Kooper and Merlee’s Adventure to the Vet

Last Saturday we took our two remaining dogs to the vet for their yearly check up. Kooper had a few issues that needed to be addressed and they both needed a heart worm test and more heart worm preventative.

They are not blood brothers but they are best friends.

Merlee is six years old and though he is purebred Labrador, he is a small guy. Last year the vet said 68 pounds was a bit much so we cut him back. This year, 14 months later he weighs 58.8 pounds. Too bad I can’t say the same for myself.

Merlee has anxiety. He barks at us, in our own house if he forgot we got up and moved to a different room. So waiting in the lobby for a room open up was a bark and whine fest. My dogs are not properly socialized, I know that. They know my immediate family and their dogs but not much else. Merlee is super submissive and has been attacked by random dogs before and Kooper is dominant.

Kooper is a pretty good dog by himself. He feeds off the nervous energy of Merlee. But like Merlee, he barks. And his bark is that of a strong, 70 pound two year old Labrador. Kooper is also stubborn as a mule but smart like a fox.

So you may remember I had an old Lab, Kosmo. It has been over two months since he went to doggy heaven and I am ok. Kooper was bought as a puppy for my birthday two summers ago as a replacement for the aging Kosmo. And Kosmo’s replacement he is.

Kosmo was stubborn, so is Kooper.
Kosmo was dominant, so is Kooper.
Kosmo peed on everything and ran away, so does Kooper.
Kosmo had awful ear infections his whole life, so was I surprised that Kooper had one? Nope.

The one way that they are different is bladder control. Some day I will tell you the full story of the blizzard I thought I was going to die in, but for now I will tell you that we (husband and I worked at some place and carpooled) couldn’t make it home and Merlee and Kosmo were locked in the house from 6:30 am Tuesday until 1:30 pm Wednesday without soiling in the house. Kooper cannot hold it longer than an hour.

I finally brought this up to the vet, I waited because I thought he would grow out of it. Our veterinarian’s name is Sandy and she is wonderful. My mom started going to this clinic probably 20+ years ago and Sandy is a person I trust my animals with. She was there when I had brought Kosmo in as a wee little pup and she was there when Kosmo had enough. She is just great.

Anyways back to Kooper. Because of his needing to pee all the time, he had to pee in a cup and have extra blood drawn. He also got some medicine for his ear. The bloodwork showed nothing out of the ordinary, while the urine sample was extremely dilute. Kooper inhales water so I wasn’t surprised, but I have been worried that it could be diabetes. And Sandy was also concerned.

There are two different types of diabetes in dogs: the sugar diabetes, diabetes mellitus and watery diabetes, diabetes insipidus. We are fearing Kooper has the latter. But maybe not. Dogs who have watery diabetes drink water constantly and soil in the house frequently. Kooper had been pretty good but he has had his share of accidents.

So to test for this type of diabetes we had to collect samples of his urine. Tuesday I bought a stack of plastic party cups and duct taped one cup to the end of a extension pole. Then placed a clean cup in the duct taped cup for every collection.

The vet wants to determine if he can get his urine to concentrate. The hardest part is having him hold it long enough. We took the water away about nine at night but Kooper would still needed to go out at 10pm, 1:30am and again at 5:30am. The other good time to get a sample was right when we got home from work. Kooper would have been inside for over eight hours, but he sprints outside so fast that we’d end up running after him, pee stick in hand, like a mad man chasing a leprechaun for gold.

All and all, we had ten samples. And this morning I took them to the vets. Patiently awaiting something, anything. I know my vet is not at the office today so I may not hear anything until next week.

I would prefer a neurotic dog who is obsessed with drinking water than a dog with an incurable disease. Either result, he is still my favorite.

He is just so damn cute!