lilbonfire88
New member
We have an almost 5-month-old, male, Newfie puppy. We chose him at 3 weeks and brought him home at 9 weeks. This is our first breeder experience, as we have always done rescue work, but we really wanted a Newfoundland, and we wanted to avoid major health problems and find a respectable breeder.
I am going to go into the history of what's gone on with Oakum because maybe someone will recognize something or be able to point something out for us.
When we brought Oakum home he had just gotten off of an Albon treatment for coccidia. He was a pretty happy and healthy puppy. He house and crate trained very quickly. A few weeks after we got him, he got a but on his snout that required an antibiotic to keep infection at bay. When he finished that antibiotic he got on/off diarrhea. There was no pattern, just very on and off. We had a fecal test that came back normal, so they gave us a probiotic for him. That helped for about a week, and then the odd diarrhea was back. We took him in for another fecal exam, which again was normal, so they gave us an antibiotic thinking that it was an intestinal infection of some sort. That did not help, so we took him in for another fecal exam, and this time it showed coccidia. He got another dose of Albon and was doing great! He finished the Albon last Wednesday and was still his normal, goofy, intelligent self. He has been growing like a weed and as of last Wednesday (a week and half away from 5 months) he was 69 pounds.
Last Friday he kept us up all night having to urinate every 5 minutes. He was acting normal though, other than the frequent and long urination. I had a wedding shower to go to Saturday, so knowing that I wouldn't be able to get him into our vet and that something was wrong with him, I took him to the emergency vet early Saturday morning. I gave them his complete history and what had happened the night before and they told me it was a UTI. They didn't do a urine sample, but I believed them, and they sent us home with antibiotics and steroids.
As the day went on Saturday he got very sleepy, I thought it was just a side effect of the meds. Sunday came around and he refused to eat and just wanted to sleep. Same thing into Monday morning, so I got him into our normal vet first thing on Monday. I explained how much he had worsened, and now he was still having the urination problems, but was also lethargic and refusing to eat, all he wanted to do was drink and sleep. Our vet was a bit angry that the emergency vet had not checked his urine to confirm a uti, and told us to discontinue the steroid, but stay on the antibiotic. The poor guy was down to 69 pounds, he lost 9 pounds in a little less than a week! They checked his urine and it showed no sign of infection, but instead a lot of sugar. They ran some bloodwork and he had a blood sugar level of 448! The vet also said his liver enzymes were slightly elevated, protein low, phosphorus low, and a few other things slightly off. They gave us insulin and told us our baby had diabetes.
He has been on the insulin since Monday night, and we go back next week to get his blood rechecked. It seems to be helping in the sense that he is eating, isn't quite as lethargic, and his eyes don't look bloodshot anymore. He has vomited a couple of times the past few days, and it smells absolutely awful. He is still having major issues with not being able to hold his urine, urine incontinence, very frequent large amounts of urine, and other times trying to urinate and just drops coming out. Also, even though he is eating now, it isn't quite his normal amount, and he is being picky and only eating if we add stuff to his food (like chicken, scrambled eggs, etc).
I called the breeder and again was assured that both parents were healthy, she has never had a dog come back to her with diabetes or owned a dog herself with it. She did however say that we reminded her of a pup that she had an issue with last spring from the same mother, it was the first and only pup she had ever had an issue with so she thought it just a fluke. She gave me the owner's name and number and I talked with her today. Her dog is also a brown/white male from the same mother. Her story is very similar, but differs in that her dog started having urinating issues around 3 months, and was never diagnosed with diabetes. Her dog's story: at 3 months they noticed their dog was not catching onto housetraining, and could not hold it for even an hour. They went to the vet and was told he had a uti. This happened multiple times and they had about $2000 worth of tests done. He would have ups and downs and during the downs he would get extremely lethargic. He had always been a small boy who was more obsessed with water than food. They only had his sugar tested once and it was 236 and her vet told her that was fine(which my vet said anything over 150 is high). After all of the tests they couldn't figure out what was wrong with this pup. At 6 months she finally told the breeder she couldn't handle the constant cleaning up of lakes in her house, and he went back to the breeder. The breeder's vet said that it was probably an immature muscle or bladder issue. The breeder kept him, and at around 9 months the problem totally disappeared. He went back to his original family, and has not had an issue since! In talking with her, the dog's behavior sounds extremely similar to our boy's this past few days. Her dog even started vomiting around 5 months, and she said it smelled like a rotting dirty diaper (just like ours).
The breeder is at a loss for words, but doesn't want to breed this mother until something is figured out. This mother has had 4 litters, and these are the only 2 pups to ever have an issue, but it is very odd and alarming. The owner of the other dog says they never figured out what it was, they were just happy that he grew out of it. We are of course hoping that our boy will grow out of it, as it would really not be fun to have him on insulin the rest of his life, and we don't want to deal with the cataracts and other issues that can arise. We love him and he is a wonderful dog. Our original goal for him was to be a therapy dog, and we have already started training in hopes of working our way up the ladder. He passed the first level with flying colors and is just starting the second level. We have put a lot of money into him, his vetting, and his training, and he has stolen our heart, and now we are terrified that something awful is going to happen to him.
We feed him Purina One Smartblend Large Breed Puppy Chicken, which is what the breeder had fed them. Our other dog is on Diamond naturals, and we plan on bringing our Newfie onto that eventually as well.
Has anyone ever heard of anything like this? I plan on telling the vet about the other pup, in hopes that it could spark some ideas. We would love to hear if other Newfie owners have run into similar issues, or know of anything to try. If your dog has diabetes, can it cause all of these urinating issues, and will they get better? You can't be a therapy dog if you can't control your bladder. Can you grow out of diabetes (if that is what was wrong with the other pup)? Could all of the meds caused this issue? Should I try to switch him to a different food that is grain free to see if the grain is causing issues with his insides? Please, any ideas would be great! Thank you so much!
I am going to go into the history of what's gone on with Oakum because maybe someone will recognize something or be able to point something out for us.
When we brought Oakum home he had just gotten off of an Albon treatment for coccidia. He was a pretty happy and healthy puppy. He house and crate trained very quickly. A few weeks after we got him, he got a but on his snout that required an antibiotic to keep infection at bay. When he finished that antibiotic he got on/off diarrhea. There was no pattern, just very on and off. We had a fecal test that came back normal, so they gave us a probiotic for him. That helped for about a week, and then the odd diarrhea was back. We took him in for another fecal exam, which again was normal, so they gave us an antibiotic thinking that it was an intestinal infection of some sort. That did not help, so we took him in for another fecal exam, and this time it showed coccidia. He got another dose of Albon and was doing great! He finished the Albon last Wednesday and was still his normal, goofy, intelligent self. He has been growing like a weed and as of last Wednesday (a week and half away from 5 months) he was 69 pounds.
Last Friday he kept us up all night having to urinate every 5 minutes. He was acting normal though, other than the frequent and long urination. I had a wedding shower to go to Saturday, so knowing that I wouldn't be able to get him into our vet and that something was wrong with him, I took him to the emergency vet early Saturday morning. I gave them his complete history and what had happened the night before and they told me it was a UTI. They didn't do a urine sample, but I believed them, and they sent us home with antibiotics and steroids.
As the day went on Saturday he got very sleepy, I thought it was just a side effect of the meds. Sunday came around and he refused to eat and just wanted to sleep. Same thing into Monday morning, so I got him into our normal vet first thing on Monday. I explained how much he had worsened, and now he was still having the urination problems, but was also lethargic and refusing to eat, all he wanted to do was drink and sleep. Our vet was a bit angry that the emergency vet had not checked his urine to confirm a uti, and told us to discontinue the steroid, but stay on the antibiotic. The poor guy was down to 69 pounds, he lost 9 pounds in a little less than a week! They checked his urine and it showed no sign of infection, but instead a lot of sugar. They ran some bloodwork and he had a blood sugar level of 448! The vet also said his liver enzymes were slightly elevated, protein low, phosphorus low, and a few other things slightly off. They gave us insulin and told us our baby had diabetes.
He has been on the insulin since Monday night, and we go back next week to get his blood rechecked. It seems to be helping in the sense that he is eating, isn't quite as lethargic, and his eyes don't look bloodshot anymore. He has vomited a couple of times the past few days, and it smells absolutely awful. He is still having major issues with not being able to hold his urine, urine incontinence, very frequent large amounts of urine, and other times trying to urinate and just drops coming out. Also, even though he is eating now, it isn't quite his normal amount, and he is being picky and only eating if we add stuff to his food (like chicken, scrambled eggs, etc).
I called the breeder and again was assured that both parents were healthy, she has never had a dog come back to her with diabetes or owned a dog herself with it. She did however say that we reminded her of a pup that she had an issue with last spring from the same mother, it was the first and only pup she had ever had an issue with so she thought it just a fluke. She gave me the owner's name and number and I talked with her today. Her dog is also a brown/white male from the same mother. Her story is very similar, but differs in that her dog started having urinating issues around 3 months, and was never diagnosed with diabetes. Her dog's story: at 3 months they noticed their dog was not catching onto housetraining, and could not hold it for even an hour. They went to the vet and was told he had a uti. This happened multiple times and they had about $2000 worth of tests done. He would have ups and downs and during the downs he would get extremely lethargic. He had always been a small boy who was more obsessed with water than food. They only had his sugar tested once and it was 236 and her vet told her that was fine(which my vet said anything over 150 is high). After all of the tests they couldn't figure out what was wrong with this pup. At 6 months she finally told the breeder she couldn't handle the constant cleaning up of lakes in her house, and he went back to the breeder. The breeder's vet said that it was probably an immature muscle or bladder issue. The breeder kept him, and at around 9 months the problem totally disappeared. He went back to his original family, and has not had an issue since! In talking with her, the dog's behavior sounds extremely similar to our boy's this past few days. Her dog even started vomiting around 5 months, and she said it smelled like a rotting dirty diaper (just like ours).
The breeder is at a loss for words, but doesn't want to breed this mother until something is figured out. This mother has had 4 litters, and these are the only 2 pups to ever have an issue, but it is very odd and alarming. The owner of the other dog says they never figured out what it was, they were just happy that he grew out of it. We are of course hoping that our boy will grow out of it, as it would really not be fun to have him on insulin the rest of his life, and we don't want to deal with the cataracts and other issues that can arise. We love him and he is a wonderful dog. Our original goal for him was to be a therapy dog, and we have already started training in hopes of working our way up the ladder. He passed the first level with flying colors and is just starting the second level. We have put a lot of money into him, his vetting, and his training, and he has stolen our heart, and now we are terrified that something awful is going to happen to him.
We feed him Purina One Smartblend Large Breed Puppy Chicken, which is what the breeder had fed them. Our other dog is on Diamond naturals, and we plan on bringing our Newfie onto that eventually as well.
Has anyone ever heard of anything like this? I plan on telling the vet about the other pup, in hopes that it could spark some ideas. We would love to hear if other Newfie owners have run into similar issues, or know of anything to try. If your dog has diabetes, can it cause all of these urinating issues, and will they get better? You can't be a therapy dog if you can't control your bladder. Can you grow out of diabetes (if that is what was wrong with the other pup)? Could all of the meds caused this issue? Should I try to switch him to a different food that is grain free to see if the grain is causing issues with his insides? Please, any ideas would be great! Thank you so much!
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