creatinine comes from the muscle, so it would be released if there were muscle damage (and presumably is released from meat by cooking).

 

Generally speaking, creatinine is a better tool than BUN for monitoring renal function and azotemia, since in the course of every day living it tends to have fewer chances to be affected by non-renal sources, and it is more stable and doesn't rise and fall as quickly. However, it CAN be elevated from things that have zero to do with the functioning ability of the kidney.

 

Things to consider if you want to do further investigation are 1) ultrasound the kidneys, and 2) maybe a creatinine clearance (this is a pain and usually has to be done at a university, since it requires 24 hour urine collection, which in turn requires a special cage set-up. Or it did when I was in school, and due to the obvious logistical problems, I haven't done one since I graduated). A renal ultrasound might be informative, however, and is not especially invasive. There will be a bad hair cut - sorry. Since I feel quite confident in assuming that RD will NOT be going into a breed ring ( !!!) the hair-do is mainly only a problem for thermal reasons. And possibly his personal vanity, depending on how vain he is about his looks.

 

His current creatinine levels are obviously vastly improved, which is very reassuring. If they persist where they are after all other causes have been ruled out, I guess my interpretation would be that, unfortunately, there was sufficient kidney injury to induce some renal failure. At that low a level, depending on what the cause was, he might live with it a very long time with little or no trouble, however. I had a cat patient that had levels in that neighborhood for years, and she finally died at nearly 18 years of age from unrelated causes. That's called "compensated renal failure", which means the animal lives with it quite well, as opposed to "uncompensated" where things are slipping. As a BTW, we don't usually see azotemia on the bloodwork of chronic kidney patients until they've lost about 2/3 of their function. We don't usually see signs at home until they lose 3/4 of their function. So even if you're in the 2/3 zone, the dog is well and has good quaility of life.

 

Anyway, those are my thoughts up to this point. I should emphasise that I am not a board-certified internist, just a regular general practice vet, and a specialist might have a different take on this. One thing I'd suggest for his next visit is to get a body weight, to be sure he's not losing (since animals with renal failure may do so, and extreme thinness is one of the two things humans report to have the greatest negative impact on quality of life, the other being difficulty breathing. We sort of assume dogs feel the same way.)

 

Anyway, it could be I'm missing something here, not being a specialist, but that's all I can think of for now. I hope that made sense, and please feel free to ping me if I didn't answer the question. Let me know what happens, if you don't mind, and give him a hug from me.

[MrSnappy]

Thank you AK Dog Doc! Let me see if I can figure out some things.

 

1) You may have a falsely decreased BUN - in other words, the dog is still azotemic (has high blood levels of nitrogen compounds, like BUN and creatinine), but the BUN is dropping for reasons unrelated to the kidney function

As a BTW, we don't usually see azotemia on the bloodwork of chronic kidney patients until they've lost about 2/3 of their function. We don't usually see signs at home until they lose 3/4 of their function. So even if you're in the 2/3 zone, the dog is well and has good quaility of life.

Okay, I am confused. The vet says that he is azotemic - does that mean he has significant renal failure then?

 

A third cause would be in a dog that is drinking excessively (which RD was at one point, if I recall right, but is he still?),

He is still drinking and peeing quite a bit, but not as much as in previous weeks. I got a urine sample this morning to take in for another urine specific gravity test, and I noticed that is appears to be quite concentrated, for a change - it's dark yellow and smells strongly, in contrast to the one I took a couple of weeks ago that was weak and watery. I am waiting for the vet to open to bring the sample in for the test though. My vet did say that he would feel a lot better if Red Dog started concentrating his urine.

 

Things to consider if you want to do further investigation are 1) ultrasound the kidneys, A renal ultrasound might be informative, however, and is not especially invasive. There will be a bad hair cut - sorry.

We do have an ultrasound scheduled for the end off January, and one of my questions was, is it really worth it? Say his creatinine levels were to drop into the normal range before then, would an ultrasound be superfluous? And, what can the ultrasound tell us if there are no visible abnormalities? (I am not really ultrasound savvy, so I'm not completely sure what the purpose of the ultrasound is).

 

I am disappointed to hear they will shave him, poor guy I didn't think about that!

 

ascorbic acid (vitamin C) can reportedly make the creatinine read falsely high; so can certain drugs - penecillin, cephalosporins, barbiturates, etc. Is he still on antimicrobials? and if so which one(s)?

Interesting. He is still on amoxicillan, twice a day. I also supplement his diet with Vitamin C, so I wonder if the combination of this has anything to do with it? My vet mentioned no such thing.

 

One thing I'd suggest for his next visit is to get a body weight, to be sure he's not losing

He did drop quite a bit of weight initially, but then he didn't eat for 5 days or so. He is staying around the 50 lbs mark (I weight him every week) - he goes up and down by a pound or so, but nothing particularly significant. I'll weigh him again when I go in this morning.

 

Anyway, it could be I'm missing something here, not being a specialist, but that's all I can think of for now. I hope that made sense, and please feel free to ping me if I didn't answer the question. Let me know what happens, if you don't mind, and give him a hug from me.

Thank you very much. I can't begin to tell you how much more useful you are than my own vet, whom I like a lot, but is nowhere near as informative as you are. Perhaps I will move to Alaska so Red Dog can visit you instead. I would be happy to give him a hug for you - he gets about a thousand of them a day from me these days, so an extra one won't be hard to squeeze in

 

Edited to add: His Urine Specific Gravity came back "10-26" which is better than it has been, apparently. My vet says this only indicates he has better than 1/3rd renal function. Thoughts?

 

Thanks again

 

RDM

[AK dog doc]

Azotemia can be from three different sources: pre-renal, renal, or post-renal. Pre-renal would be things like dehydration, medications, high protein diet, etc - things that happened before the blood ever went to the kidney for processing. Renal would be a problem with the kidney itself (ie, renal failure). Post-renal would be things that happened AFTER the kidney, like a urinary tract obstruction (most commonly stones) or a ruptured bladder. So azotemia does NOT necessarily indicate kidney trouble per se.

 

As far as the utility of the ultrasound - I think it's still a worthwhile test. Ultrasound is good at imaging shape and texture of organs. If there has been scarring in the kidney, I personally feel (so long as you have a decent ultrasonographer) that ultrasound (which is a pain to type, so now I'm goint to type U/S instead) is the best method of detecting it. Xrays can tell you only so much, and would probably miss a lot of lesions that U/S will pick up. U/S can tell you if there's normal architecture inside the kidney, what the density of the tissue is (too dense, not dense enough, or just right), what the uniformity is (rough throughout, patchy bad with mostly good, good throughout, etc) whether the surface is smooth and regular, whether there is abnormal fulid accumulation in the renal pelvis, whether or not the layers of the kidney are proportioned right and of appropriate thickness, and so on. Xray won't give you that info (though it CAN be done without the bad hair-do!) Also, Xray may miss some stones (not all stones show up on Xray) - U/S won't miss them, so long as they are large enough for the machine to resolve (and most are). U/S might help you and your vet decide if the meds need to be continued longer or not. If it was my dog, I'd sacrifice the hair in the interest of the information, but that's a bit unfair of me to say... partly because I'm a vet and so view these things from a different perspective, and partly because Finn has pretty sketchy coat, so it's no big loss.

 

I'm pleased to hear that the USG is up to 1026 - that's in the normal range; I'm not sure what your vet meant by "better than 1/3 renal function" unless s/he was referring to that thing where we see no changes on the bloodwork until we've lost about 2/3 of the function. Also glad to hear he's not losing weight (RD, not the vet). It's possible that the meds and vitamin C ARE affecting the creatinine reading - the test would be to withdraw the meds for a while and re-test the creatinine, but you DON'T want to pull the amoxi til the full course is done, so that'll have to wait.

 

I'm glad to be helpful - but in all fairness I have to admit I had to look up the thing about the vitamin C, so I wouldn't have known it either if I hadn't gone to the books. Probably won't forget it again for a while, though, so this is helpful to me as well. And, I'm a girl, so I like to communicate to my clients - sometimes men are more taciturn by nature (in fact, I'd say that 70% of the clients who prefer to see me - rather than one of the guys - tell me that at least part of the reason is that I TALK to them.)

 

I would love to be able to hug Red Dog in person - he sounds like a charmer! In the short run, I guess I'll have to be content with the internet version, alas! But let me know if you decide to move and we'll have a big BC get-together!

[MrSnappy]

Originally posted by AK dog doc:

I would love to be able to hug Red Dog in person - he sounds like a charmer! In the short run, I guess I'll have to be content with the internet version, alas! But let me know if you decide to move and we'll have a big BC get-together!

Once again, I can't thank you enough for this information. You've convinced me the ultrasound is worth it too.

 

I'm sad to tell you, though, that if you tried to hug Red Dog he would bite you in the face as he does not accept such liberties from anyone other than his immediate family and a few select old friends. Also, he's a bastard and he would beat up your border collies should he ever meet him. Come to think of it. He's not a very nice dog ... why AM I spending all this money on the bugger? It could be because he sleeps with his tongue sticking out and that always makes me smile.

 

Thanks again, this is great information to have!

 

RDM

[deafbat]

Hey RDM...Just wanted to send my best wishes and hope that Red Dog makes a full recovery.

[AK dog doc]

Oh, well - if he charms YOU that's really what's important! And that tongue thing IS a rather charming image, I must say. Proabably less important what he thinks of strangers, as this is not why we have them, by and large. Hopefully I wouldn't get bitten in the face, not just because I'm sure you'd protect me , but since most dogs tell me up front if they're interested in being hugged, and *so far* I have not met a BC who doesn't give fair warning of this (Rotties - another story.) I try to respect that, so far as the job allows, so I hope I'd be paying enough attention to respect RD's thoughts on the matter - but you never know! I HAVE been getting gifts of home-made Bailey's from clients, and you know how THAT goes ...glug glug glug.

 

Finn adores other people and dogs (and has an especial fondness for black and white females - dogs, I mean, not people - who all remind him of his mother), but not all of them love HIM. He's used to getting rebuffed - his enthusiasm tends to overwhelm his good sense at times, poor thing, and he forgets that not EVERY dog loves to be rushed up to with wagging tail and face-licking apparatus at full-slime setting and set on overdrive. Although I WILL say he's gaining some decorum now that he's a big 18 months old. His poor mother gets rather tired of his puppyish enthusiasm at times, and has been known to bite his smiley little lips. Ironically Buddy would probaby be RD's "favorite" (if he has such a thing) since he stands way back and generally only interacts (shyly) by invitation from the other dog. A chicken, my Buddy, but sometimes discretion is the better part of valor...

 

Anyway, glad the info was helpful, and let me know how it turns out.

[MrSnappy]

Originally posted by AK dog doc:

Hopefully I wouldn't get bitten in the face, not just because I'm sure you'd protect me , but since most dogs tell me up front if they're interested in being hugged, and *so far* I have not met a BC who doesn't give fair warning of this (

Funnily enough, the other day after having blood drawn (yet again, poor dog is going to run out soon) my vet took it upon himself to lift RD off the exam table and put him back on the floor. It seems that he doesn't like me to do it, because I apparently don't weigh much more than my dog.

 

I tried to stop him, but it was too late. I was just describing the look on RD's face to my partner - 1 part terror, 1 part complete disbelief and 1 part snarly-face. It was really funny, or rather, it would have been really funny had I not been sweating and frozen with horror at the thought of Dr. Burt's nose getting bitten off.

 

Fortunately, RD didn't bite, probably because he was busy wrestling with all his contradictory emotions at the time. But he RAN out of the clinic like a bullet, tail tucked firmly between his legs.

 

RD would probably like Buddy - he only likes dogs who don't try to play with him. Funnily enough though, if he doesn't have a ball and a strange dog does, he will pester said dog endlessly and that dog can bite him, growl at him, pin him down, and RD just bounces back up all smiles and pesters some more. BUT if a strange dog doesn't have a ball and just looks at him, RD bites him.

 

I think that for all your help, I probably should air-mail you Piper. No no - really, I insist. She comes complete with a hollow moose bone that she keeps dropping on the hardwood floor just for fun. It's a great source of irrita - er, entertainment. I am sure she would LOVE it in Alaska ...

 

RDM

[AK dog doc]

You crack me up!

Piper sounds like a kick, actually. If I can live with Buddy's weirdness, I can probably live with ANYTHING. I adore that dog, but he is the ODDEST little thing I think I've ever met. He never clunks things on the floor... he likes to stand and stare at a dish for a long period of time, as if contemplating just WHAT mystery of the universe this might be, then paw at it (preferably tipping it over, if it has anything in it). If it goes CLANG or dumps food or water on his feet he shuffles backwards away from the Evil Basin of Death with a look of anxiety on his pointy little face, and then he gives me a sort of doleful glance, as if he is SO sad that I allow such wicked items in our house where they might at any moment leap up and engulf him entirely, sending him to some other dimension. (Because he has some real panic about that other dimension, he is constanly honing his bark into something ever sharper and more ear-piercing, so that I can hear him across the galaxies and come to his rescue... this also works well if Pepper has trapped him in the shower and will not let him out.)

 

Poor RD. I can just picture his face when That Man picked him up (for what it's worth, I think this is a guy thing - they want to be helpful, but sometimes it's just best to let the owner do it. I usually ask, "Do you need help getting him down?" if I'm not sure of my reception, but I don't think it occurs to a man to ask a woman this. A gallant instinct, but in RD's case, maybe not the most reassuring one.) I think RD WOULD like Buddy (who never has a ball, since he is unable to figure out how they work) - Finn would probably annoy him instantaneously and get his face RIGHT where it doesn't belong. Sigh. Maybe he'll learn some doggy decorum one day... (Kenzie is so little that she never seems to threaten or annoy anyone - possibly too short to notice - and she's a moving target, more intent on running her little terrier butt off than the social niceties.)

[juliepoudrier]

AK,

I think the lifting animals down thing may also be self-protective. You can't be responsible for the owner hurting him- or herself when lifting a dog up or down if you don't allow the owner to do so. At the clinic I go to the vet assistants are supposed to do that (lifting animals up and down) and it has taken a lot of convincing on my part for them to allow me to lift my own dogs. I don't insist for all of them, but "Snarley Farleigh" (another red dog by the way), for example, will most certainly bite if he feels the list bit threatened, and so it really does make more sense for me to lift him up and down--for everyone's safety. I'm sure Red Dog feels the same way Farleigh does--it's okay for mom to touch me, but I really, really don't like it for anyone else to do so. With Farleigh, if they won't allow me to hold him while he's on the table, then I insist that they use a muzzle. I simply will not be responsible for someone else being bit because they want to follow their "rules" without exception. I think your solution of asking the owner if they want help is a good one.

 

RDM,

I'm glad to hear that things are going in the right direction for Red Dog and that the ultrasound shows that all is well....

 

J.

[2 Devils]

AK Doc- I will also send you Charlotte. She hates other dogs, is afraid of loud noises, has the unknown medical problems, is a total love hound who only wants to be loved on but she is particular about that though. She loves to eat and would weigh 100 lbs given a chance... Oh and she goes deaf when she sees a cat. She loves them dearly, really she does, NOT.

 

So what do you say... I will give her to you for free. Oh and she is already trained in flyball and is pretty fast for a border collie mix.

 

My vets will allow me to lift my own dogs and will allow me to hold my dogs on the table. I can't imagine doing it any other way. I have a hard time understanding that some vets won't allow this... makes no sense to me.

 

Kim

[MrSnappy]

Originally posted by AK dog doc:

You crack me up!

Piper sounds like a kick, actually. If I can live with Buddy's weirdness, I can probably live with ANYTHING.

Oh well, if it's WEIRD you want ... why didn't you say so? That settles it, I'll send you Tweed too. You have never met a more phobic dog than this little guy. One of many examples - Yesterday on our morning walk we found an old soccer ball. Piper and RD were ecstatic. Tweed was terrified. For some inexplicable reason, he fears soccer balls and anything else that you kick with your feet (this has morphed into being scared of teenage boys, since they are the ones most likely to be kicking a soccer ball, and also into him being scared of certain playing fields where there have been Known Soccer Players.) (And it distresses my partner greatly as well, since he is a die-hard soccer fan and he feels rejected by my dog. But I digress). In fact, he pouted and slunk around for the whole walk.

 

BUT when we got home and had had breakfast and all that, I was sitting at my computer and I heard the most godawful noise ... I glanced up to see Tweed and a blurry white object racing past me at a billion miles an hour down the hallway. It seems that Tweed likes soccer balls *in the house* but outside, they are objects of doom.

 

Also, Tweed has this 'thing' about being stared at. I cannot tell you how mnay times he has walked head on into newspaper dispensing boxes, bus benches and poles because he thought someone behind him was looking at him, and he was so intent on keeping an eye on them that he didn't look where he was going. It's a chicken-and-egg thing ... is he stupid because he walks into stuff, or does he walk into stuff because he's stupid?

 

this also works well if Pepper has trapped him in the shower and will not let him out.)

Bah hahahahaha! Pepper is the Devil! And speaking of showers, Tweed is scared of those too. Neverthless, he also has an addiction to soap, so many times I have caught him shivering with fear in the bathtub while he consumes Pears at an astonishing rate of speed.

 

RDM

[AK dog doc]

Thank God I'm not the only BC owner with an oddball. I feel very reassured to know I'm in such good company. Such good weird company.

 

Finn has a thing about soccer balls, too, but fear does not enter into it. We sometimes walk the dogs on some beautifully-groomed running trails at one of the local high schools (especially nice since it's a large wooded area - interesting for the dogs - but it's fenced, so no moose and no cars, though we do see other dogs out there at times. Never see the track team since we don't go when they're on it). To get to and from the parking lot, we walk by two practice fields. One day there was a soccer practice on one of them. I didn't have Finn on leash bnecause when we entered the woods the fields were empty, and since there's a fence and he's VERY friendly I generally have no worries about his safety or that of others. Also he's good on his recalls - unless there are about 20 girls in shorts chasing a soccer ball around, as I soon discovered. He was through the fence in a flash, joyfully chasing the ball, weaving in and out between running legs, tail waving wildly. The coach was MAD. I went through the fence after Finn, and Coach is yelling at me to get my dog off the field. Since he could hear me calling Finn and see that Finn was NOT going to leave the ball so long as it was moving, I'm unsure what he though he'd accomplish by stomping around waving his clipboard, but there you are. I suggested that if everyone stood still for a moment, so would the dog. All the girls got this instantly (not so the coach, who seemed a cranky sort). Finn sat happily on the foot of one of the girls, panting and looking adoringly into her face. I corralled him and said to her, "I'm really sorry about that." She smiled sunnily and said, "We're not - he helped us get back ball posession." (apparently he executed a steal from the other team). Finn, the soccer hooligan.

 

It cracks me up that Tweed likes soccer balls in the house but not outside. He DOES sound like Buddy (that bonking into things, too). I got some very nice handmade soaps for Christmas - should I send him some? (and no, I was NOT opening my presents early - they weren't wrapped.)

 

2 Devils, maybe instead I should send you Kenzie. She weighs 14.5# but would gladly weigh 50 if allowed. Her feet would not touch the floor and she could be conveniently rolled from place to place. She and Charlotte can enter an eating disorder clinic for dogs. If there isn't one, maybe they can open it themselves. Kenzie is very good at the administrative end of things and would make an excellent eating counsellor for other dogs (which she would accomplish by snarling at them as if posessed should they even look at food, as she is convinced that all food in the universe is HERS.)

 

I don't know what the deal is with vets not letting people lift their own pets - if I have an owner volunteer for this, I generally let them (offering help if needed), and anything BC sized or larger I at least consider doing on the floor, since the dogs are often more comfortable that way. We don't have the staff to have a tech in the room at all times, so I have to go get one if I want one. And ANY time an owner suggests a muzzle, I figure they know what they're talking about and thank them for the warning. I'm FAR more likely to see an owner who will not restrain a dog enough than one who restrains it too much, so if one tells me the dog needs a muzzle or to be held by the owner, that's what we do. In fact, for very agressive or very frightened dogs who are getting anesthetic, we ASK the owner to stay to help out, because they often have the power to reassure and/or restrain the dog without us having to wrestle it to the floor with the catch pole or something, which NEVER improves the dog's attitude about being at the vet. Hmmm, now why could that be....? Poor things.

[Northof49]

Thank God I'm not the only BC owner with an oddball. I feel very reassured to know I'm in such good company. Such good weird company.

Hey Hey Hey - back up the wagon here. I will have you know we are perfectly normal - well, for Border Collie owners

 

Let see with my youngest, she has a thing for Vic's Vapour Rub. I had it on the bathroom vanity and she kept trying to get it, so I put it in the medicine cabinet. Went out of the bathroom to do something else and hear this noise. She was up on the bathroom vanity trying to get the medicine cabinet open to get at the jar of Vic's Vapour Rub.

 

She likes egg cartons, so she is still trying to figure out how to get up on top of the fridge where I keep them - and a couple of time she unfortunately just about made it. You start with the chair to get on to the table, then you see if you can streeeetch to the top of the chair, balance on it like a cat and.................

[AK dog doc]

Good point, Nothof49... we're not weird, we're BC owners. And our dogs are not weird, they're BCs! It isn't weirdness, it's creativity. I stand corrected.

 

Although,... I have to admit I've never heard of the Vick's obsession before, at least not in a dog. We used to use it on the racehorses (the colts, who would - erm - exhaust themselves before the race if there was a filly in heat nearby, so we'd put Vick's in their nostrils to prevent them from smelling the fillies and hence having tooooo good a time before the race. I always wondered if that gave them fond memories of Vick's, because of the hormonal association...)

 

Come to think, Finn is obsessed with smells, too. When I come home from work, his nose is plastered to my pants legs, about knee-height (evidently ideal dog-rubbing height). I swear I'll never have to wash my clothes again; he'll just suck all the smell molecules out with his nose, vacuum-style.

[blackacre]

Yahoo, 'tis the season for weird behaviour dog stories. Hobbes stares fixedly at the back door waiting for me to open it to let the cat in or out. As soon as I do, he tears through the kitchen, spins 180 degrees on the front hall mat, rips up the stairs, leaps on my son's bed and stares behind it where the cat hides. OK, maybe not that weird--except that the cat has been dead for three years. Oh, and if you sneeze, he races off somewhere, anywhere, making hystercial yelping sounds. Hmmmm. It took a lot for me to post this, he's an Open dog for god's sake and seems to show some intelligence when he's on a sheep field..

A.

[2 Devils]

AK Doc, I still stay I will happily send you Charlotte. If you want I can also add little Aspen my devilish poodle The only problem with allowing the dogs start an eating disorder clinic is the dogs would make sure to eat all leftover so the others can't have it. Our dogs would be huge.

 

And who here has a dog that is afraid of dogs barking? Well I do. Charlotte is great at a flyball tourney, the barking does not bother her but gosh forbid if we watch a flyball video she will totally freak out unless we mute the darn TV... So who wants to admit they have a dog afraid of barking... now this is what I call weird.

[AK dog doc]

Maybe he just has a sense of humor... like, "Hmmm, I'll act like the cat is here, even though he's not; THAT'LL really freak them out! Heh heh heh..." Like that Gary Larson cartoon where two dogs are sitting in front of a closed door (with the owner in an armchair nearby) and the one dog says to the other, "Want to see something funny? I'll just sit here staring at the closet door, growling softly..." Or something like that.

 

Or possibly your cat is haunting you. (I've had several clients report that their deceased pets are doing this, and typically it is NOT the obviously nutso ones, interestingly. Not quite sure what to make of that.)

 

The sneezing thing - perhaps he is just overwhelmed with laughter at how funny people look (sound?) when they sneeze. (You should see how Finn looks at me if I sing. I'm pretty sure he wonders how it is possible that I can be so entirely tone deaf.)

[AK dog doc]

(Posts that pass in the night - or on the Net, rather...)

 

2 Devils, maybe those dogs on TV are saying REALLY BAD THINGS with their barking. Or maybe the TV distorts the sound in some way that we don't get. That IS a bit offbeat, I admit. Finn loves when other dogs bark on TV. He wants in there with them.

 

Oh, well... so much for our plans to get rich with a doggy diet center. It doesn't look good if the directors of the center look like beach balls with fur...

[blackacre]

Actually, AK dog doc, I have analysed the sneezing thing very closely (uh huh, really) and am convinced that he thinks it's a command: just like the shushing sound means get a move on and cover the sheep, the sneezing sound means "go berserk."

Hmm, a feline haunting. Figures that the damn cat that lived a billion years and pissed on everything would be the creature to come back and haunt me. How do I get its sorry little spirit to rest easy and bugger off?

A.

[Tassie]

Hey Kim - my litle bitch is one who doesn't like barking. She rarely barks herself, except a little one to get Fergus stirred up to chase her. I've only heard her alert bark three times in two years. When he barks, she rushes inside to make sure I know about it. She actually cant sustain a bark - two normal ones and then it goes into a kind of howl'.

 

Kirra's dislike of barking dogs is one of the reasons I have brought the dogs with me on holidays to the mainland - she really didn't enjoy the kennel experience last year when the other dogs were barking.

 

Love all those 'weird' stories.