Poor Hailey. Good luck with the vet. I hope it's nothing serious. So sorry, I know how frustrating it is. Frankie had 2 bladder infections within a few months of each other. The vet said if he had another then they would have to test to see if he had kidney or bladder stones. But after the second round of meds he was fine and hasn't shown signs since (knock on wood).

That makes me feel a lot better. Thanks everyone!

Hopefully Hailey will be fine. Kitty has had similar issues with crystals in her urine, but they have always cleared up after antibiotics. However, I was fearful I would have to put her on some awful prescription science diet stuff if it didn't clear up, so I did some research on prescription diets, and found some offered by a company called Rayne Clinical Nutrition. The seem WAY better than science diet! Here is the link, but hopefully you won't need it!
http://raynenutrition.com/default.aspx

Is hailey feeling better yet?

No accidents since, so she seems to be doing just fine She was never really exhibiting any symptoms. She just peed in her sleep, so we apparently caught it right away (I took her in immediately because of vacation and I didn't want to take any chances).

We won't know if she's ALL better until after we get back and can submit for another urinalysis.

TWO DAYS! WOO!

Glad to hear she's feeling better!

My poor girl again I didn't even take her in this time. I took her urine in for a sample and they called... she does have crystals (no infection this time) and a high PH level. We're going to start her on a supplement for a month and see how she does. If it works, I'll start looking into natural supplements and dietary changes.

Poor little thing. John tried to play with her outside and she cried and cowered on the ground She normally loves playing with him, so she really must not be feeling well She's been at my feet all day and asking to go out more often too

Oh poor Hailey! It breaks my heart when they don't feel well. Did they say how long the supplement would take to start kicking in? It would suck if she's like that for a few days =(

I'm gonna ask questions when I go tomorrow. They called me after hours and I have to run and pick it up in the morning. Planning on asking what type of crystals they found, details on whether the PH was high or low, and if meds are the only way to go if she does have a chronic problem. I have no problem using the meds to determine if this is truly her issue or if there is another cause, but I'd like to do natural supplementing of her diet if I can. To be honest though, until the wedding, it might have to be meds so that I can just not have to worry about it. Then after the wedding, I can try changing her diet up.

I'll keep ya'll posted!

Aw, poor Hailey!
I don't like hearing any of them not feeling well

So sorry to hear the problem is back. Definitely find out which type of crystals it is as the different types need to be treated completely differently. One is easier than the other to deal with homeopathically (the one I PM'd you about before). Let us know what you find out this morning and I hope Hailey will start feeling better soon.

poor girl, at least your home to be with her. keep us updated

So she's on a urinary acidifier. Apparently she has a very high pH level and has triphosphorous crystals or magnesium phosphates. I'm not sure what it means, but they put her on a med called DL-Methionine. Got some research to do!

ETA: Already I'm reading that DL-methionine is the synthetic form of the protein, and l-methionine is the natural form. Once these meds are over, I'm going to want to put her on something natural if I can. If anyone knows of any natural sources of l-methionine, please share!

Val- I totally lost your PM on this stuff during my t-shirt PM purge

Updating this with what I put in the hijack:

Hailey started showing signs of another infection this week. Peeing in her sleep, leaving huge wet spots, needing to go out more often, etc. So, I took her to the vet.

Vet gave us antibiotics and incontinence medication. He thinks it's the early signs of incontinence.

I've been thinking for a while that might be it. In theory, if it started with the spay, and her muscle got weaker over time, it would make sense. The infections are getting worse year by year and the vet said, the weaker the muscle to hold it in, the more susceptible it becomes to leakage and letting debris inside causing an infection.

She actually leaked in the vet's office as we weighed her. I've never seen her do that. She's definitely doing it more often and licking the area more.

Val, he didn't suggest Methigel, but when we go back for our check up, I'll ask about it.

Something is definitely wrong and I'm a little nervous waiting for blood test results. Here's more of the scoop:

I see a consortium of vets, but the vet that did Koda's surgery (when he got his side torn open) we've come to love, so I've made it a point to be more consistent with him the last couple of times we've been in. Last week he did the annuals for both of them and had a really long talk about Hailey. He was also leaning towards incontinence, but he agreed the pattern isn't really making much sense. So we decided to take her off the meds to see if she had another accident and hopefully get our answer. This was on Friday.

Hailey had another accident yesterday (6 days after being off the meds). However, it was extremely dilute. It was barely yellow and barely smelled like pee. That's when I really started to think that something is wrong. It just isn't adding up. Her water intake is off the charts. She drinks almost a whole bowl before lunch and eats snow CONSTANTLY outside. It can't bejust incontinence. So, I called this morning and asked to see Dr. Elson and they gave me an appt for this morning at 10am.

I told him the story of last night, all the water drinking, and my concerns. He agreed, something is not right. We got a urine sample and it was very dilute again (not as bad as yesterday, but he said it would have been more concentrated today if she had been holding it in longer). Based on a recommendation from Len, I asked him if we could/should get some bloodwork done to rule out anything more serious. He agreed that was the best course of action and he's started to change his tune a little too. We're worried it's either a kidney problem or diabetes. I can't pinpoint it, but all the symptoms just don't add up. Her inconsistency doesn't seem like incontinence and ALL the facts together (water intake, dilute urine, inconsistent accidents, increased food intake--didn't think anything of it because they usually get a little more in the winter, but since the problem started in the winter, it's become a symptom--AND cataracts). We're now thinking that even the cataracts are related and it sounds like he's leaning towards diabetes.

I'll have the results by this evening. Hopefully before 6pm. I'm a little worried, but really just nervous to HOPEFULLY finally pin point the problem so we can deal with it and move on... but after yesterday, I'm worried. Something just isn't right

Claudia-- how much of this sounds like Storm's issue? Any thoughts?

Len-- if you're still around, thank you for the advice.

Oh wow, that's really scary. Keeping you guys in my thoughts. I know how hard it is when you know something is wrong, but can't find a solution.

Before I found out my Dalmatian had cancer, I wasn't sure which course of action to take first. We started off with blood work to rule out a lot of things and then we were sent to specialists.

I really hope you guys find out whats wrong with her and I'll keep you in my prayers.

This somewhat sounds like Storm's diabetes insipidous. We first noticed the increased amount in water intake late Spring. We didn't think much of it until he started peeing in the house when we left for a couple of hours. Then when he was peeing in the house in the middle of the night, we started to wonder if this was an early sign of some issue.

Storm's water bowl is a good size and we did fill it up half way which would be about 32 oz or so and he would drink 16-24 oz all at once and if kept it filled up, he would drink more so his urine was so diluted that it was practically water. Depending on when you test the urine the concentration will differ, but there is a concentration level that urine is supposed to fall between (but I don't remember what those numbers are).

The symptoms for diabetes insipidous can mimic diabetes and kidney issues and diabetes insipidous is hard to diagnose and is one of those things that vets can't test specifically for. So you test for everything else that the symptoms mimic. We did test for diabetes, checked his kidneys, ran blood tests, etc. which all came back negative. So at that point, we treated it as diabetes insipidous. Desmopressin comes in eye drop or pill form which is a hormone that helps them concentrate their urine. If I remember correctly, the pituitary gland produces this hormone and in the case of a pituitary gland not working properly, this hormone is blocked from being produced or the pup does not make enough of it. So, Desmopressin helps in this production of hormone by affecting the pituitary gland.

If you think of what the pituitary gland does, this is why it could mimic a kidney issue or diabetes.

Desmopression helped Storm, and when he was concentrating his urine like he should, we weaned him off. But it appeared to be that we took a step back again, so we put him back on the meds and weaned him off again.

In keeping track of his drinking patterns, we learned that now, he is more likely drinking out of boredom as he does not require water when we're out hiking or snowshoeing and that's when we would think he would drink more water.

Sorry - didn't mean to make this a book, but I wanted to give you as much info to take to the vet!

Poor hailey I hope the blood work points you in a direction so you can get her better. Being the great parents you are and watching for changes in behavior is key. With sierras age we do yearly blood work and if it was not for that we would have no clue she is having liver issues. Jack will be 5 this yr and I think we will start yearly blood work on him as well to track everything.
Keep us posted

Tori, I am hoping for the best for Hailey.

Fingers crossed for you and Hailey that it's not too serious and can be managed easily. Anxiously awaiting an update.

Awww, poor Hailey! Hopefully the blood tests help! Did they do a full panel?

Chili had the same symptoms but with more peeing in the house. Turns out it was Hypercalcemia due to his Parathyroid tumor (benign - phew!). There are so many different things that cause these symptoms that only blood tests can pinpoint it exactly. We had one to narrow down the high levels and another one sent off to Michigan to check which calcium levels were elevated and to rule out cancer. It was so worth it to get conclusive results. Best of luck!

Awww poor Hailey. Hoping for the best and the problem can be managed.

Doc called around 8:45pm. Results weren't great because they were pretty inconclusive. Her blood tests were all within the normal range. He did mention that that didn't mean much because it's possible that the kidney function wasn't failing bad enough yet (I think that's how he put it).

However, her urine was very dilute (which we had figured) but it came back without extra proteins, crystals, or cultures/bacteria.

So here's where we go:
-I need to bring him another urine sample tomorrow morning. She has a greater chance of concentrating the urine more overnight.
-If her urine is the proper concentration tomorrow, then I think that's the best case scenario. It sounds like we can give her some supplements to help her concentrate it or that indicates less of a problem.
-If her urine is still dilute overnight, then we have a bigger problem. The next step after that would be an ultrasound to see what else might be going on (an ultrasound is about $250).
-I DID mention Diabetes Insipidous and he said that he hasn't ruled that out yet either. He definitely knew what it was and said that while it's not common at all, it is something that huskies tend to carry over other breeds (the Nephrogenic type, not the Central). Like Claudia said, the only way to diagnose it is to rule out everything else or diagnose it by treatment. However, he mentioned that the medication was very expensive (like $250 for a little 5ml bottle), so it would likely not be the first course of action.

I was really hoping we'd get some answers today I'm really really disappointed that all I have is more questions.

I'm going to be bringing the urine is first thing in the morning and ask Dr. Elson to explain everything one more time. I was out for the evening and I couldn't pay 100% attention, so I would like to take notes tomorrow. I might be getting some of this backwards and/or confused. I'll definitely update more when I do and correct anything I may have gotten wrong.

Moral of the story: we just don't have any answers yet, but something is definitely wrong and it's not incontinence. I'll keep you all posted.

That has got to be SO frustrating!! I feel so awful for you and for little Hailey! I hope it's not anything too serious..fingers and paws are crossed for you guys!

Tori, how's the condition of her skin?

Did they run any tests on the endocrine system?