So, I have three dogs. Two bluetick coonhounds and one beagle.

The first bluetick that I got is about 7 years old, and he's had some seizures off and on for the past couple of years. Had some blood tests done and everything always came back with no issues. Vet told me that tracking the cause of a seizure can be extremely difficult.

About 4 months ago, I noticed something odd on him. One of his nails was gone. I mean, completely gone. The only thing left was the quick that is on the inside of the nail. I thought he must have gotten it snagged on something and it ripped off, so didn't think anything of it really.

But then, as the days went on, I started noticing more and more of his nails were coming off. I took him to the vet and they said that it looked like a nail fungus...but then I mentioned that none of the other dogs were having the issue and they thought that maybe it wasn't the case. I worked with the vet for a while and determined that he has a rare disease called SLO. It's an autoimmune disease where his body thinks that his toe nails are viruses or bacteria and his immune system goes to work destroying his nails. As I type this, he's lost 17 of his 20 nails, and the last three are ready to come off any day.

Now, lately, he's been drinking water like a fish. He will go through water like he hasn't had any in days. He used to be completely motivated by food...but now he would rather drink a bowl of water than have any food...even people food. He also has been urinating a lot.

So tomorrow he gets to go to the vet again, to try and see what's wrong with him now. I'm WORRIED it might be diabetes, because the water drinking and urinaton is a sign of diabetes in dogs...and that would also explain his seizures. I'm HOPING it's just a urinary tract infection that can be taken care of with just a few antibiotics or something.

Cooper is my best friend in the world. He's been there with me through thick and thin over the last 7 years, and I can't imagine not having him around. I'm worried that whatever is wrong with him is really serious, and I'll end up having to put him down.

I guess I don't really know what the point of this post is...I guess I just wanted to share.

My thoughts are with you Gimp. I know what it is like to be worried about your best friend. Hope he gets better.

Thanks eos.

My buddy had surgery on his dog six weeks ago. He hasn't been right since then and now they are back talking to the vet trying to figure out what's next. It sucks.

Yah, I am GENERALLY the type of person that says: "Dogs survived on planet earth for thousands of years without vets and medicines and stuff, they are hardy creatures, so they can fix themselves."

I have always thought that, and it was reinforced when I was told this by a veterinary student once: "Lots of diseases in dogs didn't become emergencies that had to be cured until someone invented an expensive medicine that would in fact cure the disease." He told me this after I got done telling him about how much it cost to treat a dog I had adopted that had heart worms. He then went on to explain that heart worms used to be something that vets didn't worry about. It wasn't until a company designed a drug that could prevent them that the vet world suddenly started telling people how horrible heart worms are.

But Cooper seems to have just too many things wrong right now for me to just let him try to "fix" himself. So the vet will have to come into play.

Its tough to have a sick pet. I hope he gets better and that it is something treatable!

-Max

Well, they took blood to do some tests on.

His urine test showed no glucose at all, which they said is pretty much a 100% guarantee that it's NOT diabetes.

The vet was seeming to indicate that it's a behavioral issue. The bloodwork should be back tomorrow, so they said they'd give us a call.

Oh wow, I really hope your dogs get better. My dog had a few problems about a year ago. I know what it feels like even to have them not home for a week. It's pretty tough. I hope everything gets better though.

My dog is 13 and two months and is a seventy pound dog. I can't imagine a day without him but I know that some day soon our friendship is going to come to an end and it really hurts to know, however since there is nothing wrong with his health at the moment I am just happy knowing I have been lucky enough to have such a great dog, and in the end thats what most people say. I hope it turns out ok, and as worrysome as this may seem not having nails and peeing a lot are really far from the worst things that can be wrong with a dog.

My dog has no appreciation for my magic. I get no reactions from anything I do for her. It's a pain.

Vet didn't call today. They said they should get the results from the bloodwork back today.

I'm hoping they'll call tomorrow.

My screen is blank on kconners' post.

Just figured out how to edit it so it shows up.

Paddy

Great video kconners... very appropriate

I'm sorry man, I hope he gets better. My cat had something like that a while back (well not like that, but the principal of back and forth from the vet everyday, trying to figure out what is wrong).