More on Molly

Molly's blood work is back from the lab. Not a whole lot interesting here. Her blood sugar is fine, so she's not a diabetic. Her kidneys seem to be working properly. The only real abnormality is a modest rise in her alkaline phosphatase levels (one of her liver enzymes) which could be due to many things, but is consistent with Cushing's Disease.

Molly's biggest concern at the moment are those two bright round things sitting to the right hand side of the x-ray I posted earlier. Those are very likely bladder stones which explain the blood in her urine and why she seems a little painful when I palpate (have a good feel of) her bladder. So we're going to take those nasty little rocks out tomorrow and send them off to be analyzed. Some bladder stones can actually be dissolved with a diet which makes the urine acidic. They're made up of Struvite. If you look closely at Molly's uroliths (bladder stones), they look kinda 'spikey'. These are more likely made mostly of Calcium Oxalate. A special diet won't dissolve these. They have to come out.

All the drinking and urinating that Molly's doing right now is actually beneficial for her bladder. It's helping flush things through. However, if she continues to drink excessively after surgery (there's a small chance that her increased drinking is due to pain caused by those stones), we're going to have to do some more specialized testing to find out why. People always wonder why so many tests. Unfortunately, our patients can't talk to us, so each test is another piece of the puzzle to try to come up with a diagnosis. I'll let you know how her surgery goes tomorrow.

On another note, I had clients bring their little obese dog in today because he 'waddles'. They were worried, yet again, that he might have arthritis, even though he's only four years old. I palpated all the dog's joints again; no pain. I watched him walk. Yup, he definitely waddled, but I betcha I would too if I was carrying almost three times my body weight around all day. I've gone over this so many times with the owner, I'm at the point of giving up. Both owners are also overweight, which makes it a delicate subject. They're also worried because he's starting to vomit when he eats his cat food (you heard me) or hamburger. Seems he can only keep down ham and the incredibly rich kibble they feed him. The dog also has some other issues which makes me wonder if he's not developing a food allergy. I sent them home with a special diet to try, but the odds of them sticking to it are slim. I see these kinds of cases all the time. The owners mean well. The dog loves to eat and they love to feed him. They don't see that their 'kindness' is doing immeasurable harm to the one they love.