A Sweet Little Rescue Girl (GSD-Huskyish)

[JeanKBBMMMAAN]

I tend to like dark dogs, floofy dogs...but this white dog just captured my heart when I saw her transport pictures. She was coming up from a shelter in TN, where they had found her tied to a tree, in mud...she just seemed SO happy to start a new life!

I got to meet her when it turned out she had a weird issue where she was constantly leaking urine. CONSTANT. Like a faucet! TWO misdiagnoses later I got to take her to the vet office I go to for one last try at finding out what was wrong. I picked her up, put her in a crate in the car, drove an hour, took her out at this little park and tied her to things to take her pictures - and she was so sweet and cute.

This is Keelin!

Hellooooo people!


Crazy lady made me do poses, but I got treats!


I werked it! My serious face, thinking...of treats!


Moar treats please?


Her special haircut...


My vet's guessinosis was ectopic ureter, which was correct. More info on the blog. Confirmed by CAT scan...

I'm full of Xanax, yay!


And just loves to be loved...


Thanks for looking! She is such a good girl and is doing well in her foster home, even if she's currently a ton of work.

[shepherdmom]

She is beautiful, thanks for sharing pictures.

[JeanKBBMMMAAN]

Thank you! I just love her. Glad she's not my foster...but love her!

I forgot to put on the video of her leaking - if anyone likes that kind of health weird stuff!

Her foster got this:

[Zisso]

Such a beautiful girl!!

Will the vets be able to help her with her condition so she can live a normal life?

[billsharp]

Beautiful dog! What is the cure/surgery for the ureter problem? Is this congenital, ie, has she been leaking all of her life?

[JeanKBBMMMAAN]

HOPEFULLY they will be able to help. It's kind of bad that the surgery isn't like some others where you know the outcome is going to be pretty good (as much as you can). But, without it, we know that it won't be a good outcome at all.

She has had this all her life - we figure she must have been outside previously because it really is a stinky issue - she's probably 3 or 4. The surgery that they are going to try is a laser ablation surgery. My vet (not doing it) explained it to me a bit, but I kind of got lost. Ectopic Ureter Treatment Laser Ablation I still don't get it! But there are other types of surgery too. http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body...c_ureters.html It's always something new and interesting! Thank you for asking these good questions!

[Shade]

She's adorable I really hope the surgery helps and she finds the perfect forever home

[qbchottu]

Which type does she have? If the vet suggested laser ablation therapy, she must have the tunneling type where the ureters are simply too long and dump into her urethra instead of her bladder. I have read/saw case studies of this in humans in my anatomy/physio lectures. Very interesting to see a canine version!

This website has excellent drawings and explanations.
This picture describes it well:


So when you do the laser ablation therapy, the endoscope with a camera attached (the same type of device they use for colonoscopies and esophageal scopes) is inserted through the urethra from the outside of the body. You feed in the scope into the urethra (pee hole) and keep looking at the camera images till you find the protruding ureter (the tube that comes from the kidneys and supposed to dump right at the bladder). At that point, you feed a small laser in as well and use the laser to cut off the excess and seal it off. This way the urine no longer bypasses the bladder (where urine is supposed to be dumped and held) because of an excessively long ureter that dumps into the urethra instead. All of this is done internally while you visualize everything on an external computer screen. Ablation is basically just cutting off the excess and destroying any tissue you want to get rid of. For example, you could use laser ablation to remove lesions or nodes on internal organs in humans. It's a really cool way to prevent excessive opening up and fishing through delicate organs. Very fine-tuned and cool procedure.

I read more about it after seeing your post and I see that Huskies are predisposed to this condition. I wish this pup the best and hope she can live a happy and healthy life after her procedure!

[qbchottu]

Ooooo I found a cool paper on it too! Unfortunately, I'm not at a library or university computer so I couldn't read all of it, just the abstract.
AVMA - Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association - 240(6):716 - Abstract
Says 47% (14/30 females) had full recovery with no follow up needed. Prognosis went up to 77% after additional treatments were performed on the others.

Another website that explains it well: Ectopic ureter
This one shows pictures of an actual surgery so don't click if you are squeamish or at work. Also shows some neat CT scans.

[GatorDog]

She's so beautiful!