My husband had taken Willow into the vet last Thursday and unfortunately it was a busy day there. Tomcat day. So they didn't get to do a lot with Willow. The tests they ran showed very low calcium. This was not the vet we normally see, it was another vet at the same practice. I believe her number was .05. They gave her some calcium thru a drip was going to give her a shot of calcium, but fortunately didn't have any. (My husband read later that it could have killed her.) They were thinking she had a problem with parathyroid but couldn't do the test that day.

So forward to that evening, I was facetalking with Willow and she had a seizure. My husband rushed her up to the vet school. He had the lab work with him that was done that day. After discussion, they put her on a calcium drip with some nourishment added. Willow hadn't been eating. Her calcium number went up some, but not much. Than it went down again. So they increased the calcium some and it is going up slowly now. THey want it to at least 1. It is .65 now. They did a test for parathyroid, but had to send it to Michigan to be done. So we won't know till sometime this week whether that is definitely the diagnosis. They are also giving her vit d as it was low too.

She still isn't eating. For awhile she would turn her nose up at food, we thought it was a Husky thing. She was eating, but not much. One day my husband came home at lunch to let her out, and her dry food bowl had been turned over. When he was at the hospital, the dr and he observed Willow doing that again. The dr explained that the dog will do that when he doesn't want to eat. He is attempting to bury the food.

He took her peanut butter kong up to her yesterday, she sniffed it awhile and after a few seconds, she went after it. Normally, she is all over it. They are giving her some tums for her upset stomach. Their plan was to send us home with some vit D and calcium in the form of tums. I was doing some research and found out the Dr Weil says tums doesn't really absorb and there are other calciums that are better. So husband brought that up to the student dr and she is going to discuss it with the teaching dr.

So she has been in the hospital since last Thursday night. Her energy has come back, her legs aren't wobbly, she doesn't have tremors anymore. Some of the other things she had been doing was rubbing her face and chewing her back leg. Those two things she has done since we adopted her from a rescue about a year and a half ago. Her ears were dirty when we got her and they were cleaned out and meds given. We mentioned her chewing to the vet and she didn't think it was anything. We make Willow's meals for her now, without grains. Ok, I didn't know about her hiding when my husband came in the house or the other symptoms as I am a long ways away, (16 hours) taking care of my grandkids while my daughter is deployed. I am missing Willow so much and would love to put my arms around her. Before I came here, we were together pretty much 24 hours a day as I stay home.

Anyway, if you have read this far, if you have experience with parathyroid, if anything... I guesss I would like to know what kind of calcium you have your dog on. If this seems to be the right treatment. Is there anything else I should know. When I research dogs and parathyroid, I find searches that come up talking about tumors. At the vet school, they haven't mentioned it,. Maybe they are waiting to see if it is indeed parathyroid.

Something else I was thinking was finding a professionsal vet in the field of parathyroidism. This hospital is costing us a lot of money, I know a professional would cost more, but we are willing to take out a loan to help Willow get her health back.

Ok, seems like I am rambling. If you have any suggestions, please, let me know.

Thank you so much for reading my post.

Would it be possible to put Willow on a raw diet? That form of calcium seems to be most easily accessible... There are patties available if making raw from scratch seems difficult. I'd also try and get her to a normal vet (not a teaching hospital) and see what they say.

arooroomom wrote:

Would it be possible to put Willow on a raw diet? That form of calcium seems to be most easily accessible... There are patties available if making raw from scratch seems difficult. I'd also try and get her to a normal vet (not a teaching hospital) and see what they say.

We have looked into raw, but with my husband travelling quite a bit for work, which isn't the norm, and me being gone, it isn't a reality. My brother feeds her while my husband is gone. We have tried the raw patties and she didn't like them. We do give her bones to chew on.

I also think we should get her to a normal vet with experience in parathyroids. Unfortunately our vets don't have any experience with it. My husband was saying it would have to be a specialist? But don't know what the speciality would be. Internal? Endo?

Thank you for your reply.