Lab/Pointer with problems - Answered by Dr. Van Lienden

[BarryLB]

Help! Our 3 year old male Lab/Pointer mix has a variety of symptoms. He started with shaking when he came in at night or when chasing his ball. A few days later, he started drinking a lot and urinating excessively. A day or so later, he stopped eating. Took him to the vet, ran some tests and found that his calcium level was 13 (norm is 8 to 11). Noticed his glands in his neck were swollen and also his tonsils. He was put on antibiotics, pain killer for the sore throat and a diuretic to reduce the calcium level. The glands never really shrank and his energy level is still high even though he rarely eats and has lost a little weight.

[Lucky Rescue]

Your dog needs to be seen by a specialist to find out what caused the elevated calcium levels.

Tumour of the pituitary, cancer, auto-immune disease....?? I have no idea, but something caused it.

Good luck!

[Luba]

LR is right your dog needs a specialist!

This happened to my dog it ended up being a tumour engulfing the adrenal gland and multiple other organs.

If your dog has been having tremors 'not shaking from being out in the cold' but tremors and drinking lots of water there is something wrong!

Don't wait, it could be too late.... trust me!

Blood work asap !! Xrays and if anything is suspected go for an ultrasound!

Please don't wait, this could potentially be a very dangerous thing!

You have our support, please let us know the outcome.

[Carina]

Has he had his bloodwork done more than once? Some (not all) of the values can change from day to day. I'm not sure about calcium; I know glucose can & some others.

High calcium & weight loss may indicate cancer, though you dog is young....I would definitely ask your vet about it though. Perhaps he can refer you to an oncologist, or whatever specialist he feels might help you figure out what's going on...?

Good luck with him, let us know how he's doing!

PS, don't mean to alarm you about the cancer thing. I'm not a vet professional; for all I know it could be something much less serious. But I remember the blood calcium thing from when my last old Rottweiler got bone cancer.

[petdr]

The high calcium indicates one of two things: there may be a primary kidney problem (many causes such as anti-freeze toxicity, etc.) or there may be cancer present. The cancer scenario is a strong possibility because of the swollen lymph nodes and the high calcium levels (lymphosarcoma/lymphoma are common occurences). I have seen this similiar constellation of symptoms with a kidney infection and with a parathyroid problem. Biopsying the lymph nodes will quickly tell you if you are dealing with cancer. Urinalysis/complete blood count/serum biochemistry will address if kidney disease is implicated, and finally measuring parathyroid hormone levels will give you insight into that potential origin of these symptoms.

Additional testing such as nuclear scintigraphy or MRI may be needed if cancer/hormonal origins accountfor the symptoms. See your veterinarian as soon as possible to develop the diagnosis and start effective treatment that is cause specific rather than symptomatic.

Dr. Van Lienden

Dr. Raymond Van Lienden DVM
The Animal Clinic of Clifton
12702 Chapel Road, Clifton
Virginia, U.S.A. 20124
703-802-0490

[FilthyFletch]

Im not sure if its the same in animals but I have gotten quit familiar with calcium levels.My fiancee has had both a 2 kidney transplants in last 7 years and along the way ended up having a lot of bone pains and energy issues and sickness which ended up being high calcium levels called hper-calcemium which resulted in her having elevated levels of calcium in the 13-14 count range. They had to go into her neck and remove most of her parathyroid glad.This was an emergency procedure as it can be fatal quickly.The draw back is now she has to take calcium supplements daily for the rest of her life as the amount of the gland they leave had to be smaller then normal causing a slight calcium absorbsion issue know as hypo calcemium and the calcium supplements she take brings it up to about the correct 8 count.They usually save some of the removed glands in frozen suspension and if its to low to fast they will reimplant some of the gland in the forearm so it regrows and helps with calcium absorbtion but they prefer not to have to do so.Might be a similar issue with your dog.Maybe mention possible para thyroid to a vet and hper calcemium..