Pets.ca - Pet forum for dogs cats and humans 

-->

I don't know what to do....kind of long.

WomanofScorn
November 4th, 2003, 07:11 PM
Ok, not quite sure where to begin. I guess at the begining lol.

Ok, my dog Twix. Yes he's male. No he's not nuetered. Yes I know he should be and that will help with some of the problem. I'm not sure how old he is as he is a stray, but when I took him to the vet in May the vet said he was about eight months so I assume his over a year by now.

My main problem at the moment is of course, him marking his territory in the house. As mentioned above, I know he needs to be nuetered and I'm going to look into that. But he also has a problem with anxiety. Atleast that is what I call it. He cannot stand to be away from humans. I could be at home, and have to use the bathroom and he will howl and bark until I get out of the bathroom. When my husband and I are in a room together without them for some alone time, when we emerge we find that he has both peed and crapped on the floor. This is even after he already did both outside.

Now he's not alone. He has my other dog, and a cat in the house so when we leave it's not as thought he's alone. Oreo was here first and so was the cat so that's all he's known. We both work so it's not like I can stay home with him so he'll feel better. Oh and he also has seizures which I partly blame for some of his behavior. I feel like somehow it may be stunting his mental growth maybe? I've talked to the vet about his seizures adn basically that can't be fixed. If i give him meds, it will damage his liver so I just as soon him have the seizures. Right after one occurs, he acts just fine. Plays and jumps around normally. But he does have them quite often. Several times a month and sometimes more than one in a week.

Don't get me wrong, I love my babies. Obviously you would have to, to still keep thing even though they have all these problems. That is another reason why I am hesitant to have him nuetered. If i have to leave him at the vet's I know it will cause problems with him mentally. I know this sounds dumb, but that is how I feel. I'm afraid it will bring on seizures if he is stressed too bad. I'm really not exaggerating, he just hates to be away from humans. I just don't know what to do anymore.


Told you it was long lol.

drdouggie
November 4th, 2003, 07:28 PM
The first thing I have to say is that Twix's major problem is his seizures, not the question of neutering him. You really need to get some advice on this. Did your vets run tests? There are hundreds of reasons why he is having these seizures ranging from something as simple as low blood sugar, low calcium levels (all easily fixed) to parasite infection (also easily fixed), infections (distemper) to a congenital neurological disorder (not so sure if this can be fixed). The defecating and peeing in the house is actually a stage of the seizure. Seizures occur in a number of phases and certain behaviour is exhibited before the actual seizure (the shaking, loss of consciousness etc). Involuntary urination and defecation can occur as a phase before a seizure. Also, the clingy behaviour he exhibits is also probably part of the behaviour phases associated with seizuring.

You need to find out what is causing it or else the dog could die, and I'm sure you really don't want that, but seizures can result in permanent brain damage or death if left to continue. Please get your vet to run some thorough tests to find out the cause.

Let us know how you and Twix get on. I hope he gets better.

Bueller's Mommy
November 5th, 2003, 02:59 PM
I have a 2 year old beagle with epilepsy. I agree that you should have some bloodwork done on the dog. However, I think maybe you should try another vet. Yes, phenobarbitol can cause liver damage, but that's not your only option. If he has seizures that frequently, then you should ask your vet about putting him on either potassium bromide or sodium bromide. These drugs will not damage his liver. Every seizure he has causes some brain damage and having several seizures a month will do more harm than the phenobarbitol would. It's possible that the seizures cause him to relieve himself, but that may not be the case. You should seriously consider crate training him if he's not already trained. If he has an attack at home while no one is present, he may harm himself. For example, if he's having a seizure and crashes into a bookshelf, something heavy may fall off of it and hurt him. He sounds like he does suffer from separation anxiety, but the crate training should also help with that. Please take care of his seizures first. There are many ways you can work on his separation anxiety later.