Quote: After an emergency trip to the vets and tests it was determined that he was completely blind no reason given by the vet.
Glad you dog is ok but why didn't your vet give you a reason for the blindness? I would have insisted on a more definitive answer from my vet if my dog went blind. At least an answer as to why, what from, and could it be treated. Pets usually don't wake up blind for no reason. Cockers are known to have problems with PRA.
I quit giving the vacc for kennel cough. Too many different strains and the drug companies can not keep up to date on them. If you are observant and catch it quickly it can be treated easily.
We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
A year ago when camping in Florida for a month we noticed that Tucker was having a hard time going down the stairs at night. I took him to the vets in July of last year and had his eye's tested. They did the pressure test and dilated his eye's and after all was said and done was told that he had a normal loss of vision at night. I was told that he could see but it was a little blurred but that they could not detect any cataracts so not to worry. The vet said he was just showing his age and that there was nothing to be concerned about. WRONG!!!!!
Needless to say after his waking up and walking into the wall and the emergency trip to get his eye's checked out I was Not impressed with the vet we were using. His eye's were dilated wide open and would not go back to normal size. The following couple of days his eye's started getting cloudy.
The pupils slowly went back down in size but his sight was gone..totally gone.
I changed vets after they said he had cushings and we are back to our old vet we used before we moved 4 years ago.
The old vet we are once again using said that they should have seen the problems with his eye's back in July and if they had done something about it then he might not have gone blind.
Live and learn at the expense of my dog's eye sight seems wrong to me but I'm not a vet and can only go on what I've been told.
We trust the vet we are using now but to be honest i'm afraid that we will lose Tucker sooner than later and it will absolutely kill me if that happens. He's only 9 years old..10 in Oct and thats not old for a med sized dog. We have always made sure they went to get shots etc every year...nutered and spayed..and a good diet of dog food name brand only.
Sorry I know im rambling now.
Frank & Dawn
2005 Ford Super Duty F250 Diesel 6.0L Fx4 Short Box supercab
2007 Palomino Thoroughbred F-829RK
TUCKER (Black Cocker) 10yrs old
SADIE (Sheltie)6 yrs old
MASON (Black Cocker) born Feb 8th 09
Some dogs go on a "diet kibble" diet and lose weight. Many do not. Low cal kibbles are usually low fat, low protein, higher carb and a lot of useless high fiber, which may induce the illusion of fullness when eating but does nothing to satisfy the nutritional needs of the dog. A dog is a carnivore, and not designed to eat a lot of carbs. They really are natural "Atkins" dieters. Such a diet leaves them constantly hungry and unsatisfied, with profuse solid waste output and guilt ridden owners.
Kibble, in and of itself, is not something I'd ever willingly feed a dog as a primary food. (Or a cat, or a rabbit.) Again, a lot of dogs do well on it, but having watched the drop in water consumption when I put my dogs on a raw, high moisture diet, I realize now how much of a strain eating dry food puts on the dog's system, particularly the GI tract (which must constantly suck in enough moisture to process the dry stuff, and which of course connects to the immune system...) and the kidneys (which will take the brunt of the strain of the resulting and pretty much constant fluid loss... though the liver is taking a hit as well, no doubt) really is. When my youngest dog gets a half cup of kibble with her raw food to keep her weight where I want it, I add about 2 cups of water to her food. Otherwise she drinks and drinks all day. Its a clue. Even though a healthy dog may handle it and do very well, it is not a great thing for their systems.
Kidneys in Cushing's dogs are a weak point, so that's another concern. Doing a little reading what I could find said that low fat and low fiber is the preferred diet, which does include apparently S/D ID food, but probably not WD.
I realize this is new information and I'm not going to tell you how to feed your dog, but since things don't seem to be going so well w/respect to weight loss and overall health, those are the things I'd consider when designing a diet for a dog with a serious illness such as Cushing's. Overweight seems to be pretty common in dogs I've met with Cushing's, but it also brings its own set of problems to the table, as you are no doubt aware.
It is possible, with research and maybe some help from a canine nutritionist, or just with a whole LOT of research, to create a diet for your dog, raw or home made, that will be both tasty and satisfying for the dog and give him the best chance to lose weight. It is also possible to choose commercially prepared foods that might work better for what you're trying to do. In fact, you can buy any number of high quality raw foods these days, and have them shipped frozen to your front door. Which isn't to say that's what you'll do, just that you have a lot of options. If I were you and had a dog in that kind of shape (sick and severely overweight and not progressing with the current diet) that I really really wanted to keep around... I'd be typing some things into google and picking up some books on Amazon, and see what I could come up with that might be a little more effective in terms of diet.
Oh, I keep thinking "omega threes" when I think of your dog and that is something to look at.
Thank You for the info on the kibble diet. I really never thought about the water that is lacking in the kibble and how much more it takes out of the dog's body to digest the dry food. I'll do a search as you suggested on a low fat low fiber diet for him.
The other vet had prescribed Science Diet R/D food and that didnt work at all. She then switched him to prescription Purina O/M dry kibble and he has only lost 3lbs in 4 months and thats cutting his food intake to 3/4 cup in the AM and 3/4 cup in the PM.
While in Vermont he was taken to a Vet because he had blood in his stool and it was getting worse. The vet there checked his stool and said she suspected a bacterial problem and put him on Purina double fibre dog kibble and also put him on the Fortiflora and an antibiotic that seems to have helped with that problem.
Again Thank you for your information and I will google and see what is available up here in Ontario for a dog diet foods that aren't dry kibble.
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