Lisa Sabin’s - Running And Being

I grew up with dogs.  My mom is a dog-lover.  We’ve had everything from cocker-spaniels, dachshunds, boxers and even a poodle.  We never took the dogs for a walk or puppy class.  When the dog peed in the house, her nose was rubbed in it and she was thrown outside.   My mom keeps an immaculate house.  She trained the dog to go in one spot in the yard.  She even trained Brandy, the dachshund to put her toys away.   This woman likes a clean house!

Phil and I adopted our first dog, Bo at 4 months.  He was house-broken and knew how to sit and stay.  Other than jumping up and chewing, he was a mellow dog.  He quickly learned to fetch and was able to go off leash.  Unfortunately, we lost him to Addison’s disease early November.  The house became quiet and we knew we wanted another dog.

Murphy’s owners bred their 2 year old female dog, Princess (Murphy’s mom) for the first time.  They had 9 puppies.  We fell in love with the fuzzy fellow.  He was spunky and the biggest dog in the litter.  We wanted a dog with personality.  We brought Murphy home as soon as possible.  The breeders wanted to get rid of the dogs.  I guess caring for 9 puppies is tough.

Phil and I thought we would be able to train Murphy on our own.  We didn’t need classes.  We had such a good experience with Bo that we thought we just needed to be consistent and we’d end up with a dog like Bo.

Our first mistake was not signing up for puppy-classes like our vet recommended.  Since Murphy was only 6 weeks old, he lacked socialization skills.  He needed to learn where he fit in with the pack.  We didn’t really know what Dr. Cannon meant by that.  We just knew that we needed to show Murphy that we are in charge. 

6 weeks later, Murphy has almost tripled his body weight and has really sharp teeth.  He has taken to nipping the back of pant legs when you walk by.  If you don’t play with him he challenges you with a snarly bark.  He steals toilet paper whenever he gets the chance, but this is minor.  The main thing is that our teenager’s friends are afraid of him.  We are afraid his nipping will hurt someone and we can’t have a dog that bites. 

All the puppy classes are full.  We don’t know when the next ones will start.  Murphy is out of control.  We need private lessons.  Our vet recommended Stacy Neary, a dog trainer that comes out to your house. 

Stacy consulted with us for an hour yesterday.  Part of the problem we are experiencing is Muphy left home too soon.  He needed more time with his mom and siblings.  He needed to learn how to behave in the pack.  We learned that we were making some classic mistakes with Murphy.  We are treating him like a person rather than the pack animal he is.  We have to change our behavior to elicit the kind of behavior we want from our dog.  Human beings feel guilty about not spending time with their dog.  They tend to pet and praise too much. The dog doesn’t have incentive to behave if they know they’ll get petted any way.  The dog needs to earn the praise.  We signed up for her complete program of 10 classes.  Watch out Murphy your life is about to change!

I’m adding a little walking to my routine. It’s good to get out there in the fresh air and spend some time with Phil. We are so busy these days, it’s kind of nice to get away for 45 minutes or so.

Bo, our golden retriever is doing well. He is playful and always excited to walk. He’s good for about 2 1/2 miles. He used to be able to go forever, but the last year he has slowed down. The addisons disease is being managed with daily steroids. He’s definitely improved since he started treatment 2 months ago.

We took Bo out for a walk this morning.  As you can see from this photo he has gained back the weight he lost.  Steroids will do that to you.  He has more energy than he had a year ago.  It’s hard to believe that it was just a month ago that we discovered he has Addison’s Disease.

He is waiting patiently for Phil to come home and throw the ball for him. 

Workout:

• Type: Walk
• Date: 08/31/2007
• Time: 09:00:00
• Total Time: 00:42:08.00
• Average Heart rate: 89
• Max Heart rate: 111
• Calories: 100
• Distance: 2.25 miles
• Average Pace: 18:45/mile

We took a walk with Bo on the trail.  He seems to do well on short walks.  He was getting tired towards the end.  He drank a lot of water and layed around when we got home.  He’s doing much better since his episode over July 4th week.

Workout:

• Type: Walk
• Date: 08/12/2007
• Time: 01:00:00
• Total Time: 00:00:44.00
• Average Heart rate: 92
• Max Heart rate: 115
• Calories: 114
• Distance: 3 miles
• Average Pace: 0:14.67/mile

Animals get sick just like we do.  They suffer from some of the sames diseases as human beings.  President John F. Kennedy had Addison’s Disease.

Hypoadrenocorticism, also called Addison’s disease is an endocrine disorder that results from a deficient production of adrenal gland hormones. 

The most common cause of Addison’s disease in dogs is destruction of the adrenal glad tissue by the animal’s immune system.  Some infections, medications, cancer of diseases of the pituitary gland many also cause Addison’s disease.

The disease is uncommon in dogs., and rare in cats.  Young to middle age dogs are most often affected.

Basically, in hypoadrenocorticism, there is a deficiency of two different groups of hormones, the glucocorticoids and the mineralcorticoids.  The glucocorticoid hormone is cortisol, which is responsible for combating stress (fight or flight, just like in humans) it also helps maintain blood sugar.  The mineralcorticoid is aldosterone, which regulates water, sodium, potatsium, and chloride concentrations in the body (the sodium potasium pump).  Most forms of Addison’s disease affect both hormones. 

Here are the signs to watch out for:

Lethargy, weakness

Poor appetite

Vomiting

Weight loss

Depression

Dehydration

Diarrhea

Excessive thirst

Vomiting

Low body temperature, shaking, collapse,  low heart rate

If your pet exhibits these symptoms it’s important to have diagnostic tests to confirm the disease.  A complete physical examination along with blood count profile, urinalysis, ACTH stimulation test, chest X-rays and possible abdominal ultrasound will help confirm the presence of Addison’s disease.

The treatment may include intravenous fluid therapy, electolyte and acid-base monitoring, corticosteroid and mineralcorticoid replacement therapy.  Ongoing treatment for the disease includes corticosteroid and mineralocorticoid replacement therapy and daily salt supplementation.

Even though the disease is relatively uncommon in dogs, it is highly treatable.  Pet owners should carefully monitor their dogs in stressful situations.  Noticing changes in dog’s behavior and watching for the signs mentioned above is important.  Report occurences of diarrhea, vomiting, weakness etc. to your veterinarian immediately.

Looking back I see that Bo had all these symptoms.  We took him to the vet, but he wasn’t really sick enough to warrant further tests a year ago.  We changed his diet and put him on a more nutrient dense food.  He felt a bit better, but still didn’t have the stamina of a dog his age. 

The doctors at the animal hospital told me that he might not exhibit signs of kidney problems until his kidneys were functioning at maybe 60%.  He began showing symptoms and took a huge turn for the worse on Wednesday.  It is possible that the extreme stress of the heat (100 degree day here in Seattle) put him under enough stress that it exacerbated the problem.

Bo is home with us now and we are nursing him back to health.  No more table scraps for him.  He is getting a lot of TLC!