I would love to have her eating the same as the others, BUT, she is not an entirely healthy dog. Last June, she went out for a retrieve and collapsed, screaming, unable to get back up. For weeks, all four feet were knuckled under. She ran into walls and fell down for MONTHS. We did sedated X-rays and paid to have them read at the U of MN. Normal. She can drink more than a gallon of water in a day. (She is 35 pounds.) We just started competing again after a very long break that we thought was permanent. We nearly euthanized her during the height of her "incident." She used to have what appeared to be small focal seizures. We still don't know what happened to her in June...

Perhaps I should just be happy with the status quo? But if you have ideas for transitioning, I would love to try.

I was referencing recreational bones, not raw meaty. My bad!

FWIW, If you met my dog, you would think she was very healthy. She is EXTREMELY active and driven. You wouldn't know that there was anything wrong with her unless you were very tuned into her gait.

Dog in Question:

What has the vet suggested as tentative ideas for what happened in June? Did s/he mention proprioception deficit?

Did she see a neuro specialist? Was there an ocular exam?



How old is she?

What does the vet say about the water intake? What does her blood work say (about kidneys, diabetes, etc.)?



When were the small seizures? I mean, how recent?




PS
How do you feel about home-cooked food? Or THK with add-ins? (With the water intake, for one thing, I'd probably want to get her off kibble if she were my dog.)

Her poops are fine now. The only time she had diarrhea is when she was a pup and she was on Innova. Since I pulled her off of Innova, she's been just fine.

The small seizures lasted about 30 seconds. Her tongue would stick out and the end would flick (like a snake) and she would stare into space and after it was over, she would dive under the bed and hide for half an hour or so. Sometimes puke. We now see them happen every few weeks. Used to be several times a week leading up to the "incident" and for months following the incident. It's been a couple of weeks since I've seen one. I am with her a lot. They are rare now.

My vet's best guess, and he stressed it was a guess, was brain injury/tumor. We did blood panels, thyroid tests. Normal. I had her to the vet 30 minutes after she collapsed, two days later, a week later, then two weeks later. We did chiro and laser treatments. Did a pred run. We did the X-rays. I stopped at a CAT scan. Figured if it revealed anything, she was a dead dog. If it didn't reveal anything, we were still stuck. It was a lot of money to satisfy curiosity. We thought we were going to lose her. She didn't see a neo specialist.

She is 5 years old with titles in agility, obedience, and rally. This is not a couch potato.

Vet has no idea about the water. We discussed testing for Addisons, but my vet didn't think she had enough symptoms to warrant it.

This is a healthy looking/acting dog now.

Forgot to add: I would be completely open to home-cooked. I just want to do what's best for her.

Well, I was trying to feel out whether the vet had said anything about intra-cranial events like tumor, hemorrhage, stroke ..... I see I didn't need to tiptoe around.

The water: The vet didn't do blood-work at all? What about blood sugar?



I am not a health professional. Besides having a lot of dog experience, I do canine nutrition (and allergy, and some other dog health) research. But that's all.

So this is strictly MHO: I would want her to have the best diet that she does well on. For me, since she does poorly with raw, it would be between The Honest Kitchen (or similar top-notch dehydrated) with cooked meat add-ins, or home-cooked.

But I would probably also discuss with the vet blood-work for the other possibilities for the polydipsia.

I don't think that all dogs can eat raw, even healthy dogs. I feed Wysong occasionally, I think it's an OK kibble.
Regarding her neurologic problems, I'd suspect that she has some intracranial injury, scar from trauma, small tumor ---- whatever, if it is better I would be happy. Did anyone ever test her for lead poisoning? Also, some of the tick borne illnesses can go intracranial---I don't know where you are, but in Minnesota these tick diseases are rampant.
Whatever you are feeding her, she looks great with a happy smile and shiny coat. I am not certain a gallon of water is too much for an active pit who pants a bunch. My ACDx drinks 3/4 of a gallon even in the winter-he weighs about 28lb.

I live in MN. I tested her for tick-borne illnesses twice last year, both IDEX tests were negative. We didn't do a Doxy cycle (because the tests were negative) but I suppose tick stuff is always a possibility.

We didn't test for lead poisoning... Where would a dog be likely to come into contact with lead? Could that have cleared and improved? Would it onset so dramatically? How does one test for it? Would it be too late to do so now?

The Wysong product that I was referencing was the Addlife Probiotic. It looks like they no longer sell it under that name. Bought it a while ago and froze it.

Glad to hear that the water isn't shocking. She is little OCDishly odd, so sometimes I think the drinking is almost a repetitive behavior. Sometimes she drinks so long that we worry but I am concerned that if we limit access beyond interupting her in the moment that she will develop too much concern about access, so I just let her have at it. I would guess that she drinks more than double what my other two drink combined. BUT, she is the most intense dog. She is very, very active. She drives is a little nuts but we adore her.

Sounds like abandoning raw feeding with her might be the best continued option.

Years ago in my vet practice I visited a farm where there was a dog who had developed seizures.
Despite various therapies we could not find a cause---the farmer put the dog down and got a new pup.
After 6 mos the new pup had seizures too. I STILL could not figure it out.
Years later I went to a farm auction at this place. Looking at the inside of their dog house, which was for sale, I saw to my horror grey peeling paint, tons of it, old paint, oil based.
I suspect the seizures were from lead on the paint flecks which went on the coat of the wet dog - dog licks off paint flecks, there you go, lead poisoning.

Dog toys from China? Perhaps lead could be there, it was in childrens toys, likely even less testing on dog toys. Just a guess, and yes, it can clear if the source is removed. Perhaps lead shot in a carcass? The sources are varied. Takes imagination to figure it out.

I know or knew two dogs with lead poisoning from paint .... peeling lead-painted windowsills, licked or chewed when they were young dogs.