Quote: Jennifer Mullen

she just let out this big grunt/groan, and when i went to look at her, she'd peed but was still just lying there - hadn't gotten up or anything.

I would call the vet and take her to the e-vet. No UTI but appearing to be both in pain and listless..... I would want her looked at.

I would definitely talk on the phone with the vet (not a tech) and describe the lethargy and groan.

well, she did run after (or try to) a cat when we just went to the park.

....though i'm not sure how much she actually peed there, it was difficult to tell b/c it wasn't all snow, i thought it would be obvious and then it wasn't.

i just spoke to them....they said to watch her for the next couple of hours, since she doesn't appear lethargic now (i'm having dinner, she was all excited (hey, maybe i get some!).

(also, i should note, she does just grunt sometimes. it was that this was accompanied by an accident that freaked me out, also it was more groan-y than usual. but we'll see. once i got to bed, i was going to get up every 3 hours or so to take her out....if that seems fair.)

just a quick note that teagan seems to be more like her old self. not totally, but better and better. she's acting far more like her usual 'i'm excited!' self.

when i took her to the park at 9, she peed, but it was normal, and not so huge in volume, so i think that's good.

once i gave her 1L of water this afternoon, and otherwise it was always 250-500mL - but perhaps i was overly aggressive in trying to flush out her system and she felt a bit 'blegh' because of that.

should note i just felt around her bladder etc to see how she responded - other than a 'what the F are you doing?' look she was fine. also think that's positive.

i'm being hopeful!

Jennifer, glad to hear that she seems to be back to her normal self. Will you have the bloodwork done anyway, or wait to see if she has any symptoms again? How old is she?

she's approx. 5 yo (what animal services told me)

yup, she's doing better. she had a small small accident between 12.30 and 6 AM (park visits) (i don't even remember hearing the 3.30 alarm, i was going to take her out then) but she peed at 6 AM and then i figured i'd take her out in a couple of hours (but didn't set the alarm) and ended up sleeping to 10 AM, she had no accident! whoohoo!
(though i failed to collect her urine, though i did try. i may just get them to collect some tomorrow night, unless i'm successful in the meantime)

i'm going to talk to the vet tomorrow. not sure about the bloodwork. testing her kidney function should be relatively inexpensive though, so i may.

things i'm planning on raising tomorrow:
-urethral tone (i.e. why is she capable of holding it for such long periods of time (normally) and then having accidents all of a sudden?)
-kidney function (generally i expect CRF in a slightly older animal, but it could happen younger, and i don't know her history)
-depends on her behaviour/pee holding, but i'll like ask for a bacterial culture
-what else could explain all of this weirdness w/urination

 Quote: Jennifer Mullen

should note i just felt around her bladder etc to see how she responded - other than a 'what the F are you doing?' look she was fine. also think that's positive.

i'm being hopeful!

Kidneys too?

i'm not totally sure i'd know the kidney, to be honest. i've seen vets feel mitch's lots, i guess for a dog it'd be pretty well in the same place for a cat....hmmm. i should get the vet to show me that, my problem would be i wouldn't know if the kidney felt small or normal to be honest, i don't have a baseline for comparison. i'll go read mercks and see what it says.

....i think i'd be all ready to dismiss the kidney function issue (in a 5 yo dog, she probably had just drank a lot) except that she does seem to have abnormal urination patterns.

Actually, she has seen the vet, so I imagine the vet palpated the kidneys.

I forget: How old is the dog?

teagan is 5 years old. which for a GSD would make her what - mid to late 30's in human equivalent? i know of rescues that list 5 year old dogs as 'senior' but that seems a bit premature to me.

you're right, i would think they would have palpated them yesterday during the physical exam, and all was normal in that exam. unfortunately due to her unfriendliness towards the vet in the exam room, they took her back to exam her w/a muzzle, so i wasn't there (and the VEC isn't one of those places that's flexible about letting you back into the treatment area, only time i've ever been back there was when we'd taken a VERY feral cat in and he was dying, and we were going back to have him PTS), but i can't imagine a physical exam without checking that, it's pretty basic.

(the cat who was dying was the cat mitch hung out with when he was a stray, they were two toms, living under the same dumpster in an alley downtown. when mitch got hit by a car and had his leg broken in multiple places, they had trouble trapping him, but dave - the really feral cat - always made sure mitch ate first, which was sweet given it was a very cold winter. anyways, we noticed dave acting oddly one night a few years ago, got him, and he died of acute renal failure two days later)

....mind you, mitch often has normal kidneys in a physical exam, but there's not much doubt he has renal failure. he gets lots of fluids though, including sub-q. i had given teagan some flavoured water prior to going to the VEC (so she'd have urine for the urinanalysis, i was worried since she'd peed so much), so that could have made her kidneys seem normal, assuming there actually is an issue there. she could also be at the very beginning of problems, i don't know for dogs, but for cats kidney failure actually doesn't start to show up on the bloodwork until the kidneys have hit about 70% failure (which frankly strikes me as a major fault of the way in which the bloodwork is done, but perhaps it's the same for humans and they just haven't figured out anything better).