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Urinary issues

Basenji Health Issues & Questions
  • E

    I've got a 15.5 year old spayed basenji who's been having some potty issues.

    Essentially, whenever she wakes up from sleep, she'll pee nearly immediately- often on her bed/couch/etc, otherwise nearby. (Likely unrelated, but she then licks it up.) She doesn't appear to be leaking urine in her sleep, just experiencing frequent and urgent urination. It seems to have gotten worse in the past few months- at first I chalked it up to Chicago's bitterly cold winter and her not wanting to go outside, but the weather is getting milder now and the issue is maintaining.

    We ran a urinalysis a few weeks ago, did 14 days of Clavamox, followed by a full CBC, Chem, T4, and followup urinalysis. Those results came back yesterday, and my vet's comment was that the only thing that was remarkable was how GOOD her bloodwork looked- liver looks fine, and no significant kidney issues (BUN and CREA were normal). Urinalysis showed nothing questionable, WBC was normal, everything looked fine, save for the T4. She's been on thyroxin (.1 mg BID) for probably 8 years, and her bloodwork suggested that we should bump up that dosage. Vet has her at .2 mg BID now.

    He also prescribed Proin (1/2 25 mg tab BID). We've started on that, and I recognize that it's likely too early to see results, but it's frustrating to be dealing with urine everywhere (especially as I'm in an apartment, without easy access to a washer/dryer). Does anyone have additional suggestions? Tests we might run, supplements to try, alternative therapies you've had success with? Acupuncture? Corn silk tea? Would building more hind end muscle help? Magical dog foods? I'm contemplating switching her back to a raw diet to see if that makes a difference, but will wait until we give the Proin sufficient time to kick in.

    She's old and creaky, but keeping her on glycoflex and salmon oil keeps her pretty comfy- she's still walking 2-3 miles per day and swiping tissues from the trash can whenever she gets a chance.
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    @ramseyclea: I didn't know incontinence was one of the symptoms of hypothyroidism. So, I'm kind of glad to hear that. I know the weight gain and low energy level are definitely symptoms (I suffer from hypothyroidism myself). I will tell the vet to do the ful panel. Thanks for all the advice! This is such a great resource! There are many things that can be a result of low thyroid…. maybe not directly connected, but a off shoot of the condition. My OJ was loaded with hives... and regardless of what we gave him they would come back over and over... finally tested his thyroid and it was very, very low... put him on Soloxine and never another hive.... so while hives is not generally a symtom of low thyroid, the fact that it lowered immunities in other respects, hives popped up.... Not saying this is the cause... but again her age is pretty young for this problem, IMO. So best to rule out other things before moving on to hormones... and again I would still not rule out a UTI
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