Dachshund health problem question


Aleonard875

New Member
Hi I have an 8 year old male and i am having a hard time getting a diagnosis on what is wrong with him. He started losing hair starting on the sides of his belly, back of his legs, neck and ears. He also had weight gain and increased appetite with a little bit of a bloated belly. He had two thyroid tests done and both came back negative. He also had his pee tested to rule out cushings. I was sure it was one of the two of those since he had most of the symptoms. Now today I noticed red bumps under both of his arms. I have a vet appointment for tomorrow but wanted to see if anyone else has any insight on what could be wrong.

In October he got a dental so he had blood work done and he was low in a few things but I was told it wasn't anything to worry about. He was low in ALT, K+, and GLOB.

ALT - less than 5 and normal is 20-150
K+ - 2.8 and normal is 3.7-5.8
GLOB - 1.8 and normal is 2.3-5.2

A few others he was in the normal range but on the low side. I tried to research problems low levels could cause but haven't really been able to find anything that matches his symptoms.

He has never had a problem with blood work but recently they have been having trouble getting blood from his leg and most the time have to take from his neck and even then still have a little trouble. I don't know if that could have anything to do with his symptoms or blood work.
 

GJBain

Member
Hi I have an 8 year old male and i am having a hard time getting a diagnosis on what is wrong with him. He started losing hair starting on the sides of his belly, back of his legs, neck and ears. He also had weight gain and increased appetite with a little bit of a bloated belly. He had two thyroid tests done and both came back negative. He also had his pee tested to rule out cushings. I was sure it was one of the two of those since he had most of the symptoms. Now today I noticed red bumps under both of his arms. I have a vet appointment for tomorrow but wanted to see if anyone else has any insight on what could be wrong.

In October he got a dental so he had blood work done and he was low in a few things but I was told it wasn't anything to worry about. He was low in ALT, K+, and GLOB.

ALT - less than 5 and normal is 20-150
K+ - 2.8 and normal is 3.7-5.8
GLOB - 1.8 and normal is 2.3-5.2

A few others he was in the normal range but on the low side. I tried to research problems low levels could cause but haven't really been able to find anything that matches his symptoms.

He has never had a problem with blood work but recently they have been having trouble getting blood from his leg and most the time have to take from his neck and even then still have a little trouble. I don't know if that could have anything to do with his symptoms or blood work.
Hair loose could be from allergies. Did you change his food by chance?
 

Aleonard875

New Member
I had him on nutro diet food around this time last year but switched him back to regular nutro after a few months. Sometimes we get the nutro for sensitive stomachs and sometimes we get just the regular adult nutro dry.

I switched him to nutro probably a little over 2 years ago. The increased hunger (getting into the garbage, eating his food so fast he would choke, always begging) has been going on for a while now but the hair loss started about 6 months ago.
 

Nell

Member
I am in the UK and don't know much about "nutro" but would definitely do some more research into the food as this sounds like a nutrient deficiency to me. That would also explain the excessive hunger and the loss of coat / condition.

Personally I am not a fan of dried food at all, it seems such an unnatural diet for dogs, its very boring for them and bad for their kidneys in the long term. Natural feeding is always the best way to go if you can. I feed raw meat and fish with a mixture of brown rice, vegetables etc. It really doesn't work out any more expensive, the key is to make sure they get variety.

Its worth a try but research as much as you can before changing his diet again. Hope he improves soon.
 

Tikki

Active Member
Old thread I know, but this might help others. Having basic thyroid tests done by a regular vet or regular laboratory mean nothing, as they usually only test T4 and TSH. What is needed is a full panel of thyroid tests which can only be done by a specialist blood laboratory.

Hair loss, weight gain and excessive hunger can be a sign of hypothyroidism, easily treated by one tablet a day, but it needs a full thyroid panel done in order to diagnose it.
 
Top