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My dog on steroids

Steroids. The word congers up images of terrible side effects or illegal sales of drugs to muscular athletes. Working in health care I can easily recognize any person with a chronic disease who is taking steroids. The characteristic 'moon face', ravenous appetite with frequent tongue thrusting caused by a constant metallic taste in one's mouth are clear give aways.

 

How does one recognize a dog on steroids? Ravenous appetite is a dead give away… so is constant thirst and frequent urination. Outward signs of need for canine steroids are constant scratching from allergies, patches of fur missing from disease (mine has Cushing's disease) and the like.

 

My dog on steroids – Oscar Mayer – didn't need an appetite booster to begin with; he can wolf down his meal in under sixty seconds flat and then start looking for his sibling's bowls! Due to his severe allergies along with his Cushing's disease he had lost about half his fur from his waist back. How do you balance the need for steroids and their side effects on your dog and your household?

 

This is Oscar's story. Oscar has been on steroids for close to two years now. His severe allergies don't improve even in the winter. He will constantly scratch and lick his skin to the point of obsession. Anti-histamines worked for a while but just don't any more. Steroids it is… As the drug would have it, Oscar became even more obsessed with food. He started to behave in ways he never did, for example learning how to jump from floor to chair to table if someone left their plate there. Keep in mind he is only a 16 pound Rat Terrier! His next fete accompli was figuring out how to open the cabinet door where the kitchen garbage pail is kept. Imagine my surprise when investigating a noise I heard coming from the kitchen to find this little bundle of terrier inside the cabinet, standing on his hind legs gleefully tearing out all the food scraps from the garbage pail!

 

Okay, a strong rubber band around the door knobs worked – for maybe two days. Then I had to install an actual child-proof lock for cabinet doors. Even though he knows he cannot open the child proof lock it hasn't stopped him from trying… I would think his little snout would be tired of trying to get between the cabinet door and the cabinet! No, I guess the aroma of trash is too good to pass up if only for a used tea bag or yogurt container with a mere trace of food left on it!

 

Long term steroid use is not the ideal solution for human or canine but every attempt to wean Oscar was not working.  Without steroids Oscar reverts to obsessive licking and scratching to the point his skin gets bright red, he has scratches that bleed and his fur starts to fall out. The agony in his eyes is too much to bear. Putting a cold compress on his skin helps temporarily but is not the ultimate solution. My dilemma is I will not sacrifice my dog's comfort and well being to make my life easier. Balancing his need for steroids with his chronic conditions is a constant challenge. My vet and I have him at a point where the symptoms are mostly controlled but I have had to learn to change my habits. 

 

No longer can I put my purse on the dining room table if even to answer the phone. You guessed it. Oscar jumps up so quickly and removes gum or breath mints – anything that is remotely edible. He has also been known to chew dollar bills if the smell emanating off them is enticing enough. All the chairs must be tucked in if only rising to get a glass of water to go with a meal because Oscar will jump on the table and eat whatever is on the plate. If I am sitting at the kitchen table with no food in sight or smell, Oscar sits right next to my feet and whimpers and quivers in anticipation!

 

You know those big plastic bins for storing dog kibble? You guessed it… Oscar discovered how to open the bin. When I closed it he showed me his teeth. I put a metal object in the lock apparatus but he learned how to get the door off its hinges! He was in doggie heaven having achieved access to 44 pounds of dry kibble. I closed it again and he bit me. The guilt he had hurt him more. He actually crawled on his belly toward me with those little doe eyes pleading me to forgive him. I moved the bin to a high shelf where he can't even jump. Thank goodness he is smart enough to realize when he has been trumped.

 

Last year during a moment of motivation I grabbed the squeegee to clean the out side windows. Five minutes later I came in for (I can't remember what) only to find Oscar sitting on the area rug with a box of rat poison torn open and little green pellets all around his mouth. I surmised I must have knocked over the rat poison while reaching for the squeegee and not completely shut the utility room door. Of course this happened on a Sunday when my vet's office was closed. So over the bridge we go to the emergency room at the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary Hospital. 

 

I got him there in about a half hour from when I discovered his romp on the wild side. Thank goodness the staff took him in right away when I explained the situation. They induced vomiting which produced copious amounts of those little green pellets. Okay, so far so good. Only one hundred and fifty six dollars later I was able to bring him home with instructions to return him for blood work in 48 hours to check for internal bleeding problems (this is how the rat poison works – it makes the animal bleed to death internally). 

 

My regular vet did the blood work (another hundred and fifty dollars or so) and of course his Vitamin K needed replenishing so off to the pharmacy I go for Vitamin K. Too bad I couldn't get the pills on my prescription plan (just a little more than another two hundred dollars) because there is no generic for Vitamin K as there is so little call for it. I guess not everyone ingests rat poison… and lives to bark about it.

 

Oscar's shining moment happened recently on our daily walks around the neighborhood. He spotted a dead carcass (I think it was a squirrel) actually consisting of just the fur and skin but it had obviously been there for sometime. Before I saw it he got it in his mouth and wouldn't let go. Rat Terriers were bred for killing rats. Their method of annihilation is to grab the animal with their extra long incisors and kill it with a very rapid shaking of their neck. Their grip is just about impossible to argue with.

 

Oscar has eaten many 'treats' he found on our walks, from things like a rain soaked hot dog roll that escaped someone's trash can to a beef jerky wrapper with just a hint of aroma to it. I know better than to try and remove it from his tiny mouth. But, when I saw the dead carcass I did my best to get it from him including lifting up his hind legs (this technique was recommended by my vet if one finds a doggie altercation occurring) because if a dog who is biting another is taken off balance he will stop biting. It didn't work. I lifted Oscar about three feet in the air by hoisting him up by his harness. He turned his little head all the way around still clinging to the carcass to look at me with an attitude on his face that said "mom, what part of I'm not letting this go don't you understand"? So I told him "Oscar, if you have to throw up from eating this thing don't even think of doing it in the house – use that doggie door when we get home"!

 

Well, he didn't vomit even though he ate the entire carcass by the end of our walk. However, 24 hours later he waddled in the doggie door (barely) with his sides distended about twice the size of his chest. His eyes told me he didn't know why he was feeling poorly but of course I knew it was his surprise treat from the day before that must be stuck in his digestive tract. I immediately called my vet who had to perform x-rays and attempt inducing him to vomit. Oscar didn't – he wasn't letting go of that meal so easily. He stayed overnight at the vet's office for observation and was 'cured' when the next morning the vet tech came in to find him having relieved himself of the largest bowel movement ever seen from such a little dog! 

 

So, three hundred and forty nine dollars later I got to bring Oscar home. Has Oscar taught me to take him off steroids? Not on his life… It is apparent he will need the steroids for quite a long time. I must learn to be more vigilant in restraining him from finding those extra special gems he seems to find wherever he goes. Oscar is my problem child, my dog on steroids…